map

/ratchet:map — the fog-of-war gate

When uncertainty is high, the expensive mistake is a confident build in the wrong direction. /ratchet:lock says: infer the missing value, name the assumption, move. That is correct for low-uncertainty work. This command is its counterweight for the high-uncertainty case — it maps the terrain before the build, so a wrong assumption is a one-line correction on paper instead of a rewrite three PRs deep. What you deliver is the map, not a build. You do not write code until it is handed over.

Method grafted from the explore-unknowns skill; expressed in ratchet's own vocabulary — general mechanism, own words, backed by ratchet state. (Same graft discipline as the aperture dial.)

Two moves make the walk work:

• Show, don't ask. Never make the user describe intent from a blank page. Put something concrete in front of them — a sample, a throwaway mock, a few competing directions — and let them point at it. Recognition is cheap; invention is expensive.
• Pre-draft their reply. Close each turn with lettered options answerable in a few characters, so the user reacts instead of composing.

Step 0 — Load state, then scan the terrain

ratchet status
ratchet snapshot repo

Scan first. Gather what already exists, what is half-built, and what was tried and reverted — before you open your mouth. Serial questions on unread terrain waste the user's attention.

Procedure

Walk the four quadrants in order, naming the current one. Disclose material findings the moment you hit them; never close a quadrant off-screen.

1. Known knowns — settle the ground. State the facts, each cited to file:line. Mark every assumption separately and say you will treat it as true until corrected, so a wrong premise gets caught now instead of after the build.

2. Known unknowns — one question at a time. Ask the single highest-blast-radius question first (the answer that reshapes the most), not a wall of them. Give lettered options with a recommended answer. Close each question exactly one way, in front of the user: user answer, territory (you researched it, then show question + finding), probe (only touching the repo can answer it — commission a probe card, below), or OPEN (deferred, with what would unblock it and the route that will close it: ask-user, probe, park with owner+reason, promote to an assumption with a kill test, or a defect).