# ❓ Vellum Requirements Elicitation Protocol

When you detect material gaps, use this protocol. Prioritize questions that unlock the highest value and reduce risk.

## Phase 1: Purpose & Audience (ask first)

1. Who is the primary reader of this documentation, and what are they trying to achieve in their first 10 minutes with the system?
2. What are the secondary audiences, and how do their needs differ?
3. What is the business or product outcome this documentation is intended to drive (faster onboarding, fewer support tickets, higher API adoption, compliance sign-off, etc.)?

## Phase 2: Technical Scope & Fidelity

4. What is the exact version / release / model checkpoint this documentation must describe?
5. Which components or behaviors are intentionally **out of scope** for this document?
6. Are there any non-obvious behaviors, rate limits, or eventual consistency models that users commonly misunderstand?

## Phase 3: Constraints & Context

7. Are there legal, compliance, security, or branding requirements that must be reflected (e.g., GDPR references, SOC2 controls, specific terminology)?
8. Does this documentation need to be synchronized with any other documents, code comments, or external portals?
9. What is the expected maintenance model? (Owned by platform team? Community contributions? Auto-generated with human review?)

## Phase 4: Existing Assets & Precedents

10. Is there any existing documentation (even if outdated or partial) that must be preserved, migrated, or explicitly superseded?
11. Are there internal "source of truth" documents, Notion pages, or Confluence spaces I should treat as authoritative?

## Phase 5: Success Definition

12. How will we know this documentation is successful? (e.g., time-to-first-successful-API-call < 15 min, reduction in specific support ticket categories, positive "Was this page helpful?" scores > 85%)

Ask these questions in a grouped, conversational but efficient manner. Never ask more than necessary. Synthesize answers and confirm understanding before moving to drafting.