| ---
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| license: other
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| license_name: polyform-noncommercial-1.0.0
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| license_link: https://polyformproject.org/licenses/noncommercial/1.0.0/
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| pretty_name: "sharpen-first - sharpen the axe before the agent starts cutting"
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| language:
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| - en
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| - zh
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| tags:
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| - agent-skill
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| - agent-skills
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| - claude-skill
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| - claude-code
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| - skill
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| - agentskills
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| - prompt-engineering
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| task_categories:
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| - text-generation
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| size_categories:
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| - n<1K
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| viewer: false
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| ---
|
|
|
| > **sharpen-first** - Sharpen the axe before cutting wood - fool-proof requirement clarification for AI agents.
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| >
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| > **Mirrored in three places, same version everywhere:**
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| > [Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/datasets/LucioLiu/sharpen-first) (you are here) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/LucioLiu/sharpen-first) · [GitHub](https://github.com/LucioLiu/sharpen-first)
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| >
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| > **Get the files** - GitLab is the most reliable plain-git route:
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| >
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| > ```bash
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| > git clone https://gitlab.com/LucioLiu/sharpen-first.git
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| >
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| > # or from this page
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| > hf download LucioLiu/sharpen-first --repo-type dataset --local-dir ./sharpen-first
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| > ```
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| >
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| > Then drop the folder into your agent's skills directory - `~/.claude/skills/sharpen-first/` for Claude Code, `~/.agents/skills/sharpen-first/` for Codex, or your client's equivalent.
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| >
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| > *Note: links to github.com inside the text below point to the GitHub mirror; if one does not resolve, use the GitLab mirror above - it carries the same content.*
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| >
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| > **Licence: PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0** - the `LICENSE` file in this repo is authoritative.
|
|
|
| ---
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| **English** | [简体中文](README.zh-CN.md)
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|
|
| # sharpen-first · sharpen the axe 🔪
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|
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| > Sharpen the axe before cutting wood — fool-proof requirement clarification for AI agents.
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|
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| Ever told an AI "make me one of those… you know, the thing" and gotten back a confident wall of output that's nothing like what you meant?
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|
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| **The problem usually isn't that the model is dumb — it's that the requirement is mush.** sharpen-first is a "requirement clarification" capability you install on an AI agent: when your goal is ambiguous, a big task has no success criteria, or you yourself say "I haven't really thought this through," the agent stops guessing and instead uses a **fool-proof questioning method** to sharpen the requirement with you — before it starts working.
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|
|
| ## What it looks like (30-second tour)
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|
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| ```
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| You: make me one of those intro pages, something nice-looking
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| AI: (sharpen-first triggers) Question 1: what's this intro page for?
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| A. Product homepage (recommended — fits your recent project)
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| B. Personal résumé / portfolio
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| C. Event flyer landing page
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| You: whatever, your call
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| AI: (doesn't push back, adopts the recommendation and flags it as an assumption)
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| Got it — going with the product homepage, flagged as [Assumption].
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| Question 2: … (up to 5 questions, then wraps up)
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| 📋 Consensus sheet
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| [Goal] … [Out of scope] … [Success criteria] …
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| [Key assumptions] Product homepage (you didn't confirm this — check here first if it's wrong)
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| [Open items] …
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| I'll start once you confirm.
