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Interview Mode

Capture your personal insights with AI-guided Q&A after processing an episode.

Overview

Interview mode conducts a thoughtful conversation after extraction, generating questions based on episode content. Your responses are saved as my-notes.md, creating a personal knowledge base.

Key features:

  • Context-aware questions based on episode content
  • Multiple interview styles (reflective, analytical, creative)
  • Pause and resume capability
  • Pattern-based insight extraction
  • Three output formats

Basic Usage

Add the --interview flag to any fetch command:

inkwell fetch https://youtube.com/watch?v=xyz --interview

Output:

Step 5/5: Conducting interview...
✓ Interview complete
  Questions: 5
  Saved to: my-notes.md

Episode:         Episode from URL
Templates:       3
Extraction cost: $0.0090
Interview cost:  $0.1500
Total cost:      $0.1590
Interview:       ✓ Completed

Requirements

Interview mode requires an Anthropic API key:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-key-here"

# Or add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
echo 'export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-key' >> ~/.bashrc

Get a key at console.anthropic.com

Interview Templates

Choose from three interview styles:

Reflective (Default)

Focus on personal insights, connections, and applications.

inkwell fetch URL --interview

Example questions:

  • "How does this idea connect to your own experience?"
  • "What surprised you most in this episode?"
  • "How might you apply this to your work?"

Analytical

Deep critical thinking and evaluation.

inkwell fetch URL --interview --interview-template analytical

Example questions:

  • "What assumptions underlie the main argument?"
  • "What evidence supports or contradicts this view?"
  • "What are the limitations of this approach?"

Creative

Imaginative connections and new possibilities.

inkwell fetch URL --interview --interview-template creative

Example questions:

  • "How could you combine this with other ideas?"
  • "What would happen if you took this to an extreme?"
  • "What analogies help explain this concept?"

Command Options

Option Description Default
--interview Enable interview mode false
--interview-template Template: reflective, analytical, creative From config
--interview-format Format: structured, narrative, qa From config
--max-questions Number of questions From config
--no-resume Don't resume previous session false

Interview Commands

During an interview, use these commands:

Command Description
/help Show available commands
/skip Skip current question
/done End interview early (save progress)
/quit Exit interview without saving
/history View conversation so far

Output Formats

Structured (Default)

Organized by themes with extracted insights:

# My Notes & Reflections

## Key Insights
- Insight 1 extracted from responses
- Insight 2 extracted from responses

## Action Items
- [ ] Action item 1
- [ ] Action item 2

## Themes
- Theme 1 (mentioned 3 times)
- Theme 2 (mentioned 2 times)

## Question 1: ...
My response...

Narrative

Flowing text combining questions and responses:

# My Notes & Reflections

When asked about X, I realized that...

This connects to Y because...

The most surprising aspect was...

Q&A

Simple question-and-answer format:

# My Notes & Reflections

**Q: Question 1**
A: My response...

**Q: Question 2**
A: My response...

Session Management

Pause and Resume

Press Ctrl+C during an interview to pause:

Interview paused. Resume with:
  inkwell interview resume <session-id>

Or abandon with:
  inkwell interview abandon <session-id>

Resume later:

inkwell interview resume abc123

List Sessions

View all saved sessions:

inkwell interview sessions

Cleanup

Remove old completed sessions:

inkwell interview cleanup --older-than 90d

Configuration

Customize defaults in ~/.config/inkwell/config.yaml:

interview:
  enabled: true
  auto_start: false              # Set to true to always interview

  # Style preferences
  default_template: reflective   # reflective, analytical, creative
  question_count: 5              # Target number of questions
  format_style: structured       # structured, narrative, qa

  # Personal guidelines
  guidelines: |
    Focus on how this applies to my work as a software engineer.
    Ask about connections to previous episodes.
    Probe for actionable insights and blog post topics.

  # Cost control
  max_cost_per_interview: 0.50
  confirm_high_cost: true

  # Advanced
  model: claude-sonnet-4-5
  session_timeout_minutes: 60

Cost Estimation

Interview mode uses Claude:

Component Cost
Extraction ~$0.02 per episode
Interview (5 questions) ~$0.15 per episode
Total with interview ~$0.17 per episode

Cost control:

  • Shorter interviews: --max-questions 3 (~$0.09)
  • Config limit: Set max_cost_per_interview
  • Cache hit: $0 (cached extractions are free)

Tips

Custom Guidelines

Tailor questions to your interests:

guidelines: |
  - Focus on practical applications for my startup
  - Ask about potential blog post angles
  - Probe connections to behavioral psychology
  - Challenge my assumptions when I'm too optimistic

Interview Frequency

You don't need to interview every episode:

  • Do interview: Complex topics, controversial ideas, personal relevance
  • Skip interview: News updates, routine episodes, time-constrained

Multi-Episode Patterns

Interview several related episodes together:

inkwell fetch URL1 --interview --max-questions 3
inkwell fetch URL2 --interview --max-questions 3
inkwell fetch URL3 --interview --max-questions 3

Troubleshooting

"ANTHROPIC_API_KEY not set"

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-key-here

Interview Cost Too High

Use fewer questions:

inkwell fetch URL --interview --max-questions 3

Or set a config limit:

interview:
  max_cost_per_interview: 0.20

Questions Not Relevant

Add custom guidelines in config (see above).

Next Steps