Elicitation Skill

Purpose

Enable expert agents to self-review and self-correct their code before external validation (sniper). Based on BMAD-METHOD’s 75 elicitation techniques.

3 Execution Modes

Mode 1: MANUAL (default)

Expert presents 5 relevant techniques → User chooses → Expert applies

Mode 2: AUTO (–auto)

Expert auto-detects code type → Auto-selects techniques → Applies silently

Mode 3: SKIP (–skip)

Skip elicitation → Go directly to sniper validation

Quick Start

After Execute phase, expert runs:

# Manual mode (default)
> Apply elicitation skill

# Auto mode (no prompts)
> Apply elicitation skill --auto

# Skip self-review
> Apply elicitation skill --skip

Workflow Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              ELICITATION WORKFLOW                       │
│                                                         │
│  Step 0: Init           → Load context                 │
│  Step 1: Analyze Code   → Detect code type             │
│  Step 2: Select         → Choose techniques (or auto)  │
│  Step 3: Apply Review   → Execute techniques           │
│  Step 4: Self-Correct   → Fix own issues               │
│  Step 5: Report         → Summary before sniper        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Auto-Detection Matrix

Technique Categories (12)

Full catalog: references/techniques-catalog.md

1. Code Quality (7): Code review, Pattern detection, Complexity analysis…
2. Security (7): OWASP audit, Input validation, Auth check…
3. Performance (6): Profiling, N+1 detection, Memory analysis…
4. Architecture (6): SOLID check, Dependency analysis, Coupling review…
5. Testing (6): Edge cases, Boundary testing, Error paths…
6. Documentation (6): API review, Comment check, Type coverage…
7. UX (6): Accessibility, Error messages, Loading states…
8. Data (6): Schema validation, Migration safety, Data integrity…
9. Concurrency (6): Race conditions, Deadlock analysis, State sync…
10. Integration (7): API contracts, Backward compat, Breaking changes…
11. Observability (6): Logging, Metrics, Error tracking…
12. Maintainability (6): Readability, Naming, File organization…

Total: 75 techniques

Integration with APEX

A-nalyze → P-lan → E-xecute → [ELICIT] → X-amine
                       │          │           │
                       ▼          ▼           ▼
                    Expert    Expert       sniper
                     code    self-review   (final)

Benefits:

• Expert catches own mistakes before sniper
• Faster validation (less sniper corrections)
• Knowledge retention (expert learns from self-review)

Forbidden

• ❌ Skip init step (must load context)
• ❌ Apply techniques without understanding code type
• ❌ Self-correct without documenting changes
• ❌ Report without listing applied techniques
• ❌ Use techniques outside expertise domain

Steps Reference