diff --git a/examples/README.md b/examples/README.md
index 47f458a..f158943 100644
--- a/examples/README.md
+++ b/examples/README.md
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@ Reusable shapes for common multi-agent problems.
 | [`patterns/research-aggregation`](patterns/research-aggregation.ts) | Multi-source research collated by a synthesis agent. |
 | [`patterns/cost-tiered-pipeline`](patterns/cost-tiered-pipeline.ts) | Run the same four-stage pipeline twice to compare flagship vs tiered model cost. |
 | [`patterns/agent-handoff`](patterns/agent-handoff.ts) | Synchronous sub-agent delegation via `delegate_to_agent`. |
-
 ## cookbook — use-case recipes
 
 End-to-end examples framed around a concrete problem (meeting summarization, translation QA, competitive monitoring, etc.) rather than a single orchestration primitive. Lighter bar than `production/`: no tests or pinned model versions required. Good entry point if you want to see how the patterns compose on a real task.
@@ -59,6 +58,7 @@ End-to-end examples framed around a concrete problem (meeting summarization, tra
 | [`cookbook/contract-review-dag`](cookbook/contract-review-dag.ts) | 4-task DAG (extract → compliance-check + summary → notify) with step-level retry. Run normally or with `FORCE_FAIL=task2` to exercise retry. |
 | [`cookbook/incident-postmortem-dag`](cookbook/incident-postmortem-dag.ts) | 5-task DAG with three parallel root tasks (log patterns + deploy correlation + blast radius) feeding root-cause hypothesis and final postmortem synthesis. |
 | [`cookbook/competitive-monitoring`](cookbook/competitive-monitoring.ts) | Parallel source monitoring (Twitter/Reddit/News), contradiction detection, and aggregated intelligence reporting. |
+| [`cookbook/personalized-interview-simulator`](cookbook/personalized-interview-simulator.ts) | Interactive interviewer loop with observer flags, shared memory, and structured debrief. |
 
 ## integrations — external systems
 
diff --git a/examples/cookbook/personalized-interview-simulator.ts b/examples/cookbook/personalized-interview-simulator.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d978fdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/cookbook/personalized-interview-simulator.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,274 @@
+/**
+ * Personalized Interview Simulator (Interviewer + Observer)
+ *
+ * Demonstrates:
+ * - A stateful `interviewer` agent using `Agent.prompt()` across turns
+ * - A stateless `observer` agent that reads full transcript context between turns
+ * - Manual `SharedMemory` seeding and prompt injection outside `runTeam()` / `runTasks()`
+ * - Human input handled at app level with `readline`
+ * - Structured debrief via Zod at the end of the interview loop
+ *
+ * Run:
+ *   npx tsx examples/cookbook/personalized-interview-simulator.ts
+ *
+ * Prerequisites:
+ *   ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var must be set.
+ *
+ * Optional:
+ *   Set INTERVIEW_CANDIDATE_DIR to point at your own materials directory.
