critical-thinking
Proactively challenge implementation plans, architecture decisions, and design assumptions. Use when reviewing plans, designs, or technical decisions. Verifies claims via web search, cross-references documentation, identifies risks and gaps, and surfaces hidden assumptions. Activates automatically when evaluating technical proposals.
verification-gate
Enforce mandatory pre-action verification checkpoints to prevent pattern-matching from overriding explicit reasoning. Use this skill when about to execute implementation actions (Bash, Write, Edit, MultiEdit) to verify hypothesis-action alignment. Blocks execution when hypothesis unverified or action targets different system than hypothesis identified. Critical for preventing cognitive dissonance where correct diagnosis leads to wrong implementation.
brainstorming
Use when creating or developing, before writing code or implementation plans - refines rough ideas into fully-formed designs through collaborative questioning, alternative exploration, and incremental validation.