clarify

Extract

From the user's words or the conversation:

• The ask as given in the context
• Its readings — the two (or more) ways the words could be taken.

Gate

Proceed only when: the readings would build or do different things.

Anything else, say which in one plain line — never clarify anyway:

• Every reading leads to the same work → skip the pick and proceed with the work. Never stage a choice that changes nothing.
• The ask is already concrete and the pull is to keep questioning it — that is challenging its decisions, not picking a reading → use interrogate skill.
• The user holds something they can't yet put into words — no reading of the words captures it → use elicit skill.

Stage

1. Name the readings apart — one line each, ending in what each would build or do differently.
2. Ask the user to pick.

One exchange: readings out, pick back. Never ask a second question. If the user cannot pick, the words are not the problem — stop clarifying; use elicit skill.

Output

Take the pick as the confirmed ask. Restate it in one line.

The pick resolved the words — now check whether the restated ask is clear enough to return to the work it interrupted: would anything still unresolved change what gets built?

• Nothing would → proceed with the work.
• Something would, and the user holds it but hasn't said it → use elicit skill.
• Something would, and it's a decision inside the ask that needs defending → use interrogate skill.

Clarify's one exchange is spent — any further question runs under the named skill's procedure, never as another round of clarifying.