+ *   Expected files:
+ *   - resume.md
+ *   - project-notes.md
+ *   - code.ts
+ *   - job-description.md
+ */
+
+import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs'
+import path from 'node:path'
+import { createInterface } from 'node:readline/promises'
+import { stdin as input, stdout as output } from 'node:process'
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url'
+import { z } from 'zod'
+import { Agent, SharedMemory, ToolExecutor, ToolRegistry } from '../../src/index.js'
+import type { AgentConfig } from '../../src/types.js'
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Candidate materials
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url))
+const DEFAULT_CANDIDATE_DIR = path.join(__dirname, '../fixtures/interview-candidate')
+const CANDIDATE_DIR = process.env.INTERVIEW_CANDIDATE_DIR ?? DEFAULT_CANDIDATE_DIR
+const MAX_TURNS = 10
+
+function loadText(fileName: string): string {
+  return readFileSync(path.join(CANDIDATE_DIR, fileName), 'utf-8').trim()
+}
+
+const resumeText = loadText('resume.md')
+const projectNotes = loadText('project-notes.md')
+const codeSnippet = loadText('code.ts')
+const jobDescription = loadText('job-description.md')
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Structured debrief
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+const DebriefSchema = z.object({
+  questions_asked: z.array(
+    z.object({
+      question: z.string(),
+      why_it_mattered: z.string(),
+    }),
+  ),
+  weak_spots: z.array(z.string()),
+  strong_spots: z.array(z.string()),
+  overall_assessment: z.object({
+    recommendation: z.enum(['strong-hire', 'hire', 'lean-hire', 'lean-no-hire', 'no-hire']),
+    summary: z.string(),
+  }),
+})
+type Debrief = z.infer<typeof DebriefSchema>
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Helpers
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+function buildAgent(config: AgentConfig): Agent {
+  const registry = new ToolRegistry()
+  const executor = new ToolExecutor(registry)
+  return new Agent(config, registry, executor)
+}
+
+async function readlineFromCandidate(prompt: string, rl: ReturnType<typeof createInterface>): Promise<string> {
+  console.log('\n' + '='.repeat(60))
+  console.log('INTERVIEWER')
+  console.log('='.repeat(60))
+  console.log(prompt)
+  console.log()
+
+  const answer = await rl.question('Candidate > ')
+  return answer.trim()
+}
+
+function isExitAnswer(answer: string): boolean {
+  const normalized = answer.trim().toLowerCase()
+  return normalized === 'exit' || normalized === 'quit'
+}
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Agent configs
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+if (!process.env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) {
+  console.log('[skip] This example needs ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.')
+  process.exit(0)
+}
+
+const interviewerConfig: AgentConfig = {
+  name: 'interviewer',
+  provider: 'anthropic',
+  model: 'claude-sonnet-4-6',
+  systemPrompt: `You are a senior technical interviewer.
+
+You are running a personalized interview grounded in:
+- the candidate's resume
+- project notes
+- a code sample
+- the target job description
+- observer flags written after each turn
+
+Rules:
+- Ask exactly one question per turn.
+- Prefer probing follow-ups over switching topics too early.
+- Use the role expectations and candidate materials together.
+- If the observer flags a contradiction, vague answer, or missing dimension, use that.
+- Keep each question concise but sharp.
+- Do not answer your own question.
+- Do not output analysis, just the next interview question.`,
+  maxTurns: 2,
+  temperature: 0.3,
+}
+
+const observerConfig: AgentConfig = {
+  name: 'observer',
+  provider: 'anthropic',
+  model: 'claude-sonnet-4-6',
+  systemPrompt: `You are an interview observer.
+
+You will receive shared memory containing:
+- candidate resume
+- project notes
+- code sample
+- target job spec
+- the full interview transcript so far
+
+Write compact flags for the next interviewer turn.
+Focus on:
+- contradictions with candidate claims
+- vague or incomplete answers
+- important dimensions not yet tested
+- specific follow-up hooks hidden in the answer
+
+Output 3-6 short bullets. Be concrete. No prose introduction.`,
+  maxTurns: 1,
+  temperature: 0.2,
+}
+
+const reporterConfig: AgentConfig = {
+  name: 'reporter',
+  provider: 'anthropic',
+  model: 'claude-sonnet-4-6',
+  systemPrompt: `You are writing a compact interview debrief.
+
+Use the complete interview record to produce:
+- questions_asked: the most important questions and why each mattered
+- weak_spots: concise bullets for weak areas
+- strong_spots: concise bullets for strengths
+- overall_assessment: recommendation plus a short summary
+
+Return JSON only, matching the schema exactly.`,
+  maxTurns: 2,
+  temperature: 0.1,
+  outputSchema: DebriefSchema,
+}
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Seed memory
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+const mem = new SharedMemory()
+
+await mem.write('candidate', 'resume', resumeText)
+await mem.write('candidate', 'project-notes', projectNotes)
+await mem.write('candidate', 'code', codeSnippet)
+await mem.write('role', 'target-job-spec', jobDescription)
+
+const interviewer = buildAgent(interviewerConfig)
+const observer = buildAgent(observerConfig)
+const reporter = buildAgent(reporterConfig)
+
+const rl = createInterface({ input, output })
+
+console.log('Personalized Interview Simulator')
+console.log('='.repeat(60))
+console.log(`Candidate materials: ${CANDIDATE_DIR}`)
+console.log('Type "exit" or "quit" to stop early.')
