compare-questions

compare-questions Skill

Apply two planning questions independently to one or more plans, then compare the resulting revisions on: quality (pairwise judge) → input tokens (question size) �� time (wall-clock).

Argument Reference

The arguments after /compare-questions are free-form text. The LLM interprets them to extract the following values:

Parameter	Required?	What to look for	Default
question_a	yes	First quoted string, text after "question-a" or "A:", or first .md file path labeled "A"	—
question_b	yes	Second quoted string, text after "question-b" or "B:", or second .md file path labeled "B"	—
plans_source	yes	A directory path or file path(s) for plans. Associated with "plans", "plan-dir", "against". Paths ending .md that are NOT questions.	—
label_a	no	"label-a", "--label-a"	"Q-A"
label_b	no	"label-b", "--label-b"	"Q-B"
apply_model	no	"apply-model", "--apply-model", model for applying questions	claude-sonnet-4-6
judge_model	no	"judge-model", "--judge-model", model for judging	claude-sonnet-4-6

Question resolution: If a question value looks like a file path (contains / or ends .md) and the file exists on disk, read its contents. Otherwise treat as inline text.

Example invocations:

/compare-questions "Does the plan account for rollback?" "What happens if deployment fails?" plans/my-plan.md
/compare-questions A: "Are assumptions validated?" B: "Are constraints evidence-based?" ~/.claude/plans/
/compare-questions questions/q1.md questions/q2.md plans/ --label-a "concise" --label-b "verbose"

---

Step 0 — Parse & Preflight

Interpret arguments from <prompt-arguments> as free-form text.

Extract values by understanding the user's intent — they may use flags, positional strings, natural language, or any combination.

Defaults (apply when not found in arguments):

• label_a = "Q-A"
• label_b = "Q-B"
• apply_model = claude-sonnet-4-6
• judge_model = claude-sonnet-4-6

Question resolution:

FOR each question value (a, b):
    IF value contains "/" OR value ends with ".md":
        IF file exists at value:
            question_text = Read(value)
        ELSE:
            abort: "ERROR: question file not found: {value}"
    ELSE:
        question_text = value (inline text)

Compute input tokens:

tokens_a = Math.floor(question_a_text.length / 4)
tokens_b = Math.floor(question_b_text.length / 4)

Create temp working dir: COMPARE_TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d /tmp/compare-questions.XXXXXX) — NOTE: use COMPARE_TMPDIR, not $TMPDIR (macOS system env var, do not overwrite)

Requirement validation — abort immediately if any check fails:

1. Both questions must be identified and non-empty
2. Both questions must be different (trimmed string comparison)
   • If identical → abort: "ERROR: Both questions are identical — nothing to compare."
3. Plans source must exist on disk (directory or file path)
4. apply_model and judge_model must match claude-*

After all validations pass, emit the start banner as a fenced code block:

[render as fenced code block — all lines exactly 64 chars wide] ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ⚖️ compare-questions ║ ║ ║ ║ Question A ({label_a}): {question_a_truncated_50} ║ ║ Question B ({label_b}): {question_b_truncated_50} ║ ║ Plans: {plans_line} ║ ║ Tokens: A ~{tokens_a} est. · B ~{tokens_b} est. ║ ║ Model: {model_line} ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ [end code block]

Truncation rule: usable inner width = 60 chars. If question text exceeds 50 chars, truncate: question_text[:47] + "...". Model line: if apply_model == judge_model → "{apply_model} (apply + judge)" if different → "{apply_model} · Judge: {judge_model}" Each row right-padded with spaces to fill column 62, then ║.

[1/7] ⚙️ preflight ── {label_a} ({tokens_a} tokens) vs {label_b} ({tokens_b} tokens)

State output: question_a_text, question_b_text, tokens_a, tokens_b, plans_source, label_a, label_b, apply_model, judge_model, COMPARE_TMPDIR Consumed by: Steps 1–7.