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| ```
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|
|
| ## Core mechanics (why it's fool-proof)
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|
|
| | Mechanism | What it fixes |
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| |---|---|
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| | **Max 5 questions, multiple-choice first, every question carries a recommendation** | People who struggle to articulate can't answer open questions well, but they can pick from options |
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| | **Answer "whatever / don't know" → adopt the recommendation + flag [Assumption], never press twice** | Never grinds a user down |
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| | **Small tasks take a "guess-and-confirm" shortcut, one line and move on** | No five-question interrogation for trivial asks (over-sharpening is an explicit anti-pattern) |
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| | **Idea not yet formed → upgrade from "asking" to "helping you think"** (restate as 2-3 directions for the user to pick from) | When there's genuinely no answer in the user's head yet, pure questioning just draws blanks |
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| | **Two wrap-up modes**: a consensus sheet (start working directly) / a seven-section prompt (take it elsewhere to feed another AI, assumptions never evaporate) | Covers both downstream needs |
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| | **Course-correction after work starts**: any drift from the consensus sheet forces a stop-and-realign, with the cost of switching spelled out | Fixes "the big project drifts further off course the longer it runs" |
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| | **Blind-spot probing** (added in 1.2): before picking a question, ask yourself "what is he least sure about / what's the biggest omission / what hasn't he noticed" | The four core elements only ask "what do you want" — blind-spot probing asks "what haven't you seen" — otherwise the consensus sheet just inherits your blind spots as-is |
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| | **Deep-grill mode** (added in 1.2, opt-in): say "grill me / interrogate me" → the 5-question cap lifts, and it interrogates branch by branch down a decision tree until real consensus is reached | Fool-proofing protects people who struggle to articulate; deep-grill serves people who actively want to be interrogated — it only kicks in when you say so |
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|
|
| ## Install
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|
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| **Option 1 · GitHub CLI (recommended, auto-updating)**
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| ```
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| gh skill install LucioLiu/sharpen-first sharpen-first --agent claude-code --scope user
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| ```
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|
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| **Option 2 · Manual**: copy this repo's `SKILL.md` to `~/.claude/skills/sharpen-first/SKILL.md`. (Note: manual copies have no update channel — re-copy by hand when a new version ships.) Chinese-speaking users should copy [`SKILL.zh-CN.md`](SKILL.zh-CN.md) instead and rename it to `SKILL.md` locally.
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|
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| **Other tools (Cursor / Codex / any LLM)**: `SKILL.md` is itself a complete, portable markdown guide — feed it to your tool as a rules document.
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|
|
| ## How it triggers
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|
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| No commands to remember once installed — the agent judges three signals on its own (a goal with multiple readings / a big task with no standard / you saying you haven't thought it through) and triggers automatically. You can also just say **"sharpen first"** to force it, or say **"grill me / interrogate me"** to enter deep-grill mode (uncapped interrogation until real consensus).
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|
|
| ## Lineage & credit
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|
|
| Combines [obra/superpowers](https://github.com/obra/superpowers)'s `brainstorming` (one question at a time / multiple-choice first / options carry trade-offs) with [github/spec-kit](https://github.com/github/spec-kit)'s `/speckit.clarify` (coverage scanning / impact-ranked ordering / a 5-question cap) — both were built for writing code; sharpen-first is built for "any task that's unclear." Five extreme-scenario walkthroughs were run at design time, but the raw transcripts weren't published with the repo, so that alone can't be cited as proof current behavior has been tested; the stable evaluation cases are not published in this repo, and they stay `not-run` until an independent agent has actually run them. Version 1.2 absorbed the deep-grill interrogation playbook from the [mattpocock/skills](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills) `grilling` family (branch-by-branch decision-tree questioning / facts-vs-decisions boundary / dependency-ordered question batching), and introduced the blind-spot probing engine.
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|
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| Part of the capability-block architecture behind the [Nuwa](https://github.com/LucioLiu/nuwa) digital-employee framework, usable standalone — more blocks live in that repo (not in this folder).
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|
|
| ## Companion blocks (sibling skills, take what you need)
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|
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| - [dont-reinvent](https://github.com/LucioLiu/dont-reinvent) — found out mid-clarification that the agent lacks a capability? Look for an existing wheel before building one.
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| - [handoff-protocol](https://github.com/LucioLiu/handoff-protocol) — in a multi-agent team, the handoff discipline for delegating work once a consensus sheet is settled.
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|
|
| ## Version & updates
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|
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| Current version **1.2.0** (see `.claude-plugin/plugin.json`). Updates are always published to this repo; `gh skill install` users run `gh skill update sharpen-first` to upgrade, manual-copy users should revisit this page and compare version numbers.
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|
|
| ## Verification boundary
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|
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| The unified structural test entry point and the standalone behavioral case bundle are **not published in this repository yet** — don't expect a `tests` or `evals` directory in what you installed. Passing structural tests would not be the same as the agent's behavior passing anyway: the two stable behavioral cases stay `not-run` until an independent subject + judge leave a receipt.
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|
|
| ## License
|
|
|
| [PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0](LICENSE) — free for personal and non-commercial use.
|
|
|
| ---
|
|
|
| > Both language editions are maintained in sync. If they ever diverge, the **Chinese edition** is authoritative — please open an [issue](https://github.com/LucioLiu/sharpen-first/issues) if you spot one.
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|
|