+console.log()
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Interactive loop
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+let answer = ''
+let turnsCompleted = 0
+
+try {
+  for (let turn = 0; turn < MAX_TURNS; turn++) {
+    const ctx = await mem.getSummary()
+    const result = await interviewer.prompt(
+      turn === 0
+        ? [
+            `Context:\n${ctx}`,
+            'Ask the most probing opening question you can justify from the materials and role.',
+          ].join('\n\n')
+        : [
+            `Context:\n${ctx}`,
+            `Candidate answer:\n${answer}`,
+            'Ask the next question.',
+          ].join('\n\n'),
+    )
+
+    if (!result.success) {
+      console.error('Interviewer failed:', result.output)
+      process.exit(1)
+    }
+
+    answer = await readlineFromCandidate(result.output, rl)
+    if (isExitAnswer(answer)) {
+      console.log('\nInterview stopped by candidate.')
+      break
+    }
+
+    turnsCompleted++
+    await mem.write('interviewer', `turn-${turn}`, `Q: ${result.output}\nA: ${answer}`)
+
+    const observerResult = await observer.run(
+      [
+        'Review transcript and candidate materials. Write flags for the next turn.',
+        await mem.getSummary(),
+      ].join('\n\n'),
+    )
+
+    if (!observerResult.success) {
+      console.error('Observer failed:', observerResult.output)
+      process.exit(1)
+    }
+
+    await mem.write('observer', 'flags', observerResult.output)
+  }
+} finally {
+  rl.close()
+}
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Structured debrief
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+console.log('\n' + '='.repeat(60))
+console.log('DEBRIEF')
+console.log('='.repeat(60))
+
+const debriefResult = await reporter.run(`Summarize the full interview:\n\n${await mem.getSummary()}`)
+
+if (!debriefResult.success || !debriefResult.structured) {
+  console.error('Debrief generation failed:', debriefResult.output)
+  process.exit(1)
+}
+
+const debrief = debriefResult.structured as Debrief
+
+console.log(JSON.stringify(debrief, null, 2))
+console.log()
+console.log(`Turns completed: ${turnsCompleted}`)
+console.log('Done.')
diff --git a/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/code.ts b/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/code.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b89afe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/code.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+import type { Request, Response } from 'express'
+import { pool } from './db.js'
+
+export async function approveExpense(req: Request, res: Response): Promise<void> {
+  const expenseId = req.params.id
+  const approverId = req.body.approverId
+
+  if (!expenseId || !approverId) {
+    res.status(400).json({ error: 'missing fields' })
+    return
+  }
+
+  const client = await pool.connect()
+  try {
+    await client.query('BEGIN')
+
+    const expense = await client.query(
+      'SELECT id, status, amount_cents FROM expenses WHERE id = $1',
+      [expenseId],
+    )
+
+    if (expense.rowCount === 0) {
+      await client.query('ROLLBACK')
+      res.status(404).json({ error: 'expense not found' })
+      return
+    }
+
+    await client.query(
+      'UPDATE expenses SET status = $1, approved_by = $2, approved_at = NOW() WHERE id = $3',
+      ['approved', approverId, expenseId],
+    )
+
+    await client.query(
+      'INSERT INTO audit_log(entity_id, action, actor_id) VALUES ($1, $2, $3)',
+      [expenseId, 'expense_approved', approverId],
+    )
+
+    await client.query('COMMIT')
+    res.status(200).json({ ok: true })
+  } catch (error) {
+    await client.query('ROLLBACK')
+    res.status(500).json({ error: 'internal error' })
+  } finally {
+    client.release()
+  }
+}
diff --git a/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/job-description.md b/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/job-description.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..13e90ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/job-description.md
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Target Job Spec
+
+Role: Backend Engineer (Payments and Workflow Systems)
+
+Expectations:
+- Strong fundamentals in API design, database transactions, and failure handling
+- Able to reason about idempotency, retries, concurrency, and data consistency
+- Comfortable explaining tradeoffs between implementation simplicity and operational robustness
+- Can debug production issues using logs, metrics, and traces