---

Step 1 — Load Plans

Build the list of plan test cases:

From directory (if plans_source is a directory):

• Glob *.md from plans_source
• Cap at 10 files. If more found → warn: "Warning: found {N} plan files; using first 10 only."
• For each file: check size. If > 100KB → skip with: "Skipping {file}: exceeds 100KB limit"
• Read surviving files' contents into memory

From file path(s) (if plans_source is one or more files):

• Read each file directly

Validation:

• At least 1 plan required. If 0 → abort: "ERROR: No valid plan files found in {plans_source}"
• If N < 3 → warn: "Warning: N={N} plan(s) — quality win rates have low statistical confidence. Use 3+ plans for meaningful comparison."

[2/7] 📂 plans ── {N} test cases from {plans_source}

Create progress tasks for each plan test case:

FOR each plan in plans[]:
    TaskCreate(
        subject = "Test {plan.name}: {label_a} vs {label_b}",
        status = "pending"
    )

State output: plans[] with {name, contents}, N, plan_task_ids{} (plan_name → task ID) Consumed by: Steps 2–6.

---

Step 2 — Apply Questions (2×N parallel Tasks)

For each plan × each question, spawn a Task with apply_model.

Application prompt (built per task):

You are a software planning consultant. You have been given a project plan and a
planning review question. Your job is to:

1. Read the original plan carefully
2. Consider the question and determine what issue (if any) it reveals in the plan
3. Produce a REVISED PLAN that addresses the question's concern

Rules:
- Output the complete revised plan (not a diff, not commentary)
- Make only the changes necessary to address the question's concern
- Preserve the plan's structure, formatting, and all content not related to the issue
- If the question reveals no real issue in this plan, output the original plan unchanged
  with a single comment at the top: "<!-- NO_CHANGE: [brief reason] -->"
- Do NOT add generic boilerplate ("ensure proper testing", "consider scalability")
  — only add specific, concrete improvements that directly address the question

<QUESTION>
QUESTION_TEXT
</QUESTION>

<PLAN>
PLAN_CONTENTS
</PLAN>

Output the revised plan below. No preamble, no explanation — just the plan.

Substitution rules:

• QUESTION_TEXT → the question's text (question_a_text or question_b_text)
• PLAN_CONTENTS → the plan file's full contents

Record start_time_ms = Date.now() per task before spawning.

Spawn all 2×N Tasks in a single parallel message with run_in_background: true. Each task:

• subagent_type: general-purpose
• model: apply_model (default claude-sonnet-4-6)
• prompt: constructed application prompt (above)
• run_in_background: true

Name agents for tracking: apply-A-{plan_name}, apply-B-{plan_name}.

Update progress tasks:

FOR each plan:
    TaskUpdate(plan_task_ids[plan.name], status = "in_progress",
               activeForm = "Applying questions to {plan.name}")

[3/7] 🚀 applying ── {2*N} tasks launched

State output: task_handles[] (2×N task references with start times) Consumed by: Step 3.

---

Step 3 — Collect Results & Write Temp Files

Poll all 2×N tasks until complete. For each completed task:

1. Capture the raw output text (the revised plan)
2. Write to temp file:

   Bash: cat > 'COMPARE_TMPDIR/apply-{A|B}-{plan_name}.md' << 'APPLY_EOF'
   {raw_output}
   APPLY_EOF
   

3. Record timing:
   • latency_ms: end_time_ms - start_time_ms (wall-clock)

Error handling: If a task fails → mark as failed. Skip the judge for that plan if either A or B failed. Note: "application error — skipped (no judge)".

[4/7] ✅ applied ── {label_a} {avg_latency_a/1000:.1f}s · {label_b} {avg_latency_b/1000:.1f}s

State output: results[plan_name][A|B] with {temp_file_path, latency_ms}, avg_latency_a, avg_latency_b Consumed by: Steps 4–6.

---

Step 4 — Judge (N parallel Tasks)

For each plan where both A and B succeeded, spawn one judge task with judge_model.

