cdeust/zetetic-team-subagents/problem-reframing
Claude Code and agent skill by cdeust/zetetic-team-subagents
- community
Checking that the SKILL.md file is still in the repository.
The question itself may be the bug. Use when a debate goes in circles, both options of a binary feel wrong, improving one parameter degrades another, "we're stuck" on a problem that resists direct attack, a metaphor is doing hidden work in the architecture, or a trade-off is being denied rather than made.
Install
npx vskill@latest install cdeust/zetetic-team-subagents/problem-reframingSKILL.md
Problem Reframing
Problem shape: effort is being spent on a question that is malformed — a false binary, a contradiction treated as a compromise, a metaphor mistaken for the mechanism, a dispute about words masquerading as a dispute about facts. The move: dissolve, restate, or invert the frame before solving anything.
Relevant geniuses
| Agent | Use when | |
|---|---|---|
| wittgenstein | the dispute is about how words are being used — audit the language game; some problems dissolve rather than resolve | |
| nagarjuna | both sides of a binary feel wrong — run the tetralemma (true / false / both / neither) | |
| aristotle | "why" questions conflated — separate the four causes; catalog the fallacies in play | |
| midgley | a metaphor (machine, war, market, brain) silently shapes the design — audit where it breaks down | |
| leguin | a trade-off is being denied — force the genuine cost onto the table; audit the narrative frame of the plan | |
| eco | the artifact will be interpreted — design for the model reader; bound the open vs closed interpretations | |
| bateson | the conflict escalates symmetrically or the instructions double-bind — the pathology is in the interaction, not the parties | |
| altshuller | improving one parameter degrades another — formulate the contradiction and resolve it, don't compromise | |
| polya | stuck on a problem that resists direct attack — restate, work backward, find the related solved problem, specialize | |
| schon | the current approach keeps failing mid-action — surface the implicit frame and switch strategy deliberately |
Invocation
- Pick the best-fit agent above. If two or more fit, run
tools/genius-invoker.sh route "<problem>" and take the top ranked match.
- Load it:
tools/genius-invoker.sh invoke <agent> "<problem>", then read
agents/genius/<agent>.md in full.
- Apply the agent's
<workflow>step by step and answer in its
<output-format>. The deliverable is the reframed question plus what the new frame makes visible — then route the reframed problem to the right skill (estimation, causal-audit, formal-correctness, ...).
- Typical chain: wittgenstein dissolves the verbal dispute → altshuller
formulates the residual contradiction → polya attacks it. Run via tools/genius-invoker.sh compose wittgenstein altshuller -- "<problem>".
- If no shape above matches, use a built-in agent with the closest
GENIUS:pattern fromrules/agent-routes.jsoninstead.
Refuse when
- The frame is fine and the problem is just hard — reframing as procrastination.
- The requester wants the reframe to make a real trade-off disappear.
Security
- Security scanPassed, 90 of 100Pattern checks on the skill's files.
- Model reviewPassed
Quality evaluation
- Task evaluationNot runNo evaluation yet. Run one in Skill Studio.
Source
- SKILL.md in the repositoryCheckingskills/problem-reframing/SKILL.md
Popularity
- Repository stars
- 7
- Repository forks
- 3
- 7-day trend score
- 10
Stars and forks are for the whole GitHub repository, not this skill alone. Not refreshed yet.
Works with
Any agent vskill installs to: 56 targets in all. These 39 have a page on this site.
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