Skill v1.0.1
currentAutomated scan100/100+3 new
version: "1.0.1" name: steel-manning description: Steel-Manning Campaign — adversarial verification of convergence decisions through resurrection advocacy, winner stress-testing, criteria interrogation, and multi-perspective attack using Devil's Advocacy, Pre-mortem, Red Teaming, Dialectical Inquiry methods. execution: campaign dependencies: strategies:
- counter-thesis-construction
- criteria-interrogation
- resurrection-advocacy
- stakeholder-objection-simulation
- winner-stress-testing
sops:
- context-checkpoint
- context-init
- convergence-multi-stakeholder-simulation
- convergence-saturation-detection
- convergence-sensitivity-analysis
Steel-Manning
Adversarial verification of convergence decisions. This campaign subjects winners, criteria, and rejected alternatives to rigorous challenge — ensuring that final decisions survive the strongest possible counter-arguments rather than merely the weakest objections.
The campaign deploys four complementary attack vectors: resurrecting rejected candidates to test whether elimination was justified, stress-testing winners to find hidden weaknesses, interrogating the criteria framework itself, and simulating stakeholder objections for political feasibility.
Strategy Routing
| Signal | Strategy | |
|---|---|---|
| resurrect rejected candidates / give losers a fair hearing | resurrection-advocacy | |
| stress-test the winner / find weaknesses in top pick | winner-stress-testing | |
| challenge the criteria themselves / meta-level questioning | criteria-interrogation | |
| simulate stakeholder objections / political feasibility | stakeholder-objection-simulation | |
| construct strongest counter-argument / dialectical challenge | counter-thesis-construction |
Manifest
Strategies
| Strategy | Method Lineage | |
|---|---|---|
| resurrection-advocacy | Devil's Advocacy, Dialectical Inquiry, Adversarial Collaboration (Kahneman) | |
| winner-stress-testing | Pre-mortem (Klein), Red Teaming, Failure Mode Analysis | |
| criteria-interrogation | Assumption-based Planning, Critical Systems Heuristics, Boundary Critique | |
| stakeholder-objection-simulation | Role-play, Stakeholder Analysis, Political Feasibility | |
| counter-thesis-construction | Dialectical Inquiry, Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis, Adversarial Debate |
Tactics
| Tactic | SOPs Used | |
|---|---|---|
| adversarial-debate-protocol | advocate-construction, critic-attack, judge-verdict | |
| assumption-excavation | assumption-extraction, assumption-challenge, conclusion-sensitivity | |
| multi-perspective-attack | perspective-assignment, perspective-attack, steel-manning-synthesis |
SOPs
| SOP | Input | Output | Shareable | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| advocate-construction | rejected_candidate, context | strongest_case_for_resurrection | validation | |
| critic-attack | winner, advocate_case | attack_arguments[], severity_ratings | validation | |
| judge-verdict | advocate_case, critic_attacks | verdict, reasoning, conditions | validation | |
| assumption-extraction | decision, evidence | assumptions[], confidence_levels | — | |
| assumption-challenge | assumption | challenge_argument, alternative, impact_if_wrong | — | |
| conclusion-sensitivity | assumptions[], challenges[] | sensitivity_map, critical_assumptions[] | — | |
| perspective-assignment | decision, stakeholders | perspective_briefs[] | — | |
| perspective-attack | decision, perspective_brief | attacks[], constructive_alternatives[] | — | |
| steel-manning-synthesis | all_attacks, all_verdicts | final_verdict, surviving_concerns, modifications | — |
Budget Table (M Tier)
| Metric | Minimum | |
|---|---|---|
| Attack perspectives | >= 3 distinct angles | |
| Debate rounds | >= 2 per contested decision | |
| Assumptions challenged | >= 5 per winner | |
| Final verdict | Explicit ACCEPT / REJECT / REVISE with evidence |
MCP Tools
mcp__wiki-vault__vault_search— retrieve prior decisions and contextmcp__wiki-vault__vault_query_graph— trace dependency chains for impact analysismcp__wiki-vault__vault_add_edge— record challenge relationships
Context Management
The campaign maintains a Challenge Ledger tracking:
- Which decisions have been challenged
- Attack vectors applied to each
- Verdicts rendered and their conditions
- Surviving concerns requiring monitoring
State is passed between strategies via the ledger. Each strategy updates it upon completion.
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Available Strategies
Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.
| Strategy | When to use | |
|---|---|---|
| counter-thesis-construction | Construct the strongest possible counter-argument to the convergence decision using Dialectical Inquiry and Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis methods. | |
| criteria-interrogation | Challenge the evaluation criteria themselves using Assumption-based Planning, Critical Systems Heuristics, and Boundary Critique to ensure the framework is sound. | |
| resurrection-advocacy | Argue for rejected candidates using Devil's Advocacy, Dialectical Inquiry, and Adversarial Collaboration to ensure elimination was justified. | |
| stakeholder-objection-simulation | Simulate stakeholder objections through role-play and political feasibility analysis to test whether the decision survives real-world opposition. | |
| winner-stress-testing | Stress-test the winning candidate using Pre-mortem, Red Teaming, and Failure Mode Analysis to expose hidden weaknesses before commitment. |
Available SOPs
Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.
| SOP | When to use | |
|---|---|---|
| context-checkpoint | Append research process and results to the current Phase's context file. Covers both process and results with genuine substance. Use this skill at plan-designated checkpoint points — typically after each strategy completes or at key decision nodes within a research Phase. | |
| context-init | Create a new context file for a research Phase. Called once at Phase start to initialize the file that subsequent context-checkpoint calls will append to. Use this skill whenever a new research Phase begins and a fresh context file is needed. | |
| convergence-multi-stakeholder-simulation | Simulates diverse stakeholder perspectives and their strongest objections/support arguments. Shared across steel-manning and consensus campaigns. | |
| convergence-saturation-detection | Determines when to stop iterating — coverage threshold met or marginal returns diminishing. Shared across all campaigns. | |
| convergence-sensitivity-analysis | Tests conclusion robustness by perturbing parameters and observing rank changes. Shared across scoring, portfolio, and steel-manning campaigns. |
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