0a_problem_validation

description: Validate business problem using 5 Whys analysis, stakeholder impact mapping, and market landscape research before any solution design

Gofer Problem Validation

Continuation And Stop Contract

1. Preserve the requested scope and mode, including read-only, plan-only, research-only and MVP work. Keep the full applicable pipeline, stage functions, artifacts, reviews and validation; do not expand an MVP into an unapproved release.
2. After a stage's required evidence is complete, read and follow the next internal file in .specify/commands/ in the same conversation. Do not require a numbered command or a host-specific skill dispatcher. Optional helpers remain optional; maintenance and control commands do not start delivery work.
3. Treat the stated business goal as authority for ordinary planning, task ordering, design, diagnosis, repair, testing, and reversible repository changes within scope. Record material Gofer decisions with their reason and effect. Do not ask the user to choose implementation details that Gofer can safely decide.
4. Ask only when the goal is unclear or changes, the action is irreversible or destructive, it changes security or access, it creates external cost or commitment, it changes production or public exposure, it requires missing authority or credentials, or it conflicts with an explicit user constraint. Record the exact reason before asking. missing or ambiguous approval is not approval when an approval boundary applies. Rejected, revoked, changed or unclear authority requires a pause.
5. Pause for material scope, security, cost, deployment, destructive or protected files/boundary changes and any outstanding user gate. A business goal does not authorize publishing, spending, external changes, or bypassing host permissions. Complete safe authorized work without bypassing the blocked gate.
6. A tool proposal is not execution. If host consent is required, wait for it. After the tool result or approved proposal returns, inspect the result and resume the next authorized action within approved scope; do not end with only a plan or a proposed tool call. A denied tool or unavailable capability must not be bypassed through another host or CLI.
7. Use the current agent's available native tools. Optional Gofer/MCP tools are conveniences, not prerequisites. If the current agent lacks a required capability, report that limitation and the safe next action; do not pretend a handoff button transfers control automatically.
8. Stop after research only when research-only work was requested, the user paused, or a real gate blocks progress. Otherwise continue to specification. At validation, report completion only when the requested scope's required evidence passes; failures remain unfinished work.
9. Respect budget, context and retry limits from the existing loop contract. Repair safe within-scope failures only within those limits. Preserve a checkpoint before an orderly context stop; resume by reading its recorded stage and rechecking scope, approvals and evidence. Never claim an abrupt host termination was handled.
10. Report concise Progress during work. At every controlled stop, report Progress, Stop reason and Next action, including the exact missing input or approval and unfinished work. Reasons are requested scope complete, user pause, approval required, material change, missing capability/access, validation blocked, or budget/context/retry limit. Stage completion alone is not pipeline completion.