gh-jhs-chatfield-claude-filling-pdf-forms/skills/filling-pdf-forms/references/CLI-Interview-Loop.md

CLI Interview Loop

CRITICAL: Strict adherence required. No deviations permitted.

Run chatfield.cli iteratively, presenting its output messages via AskUserQuestion(), passing responses back, repeating until complete.

Files:

• State: <basename>.chatfield/interview.db
• Interview: <basename>.chatfield/interview.py (or interview_<lang>.py if translated)

Workflow Overview

@startuml CLI-Interview-Loop
title CLI Interview Loop
start
:Initialize chatfield.cli (no message);
:chatfield.cli outputs first question;
repeat
  :Understand the chatfield.cli message;
  :Consider the Form Data Model for multiSelect;
  :Build AskUserQuestion;
  :Present to user via AskUserQuestion();
  :Call chatfield.cli with the result as a message;
  :chatfield.cli outputs next question/response;
repeat while (Complete?) is (no)
->yes;
:Run chatfield.cli --inspect;
:Parse collected data;
stop
@enduml

CLI Command Reference

# Initialize (NO user message)
python -m chatfield.cli --state=<state> --interview=<interview>

# Continue (WITH message)
python -m chatfield.cli --state=<state> --interview=<interview> "user response"

# Inspect (when complete, or any time to troubleshoot)
python -m chatfield.cli --state=<state> --interview=<interview> --inspect

In all cases, chatfield.cli will print to its stdout a message for the user.

Interview Loop Process

CRITICAL: When building AskUserQuestion from chatfield.cli's message, you MUST strictly follow ./AskUserQuestion-Rules.md

1. Initialize: python -m chatfield.cli --state=<state> --interview=<interview> (NO message)
2. Read chatfield.cli's stdout message
3. Recall or look up Form Data Model for multiSelect (.as_multi(), .one_or_more() → True)
4. Build AskUserQuestion per mandatory rules: ./AskUserQuestion-Rules.md
5. Present AskUserQuestion to user
6. Handle response:
   • "Other" text → pass to chatfield.cli
   • "Skip" → Context-aware response: Yes/No questions → "No"; Optional/nullable fields → "N/A"; Other fields → "Skip"
   • "Delegate" → research answer, pass to chatfield.cli
   • Options 3-4 → pass selection to chatfield.cli
   • Multi-select → join with commas, pass to chatfield.cli
7. Call: python -m chatfield.cli --state=<state> --interview=<interview> "user response"
8. Repeat steps 2-7 until completion signal
9. Run: python -m chatfield.cli --state=<state> --interview=<interview> --inspect

Completion Signals

Watch for:

• "Thank you! I have all the information I need."
• "complete" / "done"

When Chatfield mentions the conversation is complete, stop the loop. The CLI Interview loop is done.