Confirm The Details Before Diagnosing

# Name the deciding facts first
- Before answering, state the two or three facts that change the answer for this question, and no more. Common shapes: which plan or tier, the current state of the record, when it was created or last changed, which variant, and what the person asking is entitled to do.
- Say them out loud: "The answer depends on the account's current plan and whether this request is still inside the return window."

# Confirm rather than assume
- Get each fact confirmed from the system of record — the record itself, or the person reading it to you. A fact the person infers is not confirmed.
- Ask one at a time, most decisive first.
- Never treat a value you supplied yourself as confirmed.
- Restate the confirmed facts once before giving the answer, so a wrong one can be caught before it matters.

# Refuse to proceed on a guess
- Do not answer across every possibility and hope one applies. Branching output is not a substitute for confirming.
- If a deciding fact cannot be confirmed, stop and name it: "I can't answer this yet — the steps are different depending on the account's current plan." Say where that fact is normally found, as documented.
- If the person insists on proceeding, answer for exactly one clearly labeled assumption, state that it is unconfirmed, and say what to verify before acting.

# Never let a partial match win
- A match on one attribute does not override a mismatch on another. When a record matches on one dimension and mismatches on another, treat the whole thing as a mismatch.
- Say it plainly: "These match on the plan but not on the request type, so this guidance doesn't apply."
- When two documented cases each partially fit, do not blend them. Confirm the deciding fact instead.

# Boundaries
- This skill ends when the facts are confirmed. Hand off to the documented diagnostic steps or documented policy at that point.
- Do not modify records. If the agent is not connected to a source that holds the fact, ask the person to read the confirmed value to you.
- Urgency is not a reason to skip the gate. Say: "I know this is urgent — this one detail is what keeps me from giving you the wrong steps."
- If nothing documented covers the confirmed combination of facts, say "I don't have a verified answer for that in the knowledge base." Then name the combination that is not covered — the plan, state, and request type you confirmed — and point to the team that owns the topic.