Position randomization (per skills/shared/judge-pattern.md):

coin_flip = Math.random() < 0.5
IF coin_flip:
    // Swap: B appears as "A" to the judge
    judge_question_a = question_b_text
    judge_question_b = question_a_text
    judge_revision_a = Read(results[plan][B].temp_file_path)
    judge_revision_b = Read(results[plan][A].temp_file_path)
    swapped[i] = true
ELSE:
    // Normal ordering
    judge_question_a = question_a_text
    judge_question_b = question_b_text
    judge_revision_a = Read(results[plan][A].temp_file_path)
    judge_revision_b = Read(results[plan][B].temp_file_path)
    swapped[i] = false

Spawn agent compare-questions-judge with:

• model: judge_model (default claude-sonnet-4-6)
• run_in_background: true
• prompt:

<ORIGINAL_PLAN>
{plan_contents}
</ORIGINAL_PLAN>

<QUESTION_A>
{judge_question_a}
</QUESTION_A>

<QUESTION_B>
{judge_question_b}
</QUESTION_B>

<REVISION_A>
{judge_revision_a}
</REVISION_A>

<REVISION_B>
{judge_revision_b}
</REVISION_B>

Output only valid JSON on a single line — no preamble, no markdown fences:
{"scores":{"correctness":"?","actionability":"?","insight":"?","economy":"?","trust":"?"},"winner":"?","reasoning":"<1-2 sentences>","valid":true,"recusal":null}

Spawn all N judge tasks in a single parallel message with run_in_background: true.

[5/7] ⚖️ judging ── {N} tasks launched

---

Step 5 — Collect Judge Results & Remap

Poll all N judge tasks until complete.

Position remapping (after parsing each judge result, before aggregation):

IF swapped[i]:
    for key in result.scores:
        if scores[key] == "A": scores[key] = "B"
        elif scores[key] == "B": scores[key] = "A"
        // "TIE" unchanged
    if result.winner == "A": result.winner = "B"
    elif result.winner == "B": result.winner = "A"
    // "TIE" unchanged; "RECUSED" unchanged

Error handling: If a judge task fails or returns malformed JSON:

• TRY to parse result.scores (5 keys), result.winner, and result.valid
• If result.valid == false (RECUSED): exclude this plan from aggregation entirely. Note in Per-Plan Breakdown: "⚠ RECUSED — {result.recusal.reason}". Do NOT count as TIE — recused trials are inconclusive, not equivalent.
• If scores key is missing but winner is present → use winner only, skip criterion tallies
• If both missing → count overall winner as TIE
• Note in Per-Plan Breakdown: "judge error — counted as TIE". Use try/catch on JSON.parse().

Update progress tasks as each judge completes:

FOR each judged plan:
    winner_label = (winner == "A") ? label_a : (winner == "B") ? label_b : "TIE"
    TaskUpdate(plan_task_ids[plan.name], status = "completed",
               subject = "Test {plan.name}: {winner_label} wins")

[6/7] ✅ judging complete ── {label_a} {count_a}/{N} · {label_b} {count_b}/{N} · {count_tie} tied

---

Step 6 — Aggregate, Verdict & Report

Aggregation

Quality — per-test winners:

count_a = count(winner == "A")
count_b = count(winner == "B")
count_tie = count(winner == "TIE")
win_rate_a = count_a / N
win_rate_b = count_b / N
win_rate_tie = count_tie / N

Quality — per-criterion tallies (across all N judge results):

criterion_keys = ["correctness", "actionability", "insight", "economy", "trust"]

criterion_tallies = {}
FOR key IN criterion_keys:
    criterion_tallies[key] = {a: 0, b: 0, tie: 0}

FOR each judge result WITH valid scores object:
    FOR key IN criterion_keys:
        score = result.scores[key]   // "A", "B", or "TIE"
        IF score == "A": criterion_tallies[key].a += 1
        ELIF score == "B": criterion_tallies[key].b += 1
        ELSE: criterion_tallies[key].tie += 1

Input tokens (question size — NOT output size):

// tokens_a and tokens_b computed in Step 0 from question text length
token_delta_pct = round(((tokens_b - tokens_a) / max(tokens_a, tokens_b, 1)) * 100, 1)
// Positive = B is larger (A more concise), negative = B is smaller (B more concise)

