# Tells

Internal genjutsu module - the reflexes a model falls into when nothing asked for them...

- Repository: https://github.com/AThevon/genjutsu (721 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add AThevon/genjutsu --skill tells -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add AThevon/genjutsu --skill tells -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add AThevon/genjutsu --skill tells -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add AThevon/genjutsu --skill tells -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add AThevon/genjutsu`

## Description

Internal genjutsu module - the reflexes a model falls into when nothing asked for them (invented data, decorative filler, converged layouts, hollow copy), each named by its evidence and a question back to the validated thesis. Loaded by cast and paint on web stacks, after the thesis gate.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Tells

A tell is a default the thesis never asked for.

That sentence is the module. The rest explains how to recognise one, how to write one down, and
what to do with it once found. Nothing here names a replacement: a replacement would only be
the next default, and genjutsu does not ship a look.

## The rule: the thesis is the only authority

A pattern is a tell when the validated thesis does not name it. Nothing else decides.

- **Named means named.** The thesis has to name the pattern itself: "the header shows the Paris
  and Tokyo clocks, because the studio works across both". A mood word unlocks nothing.
  "Editorial", "agency", "premium" or "bold" do not name a numbered eyebrow or a display serif,
  and most tells are precisely the clichés those words summon. In practice the pattern is named
  in the thesis's `Allowed patterns:` line, which cast and paint write under the thesis before the
  user validates it.
- **An explicit request goes through the thesis.** When the brief asks for something specific (a
  weather strip, a version badge, a live counter), write it into the thesis by name before you
  build it. The thesis is what allows it, not the brief. A request that never reached the thesis
  still reads as a tell at audit time, because afterwards nobody can tell the two apart.
- **An unvalidated thesis allows nothing.** When no human could validate the thesis, every tell
  counts, and the report says why.

## How an entry is written

Every entry, here and in the references, has exactly three fields. Never a fourth.

- **Marker** - what you can see: a literal string, a pattern, a structure.
- **Why it is a tell** - the model behaviour that produces it. Not a judgement of taste.
- **The question** - one question that sends you back to the thesis or to the project's own
  data. Never a replacement.

Report a tell in the same shape: the marker as found (`file:line` and the text), then your answer
to its question.

## The four families

The rest: https://github.com/AThevon/genjutsu/blob/HEAD/skills/_jutsu/tells/SKILL.md