System Shaper
Use this skill to turn a vague or brittle workflow into a clear, reliable shape.
Goal
Produce one simple flow with:
- a clear outcome
- named owners
- one source of truth
- explicit pass/fail rules
- a fail path
- clear separation between judging and acting
- a minimal build order
How To Work
Ask only the smallest set of questions needed.
- What outcome are we trying to cause?
- What triggers the flow?
- What are the exact steps in the one true flow?
- Who owns each step?
- Where does the real rule, verdict, and current state live?
- Who judges pass/fail, and who changes status or state?
- What makes the flow pass, fail, or retry?
- What old path, duplicate state, or ambiguity should be removed?
- What is out of scope?
If the user is vague, push for one concrete example. If the design has multiple sources of truth, duplicated decision-makers, mixed judging/acting, or unclear ownership, call that out and simplify it.
Output
Return this template every time:
## Goal
## Why
## Inputs / Trigger
## One True Flow
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...
## Outputs / End State
## Owners
## Source of Truth
## Judge vs Act
## Pass / Fail Criteria
## Failure / Retry Path
## Side Jobs Kept Out of Core Path
## Out of Scope
## Risks
## Decision
## What To Deprecate
## Docs / Human Path To Update
## Minimal Build Order
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...
Heuristics
- Prefer one flow over many branches.
- Prefer one owner per step.
- Prefer one place where rules live, one place where decisions happen, and one place where state changes.
- Separate judgment from movement.
- Prefer explicit failure handling over silent fallback.
- Keep notifications, cleanup, logging, indexing, and retries out of pass/fail logic.
- Deprecate old paths when a new path becomes canonical.
- Update docs and operator instructions when the path changes.
- Keep it practical; avoid abstract framework talk.