Time:

avg_latency_a = mean(latency_ms for all A application runs)
avg_latency_b = mean(latency_ms for all B application runs)
latency_delta_pct = round(((avg_latency_b - avg_latency_a) / max(avg_latency_a, avg_latency_b, 1)) * 100, 1)

Tiebreaker Chain — priority: quality → input tokens → time

# Threshold values:
# quality: >15% spread = meaningful difference
# tokens: >10% spread = meaningful efficiency gain (question conciseness)
# time: >15% spread = meaningful speed difference

IF |win_rate_a - win_rate_b| > 0.15:
    overall_winner = (win_rate_a > win_rate_b) ? "A" : "B"
    decided_by = "quality"
ELIF max(tokens_a, tokens_b) > 0 AND |tokens_a - tokens_b| / max(tokens_a, tokens_b) > 0.10:
    overall_winner = (tokens_a < tokens_b) ? "A" : "B"
    decided_by = "input tokens (quality tied)"
ELIF max(avg_latency_a, avg_latency_b) > 0 AND |avg_latency_a - avg_latency_b| / max(avg_latency_a, avg_latency_b) > 0.15:
    overall_winner = (avg_latency_a < avg_latency_b) ? "A" : "B"
    decided_by = "time (quality+tokens tied)"
ELSE:
    overall_winner = "NEUTRAL"
    decided_by = "all dimensions within noise thresholds"

Verdict label mapping:

overall_winner == "A" → verdict = "{label_a} WINS"
overall_winner == "B" → verdict = "{label_b} WINS"
overall_winner == "NEUTRAL" → verdict = "NEUTRAL"

Verdict emoji:

label_a WINS → "🔵"
label_b WINS ��� "🟢"
NEUTRAL      → "➖"

After computing verdict, emit the early verdict flash:

Print: "──────────────────────────────────────────────────────"

{verdict_emoji} {verdict} ── quality: {quality_flash} · tokens: {token_flash} · latency: {latency_flash}

Print: "──────────────────────────────────────────────────────"

Where:

• quality_flash: If decided by quality → "{winning_label} leads {n_criteria_winning}/5 criteria · {win_rate_pct}% wins" where n_criteria_winning = count of criterion keys where winning label's tally > loser's tally. Otherwise → "tied"
• token_flash: "A ~{tokens_a} · B ~{tokens_b} ({concise_label} more concise)" or "within noise" if delta < 10%
• latency_flash: if |latency_delta_pct| >= 15 → "{faster_label} {|val|}% faster" · else → "within noise"

Report

Output the following report (outside any code fence — render as markdown):

## compare-questions Results

**Question A ({label_a}):** {question_a_text_truncated_80}
**Question B ({label_b}):** {question_b_text_truncated_80}
**Plans:** {N} test cases from {plans_source}

---

### 🔍 Quality  _(5-criterion staff engineer judge)_

| Criterion             |  A  |  B  |  ~  | Leader |
|-----------------------|:---:|:---:|:---:|--------|
| Correctness           | {t.correctness.a} | {t.correctness.b} | {t.correctness.tie} | {leader} |
| Actionability         | {t.actionability.a} | {t.actionability.b} | {t.actionability.tie} | {leader} |
| Insight               | {t.insight.a} | {t.insight.b} | {t.insight.tie} | {leader} |
| Economy               | {t.economy.a} | {t.economy.b} | {t.economy.tie} | {leader} |
| Trust                 | {t.trust.a} | {t.trust.b} | {t.trust.tie} | {leader} |
| **Total**             | **{sum_a}** | **{sum_b}** | **{sum_tie}** | |

**Win rate by plan:**
[render as fenced code block]
{label_a}  {bar(count_a, N)}   {win_rate_a_pct}%   ({count_a} of {N})
{label_b}  {bar(count_b, N)}   {win_rate_b_pct}%   ({count_b} of {N})
~          {bar(count_tie, N)} {win_rate_tie_pct}% ({count_tie} of {N})
[end code block]

---

### 🪙 Input Tokens  _(question size — char/4 est.)_

[render as fenced code block]
{label_a_padded}  {bar_tokens_a}  ~{tokens_a} est.
{label_b_padded}  {bar_tokens_b}  ~{tokens_b} est.
   Δ {token_delta_label}
[end code block]

Note: measures the question's own token count — a more concise question that achieves
the same quality revision is inherently a better question.

