Probe
A temporary answer to one question.
Research-stage method
Learn from code
before you promise with code.
Build a small probe. See what it teaches you. Let a person decide what the product should do. Then protect that decision with tests and an independent check.
A probe asks a question.
A contract records an answer.
01 · Why
Working code can teach you.
It can also mislead you.
An AI coding agent can build an example before a team fully understands the right behavior. That speed is useful for discovery. But the first example also contains guesses and accidents.
IDD is designed to keep the learning and add a human decision before an accident can become a lasting product promise.
02 · The method
From a question to a protected decision.
Each step has one job. A working implementation cannot skip the decision in the middle.
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1
Set the boundary
Write one question and the safety limits before you build.
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2
Build a small probe
Keep it temporary, isolated, and focused on that one question.
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3
Collect evidence
Keep examples, measurements, failures, and newly found assumptions.
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4
Let a person decide
Accept, reject, combine, or ask for another probe.
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5
Protect the answer
Write tests, contracts, or evaluations, then write or revise the official implementation to pass them.
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6
Check it independently
Use a fresh reviewer or a separate, repeatable check before delivery.
03 · State
Running is not the same as ready.
Candidate
Worth studying, not yet a promise.
Contracted
A person decided and a durable check records it.
Shippable
Independent and risk-based checks passed.
04 · Safety
Some work should not begin with a guess.
Authorization, payments, destructive data changes, production migrations, cryptography, and private information need stricter rules before implementation.
IDD may help later inside a safe sandbox. It is not permission to experiment on people or production systems.
Read the safety boundaries05 · Choose the right route
Do you already know the behavior?
Yes
Write the test or contract first.
You do not need a probe to rediscover a decision you already made.
Not yet
Use one safe probe to learn.
Keep it isolated. Gather evidence. Decide before you promote it.
06 · Use it with your agent
Bring the method into the coding session.
IDD 0.1.0-draft includes one reusable skill, a structural probe-manifest validator, and packaging for major coding agents. Runtime behavior remains platform-dependent and unvalidated.
Claude Code plugin
Install directly from this public repository.
/plugin marketplace add SoliEstre/idd
/plugin install idd@iddInvoke /idd:idd when product behavior is uncertain and an isolated probe can produce useful evidence.
Shared skill package
One source, several agent surfaces.
- CodexPlugin manifest and skill metadata
- Gemini CLIInstallable GitHub extension
- GitHub CopilotAgent Skills-compatible folder
The principle