# Thinking Bounded Rationality

Use when search or investigation could run forever.

- Repository: https://github.com/tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills (1690 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-08-07
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-bounded-rationality -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-bounded-rationality -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-bounded-rationality -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-bounded-rationality -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills`

## Description

Use when search or investigation could run forever. Set an explicit good-enough threshold first, then stop at the first option that clears it.

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

# Bounded Rationality

Under finite tool, context, and time budgets, stop at the first option that meets a predeclared aspiration level. Optimize only when the good-to-best gap is worth the remaining budget.

## When to Use

- Search or option comparison has no natural endpoint and could consume the turn budget.
- Multiple options would clear the requirement and further comparison has diminishing returns.
- The decision is reversible or low-stakes relative to more search.
- You are gathering context beyond what the decision needs to ship.

## When NOT to Use

- Irreversible or high-stakes choices (data loss, security, migrations, public commitments) where the good-to-best gap is material.
- Correctness gates: tests, security checks, and "did the fix work?" need the right answer, not a sufficient-looking one.
- One cheap lookup would settle the fact, do it; do not satisfice past it.
- The aspiration level cannot be stated, clarify the requirement first.

## Procedure

1. **State decision and budget.** Name the choice, residual tool/context/time budget, and reversibility.
2. **Set aspiration before searching.** Write concrete pass/fail criteria for "good enough." Do not evaluate until the threshold is explicit.
3. **Search sequentially.** Score options in encounter order against the threshold only. Skip full matrices unless step 1 marked high-stakes/irreversible.
4. **Stop at first adequate.** When an option clears every criterion, select it immediately.
5. **Handle search failure without moving the goalposts.** If nothing clears after the pre-set cap, preserve the threshold and report no adequate option. Relax only a criterion predeclared as non-load-bearing, record the relaxation, and resume within a new cap; never raise the bar after failure.
6. **Commit.** Record choice and residual uncertainty; spend remaining budget on execution, not re-ranking.

The rest: https://github.com/tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/thinking-bounded-rationality/SKILL.md