---

### ⏱ Time  _(wall-clock application time — indicative)_

[render as fenced code block]
{label_a_padded}  {bar_latency_a}  {avg_latency_a} ms
{label_b_padded}  {bar_latency_b}  {avg_latency_b} ms
   Δ {latency_delta_label}
[end code block]

---

### 📋 Per-Plan Breakdown

| | Plan | Reasoning |
|-|------|-----------|
| {winner_emoji} | {plan_name} | "{reasoning}" |
... (one row per plan; winner_emoji: 🟢=B wins, 🔵=A wins, ⚖️=TIE)

---

[render as fenced code block — all lines exactly 64 chars wide]
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  {verdict_emoji}  {verdict}  —  decided by {decided_by}      ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║  {quality_metric_row}                                        ║
║  {token_metric_row}                                          ║
║  {latency_metric_row}                                        ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║  {recommendation_sentence}                                   ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
[end code block]

Metric row rules (each row right-padded to fill column 62, then ║):

Quality row:

• decided_by == "quality" AND winner == B → Quality: {label_b} leads {n_criteria_b}/5 criteria · {win_rate_b_pct:.0f}% wins ←
• decided_by == "quality" AND winner == A → Quality: {label_a} leads {n_criteria_a}/5 criteria · {win_rate_a_pct:.0f}% wins ←
• otherwise → Quality: tied (spread within 15% threshold)

Token row:

• decided_by contains "tokens" → Tokens: {label} ~{tokens} est. ({pct}% more concise) ←
• NEUTRAL AND |token_delta_pct| < 10 → Tokens: A ~{tokens_a} · B ~{tokens_b} (within noise)
• otherwise → Tokens: A ~{tokens_a} · B ~{tokens_b} ({delta_label})

Latency row:

• decided_by contains "time" → Latency: {latency_delta_label} ←
• NEUTRAL AND |latency_delta_pct| < 15 → Latency: {latency_delta_label} (within noise)
• otherwise → Latency: {latency_delta_label}

← marker: appears only on the row for the deciding dimension.

Recommendation sentence:

winner + quality  → "Use {label} — it surfaces better issues across {pct}% of test plans."
winner + tokens   ��� "Use {label} — quality tied; it is {pct}% more concise."
winner + time     → "Use {label} — quality and tokens tied; application is {pct}% faster."
NEUTRAL           → "No meaningful difference across all three dimensions."

Recommendation wrapping: if > 60 chars, split at last space before char 60 and emit the remainder as a second ║ row.

Bar chart helper (bar(value, max_val, width=20)):

filled = round(value / max(max_val, 1) * width)
return "█".repeat(filled) + "░".repeat(width - filled)

Criterion leader per row:

a > b  → "🔵 {label_a}"
b > a  → "🟢 {label_b}"
a == b → "⚖️  ~"

Formatting rules:

• Round all percentages to 1 decimal place.
• Token delta: +X% if B > A (A more concise), -X% if B < A (B more concise).
• Latency delta: +X% if B > A (A faster), -X% if B < A (B faster).
• Pad bar chart rows so columns align.

---

Step 7 — Cleanup

rm -rf "$COMPARE_TMPDIR"

Print: "Temp files cleaned up."

---

Error Reference

Condition	Action
Missing question(s)	Abort: "ERROR: Could not identify two questions in the arguments."
Identical questions	Abort: "ERROR: Both questions are identical — nothing to compare."
No valid plans	Abort: "ERROR: No valid plan files found in {plans_source}"
Application task failure	Skip that plan, warn. Abort if all plans skipped.
Judge JSON parse failure	Retry once with "return ONLY the JSON". Second failure → count as TIE.
Plans > 100KB	Skip with warning
>50% plans skipped	Warn but continue with surviving plans