+
+Interview focus:
+- project ownership and decision making
+- correctness under retries and duplicated external events
+- transaction boundaries and race conditions
+- scaling path from in-process jobs to durable queues
diff --git a/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/project-notes.md b/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/project-notes.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3d734c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/project-notes.md
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Project Notes
+
+Current showcase project:
+- Team expense management platform for small businesses
+- Backend written in TypeScript with Express and PostgreSQL
+- Background jobs process receipt OCR results and reimbursement approvals
+
+Implementation details worth probing:
+- Uses Redis for short-lived deduplication keys on webhook ingestion
+- Exposes `/expenses/:id/approve` for manager approval actions
+- Runs nightly reconciliation jobs against third-party accounting exports
+
+Known tradeoffs:
+- No queue system yet; background work is triggered in-process
+- Approval flow is eventually consistent during third-party sync windows
diff --git a/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/resume.md b/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/resume.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20ad4f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/fixtures/interview-candidate/resume.md
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# Candidate Resume
+
+Name: Maya Lin
+
+Summary:
+- 2 years of backend-focused software engineering experience
+- Primary stack: TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis
+- Comfortable with Docker, CI pipelines, and REST API design
+
+Selected claims:
+- Led the redesign of an internal notification service that reduced alert latency by 40%
+- Built idempotent payment retry logic for failed checkout webhooks
+- Improved production incident response by adding structured logging and tracing
diff --git a/tests/personalized-interview-simulator.test.ts b/tests/personalized-interview-simulator.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4cbce6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/personalized-interview-simulator.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest'
+import { z } from 'zod'
+import { Agent } from '../src/agent/agent.js'
+import { AgentRunner } from '../src/agent/runner.js'
+import { SharedMemory } from '../src/memory/shared.js'
+import { ToolExecutor } from '../src/tool/executor.js'
+import { ToolRegistry } from '../src/tool/framework.js'
+import type { AgentConfig, LLMAdapter, LLMResponse } from '../src/types.js'
+
+const DebriefSchema = z.object({
+  questions_asked: z.array(
+    z.object({
+      question: z.string(),
+      why_it_mattered: z.string(),
+    }),
+  ),
+  weak_spots: z.array(z.string()),
+  strong_spots: z.array(z.string()),
+  overall_assessment: z.object({
+    recommendation: z.enum(['strong-hire', 'hire', 'lean-hire', 'lean-no-hire', 'no-hire']),
+    summary: z.string(),
+  }),
+})
+
+function mockAdapter(responses: string[]): LLMAdapter {
+  let callIndex = 0
+  return {
+    name: 'mock',
+    async chat() {
+      const text = responses[callIndex++] ?? ''
+      return {
+        id: `mock-${callIndex}`,
+        content: [{ type: 'text' as const, text }],
+        model: 'mock-model',
+        stop_reason: 'end_turn',
+        usage: { input_tokens: 10, output_tokens: 20 },
+      } satisfies LLMResponse
+    },
+    async *stream() {
+      /* unused */
+    },
+  }
+}
+
+function buildMockAgent(config: AgentConfig, responses: string[]): Agent {
+  const adapter = mockAdapter(responses)
+  const registry = new ToolRegistry()
+  const executor = new ToolExecutor(registry)
+  const agent = new Agent(config, registry, executor)
+  const runner = new AgentRunner(adapter, registry, executor, {
+    model: config.model,
+    systemPrompt: config.systemPrompt,
+    maxTurns: config.maxTurns,
+    maxTokens: config.maxTokens,
+    temperature: config.temperature,
+    agentName: config.name,
+  })
+  ;(agent as any).runner = runner
+  return agent
+}
+
+describe('personalized interview simulator architecture', () => {
+  it('uses shared memory between interviewer turns and ends with structured debrief', async () => {
+    const mem = new SharedMemory()
+
+    await mem.write('candidate', 'resume', 'Built idempotent payment retry logic.')
