Thinking Steel Manning
Before rejecting a proposal or reflexively agreeing, build the strongest faithful...
Install
npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-steel-manning -g -a claude-code -y- Repository
- tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills1.7k
- Category
- Engineering
- Updated
- 3mo ago
- License
- MIT
- Context cost
- Lightabout 784 tokens
- Runs scripts
- No, instructions only
What it does
Before rejecting a proposal or reflexively agreeing, build the strongest faithful opposing case, state agreement conditions, then update or reaffirm.
Steel-Manning
Core rule: Engage the best form of the opposing case, not a weak one. If your position survives that, reaffirm; if not, update.
When to Use
- About to reject a proposal, design, or alternative approach.
- Inclined to agree with the user/plan and risk sycophancy, construct the best case against first.
- Design review, architecture debate, or conflict where trade-offs are real.
- Validating your own preferred decision before locking it (strongest-countercase check).
When NOT to Use
- Settled fact, security anti-pattern, or violated hard requirement, correct it; do not invent a defense of what is wrong.
- You already agree for stated, weighed reasons, do not perform a fake debate.
- Trivial or fully reversible choices where deliberation cost exceeds downside.
- Live emergency, act first; steel-man in the post-incident review.
- Need definition/assumption cleanup, not opposition, use socratic.
- Need failure scenarios for a plan, use pre-mortem; need attacker paths, use red-team.
