How to Use Advanced Elicitation
Use Advanced Elicitation to stress-test any artifact before committing to the next phase.
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”- CAT installed in your project (see Getting Started)
- An artifact or recent AI output to analyze
When to Use
Section titled “When to Use”- An ARC’s constraints seem too broad or too narrow
- A bolt spec’s acceptance criteria aren’t specific enough
- You want to stress-test any artifact before committing
How It Works
Section titled “How It Works”Option 1: Direct Invocation
Section titled “Option 1: Direct Invocation”cat-advanced-elicitationPoint it at a specific artifact or the most recent output.
Option 2: Via Collaboration Menu
Section titled “Option 2: Via Collaboration Menu”After any content-generating step, choose A from the A/P/C menu. The current output is automatically analyzed.
Available Techniques
Section titled “Available Techniques”When invoked, you can request a specific technique or let CAT choose:
| Technique | What It Does | Good For |
|---|---|---|
| Socratic | Questions every assumption systematically | Intent artifacts, scope definitions |
| First Principles | Strips away conventions to rebuild from fundamentals | Architecture decisions, technology choices |
| Pre-Mortem | ”It’s 6 months from now and this failed — why?” | Risk identification, constraint gaps |
| Red Team | Adversarial perspective — actively tries to break it | Security constraints, edge cases |
| Devil’s Advocate | Argues the opposite position on every decision | Scope decisions, trade-off validation |
Example
Section titled “Example”You: A (selecting Advanced Elicitation after an ARC draft)
CAT: Which technique? Or I’ll choose based on the content.
You: Pre-mortem
CAT: “It’s 6 months after launch. The password reset feature has been exploited. Here’s what went wrong: The rate limiter uses IP-based tracking, so attackers rotated IPs. Token expiry was 15 minutes but the email delivery SLA is 10 minutes — users reported tokens expiring before they could use them. The ‘don’t reveal email existence’ constraint was undermined by timing differences in the response…”
Accepting or Rejecting Improvements
Section titled “Accepting or Rejecting Improvements”After elicitation:
“Accept these improvements? (y/n)”
- Yes — Improvements are incorporated into the artifact
- No — Original artifact is preserved
Advanced Elicitation vs Party Mode
Section titled “Advanced Elicitation vs Party Mode”| Aspect | Advanced Elicitation | Party Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Depth on a single artifact | Breadth across perspectives |
| Agents | Single AI applying a technique | Multiple agent personas |
| Best for | Stress-testing specific content | Getting diverse viewpoints |
| Time | 2–5 minutes | 5–10 minutes |
They can be combined: use Advanced Elicitation to deepen an artifact, then Party Mode to validate it across perspectives.
See Also: Use Party Mode · Getting Started · Workflows Reference