+    await mem.write('candidate', 'project-notes', 'Uses Redis keys to deduplicate webhook events.')
+    await mem.write('candidate', 'code', 'POST /webhooks/stripe retries failed events.')
+    await mem.write('role', 'target-job-spec', 'Test idempotency, transactions, and failure handling.')
+
+    const interviewer = buildMockAgent(
+      {
+        name: 'interviewer',
+        model: 'mock-model',
+        systemPrompt: 'Ask one probing question at a time.',
+        maxTurns: 2,
+      },
+      [
+        'You mentioned idempotent retry logic. How did you prevent duplicate payment state transitions?',
+        'Walk me through the transaction boundary you chose when a webhook retry arrives mid-update.',
+      ],
+    )
+
+    const observer = buildMockAgent(
+      {
+        name: 'observer',
+        model: 'mock-model',
+        systemPrompt: 'Write compact observer flags.',
+        maxTurns: 1,
+      },
+      [
+        '- Candidate named idempotency keys but did not explain expiry choice.\n- Concurrency handling not yet tested.',
+        '- Transaction boundary explanation was good.\n- Still probe race conditions around audit logging.',
+      ],
+    )
+
+    const debriefPayload = {
+      questions_asked: [
+        {
+          question: 'How did you prevent duplicate payment state transitions?',
+          why_it_mattered: 'The role requires strong reasoning about idempotency under retries.',
+        },
+        {
+          question: 'What transaction boundary did you choose during webhook retries?',
+          why_it_mattered: 'The role expects correctness under concurrent updates.',
+        },
+      ],
+      weak_spots: [
+        'Did not justify idempotency key expiry tradeoff.',
+      ],
+      strong_spots: [
+        'Explained transaction boundaries clearly.',
+      ],
+      overall_assessment: {
+        recommendation: 'lean-hire',
+        summary: 'Good backend fundamentals with one notable gap around retry-window tradeoffs.',
+      },
+    }
+
+    const reporter = buildMockAgent(
+      {
+        name: 'reporter',
+        model: 'mock-model',
+        systemPrompt: 'Return a structured debrief.',
+        maxTurns: 2,
+        outputSchema: DebriefSchema,
+      },
+      [JSON.stringify(debriefPayload)],
+    )
+
+    let answer = ''
+    for (let turn = 0; turn < 2; turn++) {
+      const ctx = await mem.getSummary()
+      const prompt = turn === 0
+        ? `Context:\n${ctx}\n\nAsk the most probing opening question you can justify from the materials and role.`
+        : `Context:\n${ctx}\n\nCandidate answer:\n${answer}\n\nAsk the next question.`
+
+      const questionResult = await interviewer.prompt(prompt)
+      expect(questionResult.success).toBe(true)
+
+      answer = turn === 0
+        ? 'We used a Redis idempotency key keyed by provider event id before mutating payment state.'
+        : 'We wrapped the expense update and audit write in one database transaction.'
+
+      await mem.write('interviewer', `turn-${turn}`, `Q: ${questionResult.output}\nA: ${answer}`)
+
+      const observerResult = await observer.run(
+        `Review transcript and candidate materials; write flags for the next turn:\n${await mem.getSummary()}`,
+      )
+
+      expect(observerResult.success).toBe(true)
+      await mem.write('observer', 'flags', observerResult.output)
+    }
+
+    const summary = await mem.getSummary()
+    expect(summary).toContain('candidate')
+    expect(summary).toContain('role')
+    expect(summary).toContain('interviewer')
+    expect(summary).toContain('observer')
+    expect(summary).toContain('Still probe race conditions around audit logging')
+
+    const debrief = await reporter.run(`Summarize the full interview:\n${summary}`)
+    expect(debrief.success).toBe(true)
+    expect(debrief.structured).toBeDefined()
+    expect(DebriefSchema.parse(debrief.structured)).toEqual(debriefPayload)
+
+    const history = interviewer.getHistory()
+    expect(history.length).toBe(4)
+  })
+})