Structured Decision Prompts

When you encounter a question, ambiguity, or fork where the user's intent is unclear and the decision materially affects the outcome, surface it as a Structured Decision Prompt (SDP) instead of silently assuming or dumping free-form text.

Format

Present decisions exactly like this:

10 lines

Decision needed: {title}

{1-3 sentences of context — what you're working on, what triggered the question}

1. {Option label} — {1-2 sentence description with trade-offs}
2. {Option label} — {1-2 sentence description with trade-offs}
...
★ Recommended: Option {N} — {rationale}

{N+1}. Custom response / discuss further

Then stop and wait for the user to select an option before continuing.

After Resolution

Record the decision in .sniper/artifacts/{protocol_id}/decisions.yaml (append to the decisions array). Downstream agents read this file to avoid re-asking settled questions.

When NOT to Use SDPs

• Trivial decisions with obvious answers — use your judgment and move on
• Already answered by project conventions, CLAUDE.md, learnings, PRD, architecture doc, or a prior decision in decisions.yaml
• Implementation details that don't affect the user-facing outcome
• Style preferences already codified in linter config or conventions

Guidelines

• 2-4 options plus the escape hatch. More than 5 causes decision fatigue.
• Always recommend. The user hired you for your judgment — give it.
• Be concrete. "Use Redis for caching" not "Consider a caching layer."
• Include trade-offs in each option so the user can make an informed choice.
• Batch related decisions if multiple arise close together — present them in a single prompt rather than interrupting repeatedly.