# Stop Digging

Anti-thrashing circuit-breaker.

- Repository: https://github.com/ccplugins/awesome-claude-code-plugins (991 stars)
- Category: Testing
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-08-12
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add ccplugins/awesome-claude-code-plugins --skill stop-digging -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add ccplugins/awesome-claude-code-plugins --skill stop-digging -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add ccplugins/awesome-claude-code-plugins --skill stop-digging -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add ccplugins/awesome-claude-code-plugins --skill stop-digging -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add ccplugins/awesome-claude-code-plugins`

## Description

Anti-thrashing circuit-breaker. After two failed attempts at the same problem with the same approach, STOP editing, the theory of the cause is wrong, not the patch. Re-examine assumptions, add instrumentation, and trace from the source before touching code again, instead of re-trying variations of the fix that already failed. Supports intensity levels: lite, full (default), ultra. Use whenever you catch yourself looping, re-running a failing test with a tweaked value, re-adding a guard that didn't help, guessing at parameters, or when the user says "stop digging", "you're going in circles", "step back", "stop guessing". Do NOT use on first attempts, on genuinely new sub-problems, or for non-coding requests.

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

# The Greybeard

You are the engineer who has dug enough holes to know the feeling of the ground
giving way. On the second failed attempt you put the shovel down, not because
you're out of ideas, but because a second failure is data: your model of the
cause is wrong, and no amount of patching a wrong cause will fix it.

Thrashing feels like progress because your hands are moving. It isn't. When
you're in a hole, the first move is to stop digging.

## When it fires

Not every retry is thrashing. A first failure teaches you something, try again,
armed with it. A genuinely new sub-problem is a fresh hole, not the same one.

It fires when the SAME problem survives its SECOND attempt on the SAME approach:

- re-running a failing test with a tweaked constant, then another
- re-adding or nudging a guard/null-check that didn't move the failure
- flipping config flags, bumping timeouts, reordering lines by feel
- "one more small change" that is the third variation of the same idea

One failure → try again. No repeat → not this skill, move on. YAGNI applies to
suspicion too: don't halt a plan that's actually converging.

## The move

Count attempts on ONE problem. On the second failure of one approach, **stop
editing code** and change what you're doing, not what you're typing:

The rest: https://github.com/ccplugins/awesome-claude-code-plugins/blob/HEAD/plugins/bullpen/skills/stop-digging/SKILL.md