design-debate

Stress-test unwritten decisions by spawning opposing subagent roles and synthesizing a validated verdict.

Updated Apr 9, 2014
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/thoroc/thoroc.github.io --skill design-debate-thoroc
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: design-debate
Source: https://github.com/thoroc/thoroc.github.io/tree/main/.agents/skills/design-debate
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/thoroc/thoroc.github.io --skill design-debate-thoroc

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill requires pyyaml, and includes scripts (resource) and references (resource) and assets (resource) components.

What problem does it solve? Deciding whether to pursue an idea often gets reduced to a single unchallenged opinion or polite consensus. This Skill forces genuine disagreement between independent subagents in opposing roles, grounded in real repository facts, and produces a synthesized verdict instead of a list of opinions. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Grounded Debate Setup: Investigates actual scale, consumers, and blast radius in the repo before any position is assigned, so arguments rest on facts rather than assumptions. - Opposing Role Assignment: Spawns Advocate, Skeptic, and optional Migration/Risk subagents in parallel with an identical brief, ensuring differences come from role rather than unequal information. - Schema-Validated Verdicts: Synthesizes a proceed, do_not_proceed_for_now, or proceed_with_modification verdict, validates it against a JSON schema, and persists it as a finding or known-issue with a concrete revisit trigger. - Use Case: Before committing to replacing hand-rolled retry logic with a library, run a debate that investigates call sites, assigns opposing reviewers, and delivers a decided recommendation with the losing arguments recorded. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to run a design debate on whether the team should adopt a specific change, giving the precise A-vs-B decision you want stress-tested.

Frequently Asked Questions about design-debate

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I get genuine pushback on a technical decision before writing a plan?▼

State the decision as a precise yes/no or A-vs-B choice, then run a design debate that spawns Advocate and Skeptic subagents in parallel with an identical fact-based brief. The result is a synthesized verdict naming which argument held up, not a list of opinions.

What is the difference between design-debate and plan-review?▼

Design-debate evaluates an unwritten idea before any plan exists, using opposing roles to decide whether to proceed. Plan-review audits an already-written plan file through complementary Technical, Strategic, and Risk lenses, so it converges rather than disagrees.

When should I not use a multi-agent design debate?▼

Skip it when a plan file already exists, when the question is still too vague to be debatable, or when there is only one reasonable answer. Manufacturing debate where none is warranted produces the appearance of thoroughness without real value.

Why must debate reviewers be spawned in parallel instead of sequentially?▼

The reviews are fully independent, so spawning them in a single message finishes in the time of the slowest one rather than the sum of all of them. Sequential spawning triples wall-clock time with no benefit to quality.

What happens when a design debate verdict is do_not_proceed_for_now?▼

The verdict must include a concrete, checkable revisit trigger such as a metric crossing a threshold, never a vague revisit later. The outcome is then recorded as a known-issue with that trigger as its fix condition, and the schema validation script enforces the trigger's presence.