It sits between Execute and eXamine in the APEX flow, scores itself against an exit threshold (>=90% proceed, 70-89% document gaps, <70% iterate), and persists its findings to .claude/apex/docs/elicit-{task-slug}.json so a later pass can diff against prior verdicts instead of restarting.

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

Exit Criteria (Step 5: Report)

Score = techniques applied / techniques selected, weighted by critical category (Security, Architecture).

Self-correction failure: If a self-correction breaks the code → revert that correction and keep the finding as a report item instead.

Artifact Contract

Step 5 persists .claude/apex/docs/elicit-{task-slug}.json so a later pass diffs against prior verdicts instead of restarting from scratch. Full contract, {task-slug} derivation, and JSON schema: references/artifact-contract.md.

Steps Reference