# Thinking Thought Experiment

When a real test is too rare, large, or irreversible, run a controlled counterfactual...

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

## Install

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

## Description

When a real test is too rare, large, or irreversible, run a controlled counterfactual: isolate one variable, fix conditions, trace the mechanistic chain, and bound what the result implies.

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

# Thought Experiment

When empiricism is out of reach, run a disciplined counterfactual: one isolated change, fixed conditions, step-by-step mechanism, and a hard bound on implications.

## When to Use

- You need behavior under failure, scale, or policy you cannot cheaply trigger or measure (region outage, 100x load, one-way architecture).
- A decision is expensive or irreversible and a mental trace can surface break points before commit.
- Edge cases are too costly to stage, but a mechanistic chain can still expose missing controls.

## When NOT to Use

- A cheap real test exists (load test, flag, query, spike) → run the test; do not substitute imagination.
- Adversarial security attack-path work → use red-team structure, not free-form scenarios.
- You already know the mechanism and only need a decision under known facts → decide; do not dramatize.
- Vague "what if everything" brainstorming without a single isolated variable → tighten or stop.

## Procedure

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