How to Create Intent Artifacts

Use this guide to create and validate Intent artifacts at the start of any DLC initiative. It covers creating Intent Statements, Intent Briefs, and Quick Intents; editing existing artifacts; and validating them before moving to Architecture.

Concept background: See Intent Phase for an explanation of what Intent artifacts are and why they exist.

Prerequisites

• CAT installed in your project (see Getting Started)

Which Intent Workflow to Use

Workflow	When to Use	Command
Intent Statement	Starting a new initiative — capture the core “who/what/why”	cat-intent-statement
Intent Brief	Expanding an Intent Statement into operational detail	cat-intent-brief
Quick Intent	Small changes (1–3 bolts) — combines statement + brief	cat-quick-intent

Creating an Intent Statement

cat-intent-statement

Clara guides you through five questions:

1. Who is this for?
2. What problem are you solving?
3. Why now — what triggered this work?
4. What outcome do you expect?
5. How will you measure success?

Output: _cat/artifacts/intent/intent-statement-{title}.md

Tips for Good Intent Statements

• Be specific about the user persona — “Corpay payment ops analysts” not “users”
• State the problem in terms of user impact, not technical debt
• Include quantifiable metrics where possible (“reduce processing time from 4 hours to 30 minutes”)

Creating an Intent Brief

cat-intent-brief

Prerequisite: An Intent Statement should exist (Clara will reference it).

The Intent Brief expands the statement with:

• Detailed scope (in/out)
• Success metrics with measurable targets
• Assumptions and constraints table
• Key risks with mitigations
• Dependencies
• Non-functional requirements (performance, security, reliability)

Output: _cat/artifacts/intent/intent-brief-{title}.md

Creating a Quick Intent

cat-quick-intent

For small changes, Quick Intent combines statement and brief into a single artifact with a streamlined conversation:

1. Quick description of the change
2. Confirm who/what/why/outcome in one exchange
3. 1–2 success metrics
4. Scope (in/out)
5. Constraints and risks (brief answers accepted)
6. NFRs (“standard” is acceptable for small changes)

Output: _cat/artifacts/intent/quick-intent-{title}.md

Editing Existing Intent Artifacts

Made a mistake or need to update scope?

cat-intent-edit

Clara reads your existing intent artifacts and helps you edit them in-place, preserving the document structure.

Validating Intent Completeness

Before moving to Architecture, validate your intent:

cat-intent-checkpoint

Clara checks for:

• Completeness — are all required sections populated?
• Specificity — are metrics measurable? Is scope clear?
• Compliance readiness — does the artifact have proper frontmatter?

This gates the transition to the Architecture phase.

Creating Features from Intent

Once your Intent Brief is approved:

cat-features-create

Clara decomposes the Intent Brief into a prioritized Feature list. Each feature becomes a unit of work that gets its own bolts in the Construction phase.

---

See Also: Intent Phase · Choosing Your Track · Workflows Reference