Files
skills/skills/kvb-think-dialectic/SKILL.md
T
Kevin Veen-BirkenbachandClaude Opus 5.5 b67d9f233d feat(kvb-git-update-branches): merge main into open PRs and branches
branches.py lists every open branch of the remote with its lag behind the base and whether it belongs to the operator: a pull request by the operator's login, or a branch whose own commits all carry the operator's email; merged branches drop out and fork pull requests are marked. The skill merges the base into the operator's own branches directly and into others only after consent through kvb-think-listen, never rebases, aborts on a conflict for kvb-git-merge-fix, and hands every push and gh pr update-branch to kvb-org-operator. tests/test_update_branches.py builds a bare origin with own, foreign, merged, PR and fork cases. Operator order 2026-11-03; three descriptions trimmed for the listing budget.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-11-03 16:51:46 +01:00

2.7 KiB

name, description
name description
kvb-think-dialectic Thesis, independent skeptic antithesis and synthesis, iterated to ~99% confidence. Trigger for any root cause, design or decision that is uncertain and expensive to get wrong.

Reach the truth by dialectic, not by first guess. Do not stop at a plausible answer; drive the loop until a thesis survives every attack at ~99% confidence.

Before you start: listen

Invoke the kvb-think-listen skill first. Do not begin the dialectic until you have gathered every requirement, constraint, and success criterion the task needs. A dialectic run on the wrong question wastes the whole loop. Return to kvb-think-listen mid-loop whenever an objection turns on a fact only the operator holds.

When another skill or an autonomous run (kvb-org-robot, kvb-ci-observe, a loop) invoked this skill, derive the requirements from the task and the evidence instead of asking; ask only when an operator-only fact blocks the conclusion.

The loop

  1. Thesis. Form the strongest initial claim you can, grounded in evidence, not assumption. Deep-inspect every source you can reach: the source code and git history; the running containers (exec, logs, inspect through whatever make or CLI helpers the project exposes); CI logs and artifacts; tests; docs. Cite file:line and command output — never a bare assertion.
  2. Antithesis. Spawn MULTIPLE independent skeptics (parallel subagents or a workflow, on the default model as the kvb-org-perform skill requires) whose only job is to REFUTE the thesis. Each re-inspects the sources itself and defaults to "refuted" on any concrete hole. Give diverse skeptics diverse lenses: correctness, an alternate mechanism, does-it- reproduce, does-the-fix-break-something-else.
  3. Synthesis. Fold every surviving objection back into a refined thesis. A skeptic that found a real hole replaces or corrects the thesis; a skeptic that failed to refute raises confidence.
  4. Iterate. Repeat thesis → antithesis → synthesis until a full skeptic round finds no new hole and the thesis holds at ~99%. If confidence stalls below 99%, name the exact residual and the evidence that would close it, then go get that evidence (more inspection, or kvb-think-listen for an operator-only fact) and loop again.

Rules

  • Executed evidence beats reasoning: run it, exec into it, read the log. A thesis backed only by static reasoning caps in the low nineties.
  • The antithesis MUST be independent — never let the thesis-author be its own sole skeptic.
  • Diversity over redundancy: skeptics with different lenses catch failure modes identical skeptics miss.
  • Report the final thesis with its evidence AND the losing objections, so the operator sees why it survived.