Agent skill

Reasoning Checks

by Abilityai in Abilityai/cornelius

Shared reasoning-discipline contract - four pre-conclusion checks (epistemic inversion / pre-mortem, attractor-state check against the live core fingerprint, provenance weighting, conditional…

MITAuto-check: notes

Install Reasoning Checks

skills CLI
$ npx skills add Abilityai/cornelius --skill reasoning-checks -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install Abilityai/cornelius reasoning-checks --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Abilityai/cornelius.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/reasoning-checks .claude/skills/reasoning-checks && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
reasoning-checks
GitHub stars
109
Token cost
~2.2k tokens
SKILL.md length
846 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
54
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Shared reasoning-discipline contract - four pre-conclusion checks (epistemic inversion / pre-mortem, attractor-state check against the live core fingerprint, provenance weighting, conditional…

  • Works in 3 steps: Fetch the current top-10 core hubs +… → List the frameworks/notes that are… → If 2 or more are top-10 hubs or bridges…
  • SKILL.md covers Purpose, State Dependencies, The Four Checks and Applicability Matrix, plus 4 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Reasoning Checks is an agent skill from Abilityai/cornelius. Shared reasoning-discipline contract - four pre-conclusion checks (epistemic inversion / pre-mortem, attractor-state check against the live core fingerprint, provenance weighting, conditional reference-class anchor) with required output blocks. Referenced by /advise, /canon-advise, and both crystallization paths before a conclusion is finalized; also directly invocable on any draft conclusion or recommendation.

Its SKILL.md is about 2.2k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

The repository describes itself as: AI-powered second brain template for Claude Code + Obsidian. The licence is MIT.

Example prompts

  • “/reasoning-checks”

Requirements

  • Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Fetch the current top-10 core hubs + top-10 bridges (live call below; fall back to the knowledge-base-analysis.md tables, noting their…
  2. List the frameworks/notes that are load-bearing in the draft (the ones the conclusion would collapse without).
  3. If 2 or more are top-10 hubs or bridges → declare an attractor state and generate ONE alternative framing that uses zero of the top-10…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit b9bea90. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

    • Read
    • Grep
    • Glob
    • Bash

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown and bash).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Reasoning Checks loads about 2.2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 108 tokens; SKILL.md has 846 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~108
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check: notes

The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.

  • NotePre-approves every shell command (allowed-tools: Bash)SKILL.md
    allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from Abilityai/cornelius at commit b9bea90, republished under its MIT licence (© Abilityai). 846 words, ~2,248 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/reasoning-checks/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
reasoning-checks
description
Shared reasoning-discipline contract - four pre-conclusion checks (epistemic inversion / pre-mortem, attractor-state check against the live core fingerprint, provenance weighting, conditional reference-class anchor) with required output blocks. Referenced by /advise, /canon-advise, and both crystallization paths before a conclusion is finalized; also directly invocable on any draft conclusion or recommendation.
allowed-tools
Read, Grep, Glob, Bash
automation
autonomous
user-invocable
true
argument-hint
[draft conclusion, note path, or nothing to check the current conversation's conclusion] [checks=inversion,attractor,provenance,refclass]
metadata.version
1.1
metadata.created
2026-07-31
metadata.updated
2026-07-31
metadata.author
Ability.ai
metadata.changelog
1.1: /decide shipped - added to the applicability matrix (full battery, reference-class required in practice); removed from Deferred Wirings, 1.0: Initial…

Reasoning Checks

ℹ️ First, set expectations: print one line with this skill's version and its most recent change - the top of metadata.changelog - e.g. reasoning-checks v1.0 — recent: initial four-check contract. Then proceed. (Skip the banner when applied silently inside a consuming skill.)

Purpose

The calibration counterpart to the Thinking Geometries. The 2026-07-31 self-audit found the reasoning repertoire strong on discovery and synthesis but thin on calibration - everything runs from the inside view, and a graph this connected (50k+ edges, spreading activation) is structurally prone to falling in love with its own semantic connections. These checks close the gap at the two moments that matter: before advice is given and before a conclusion crosses the endorsement boundary.

Contract rule (the SOURCE-AUTHORITY.md pattern): this file is the single source of truth for the check definitions. Consuming skills reference it and apply the checks; they never copy the definitions inline. Change a check here, not in consumers.

State Dependencies

SourceLocationReadWrite
Core fingerprint (live)resources/local-brain-search/run_connections.sh --hubs --json and --bridges --json✓
Core fingerprint (fallback)knowledge-base-analysis.md → "Core hubs" / "Core bridges" tables (note the analysis date)✓
Cited notes' frontmatterBrain/**/*.md (provenance: field)✓

Never writes. Output blocks are embedded in the consuming skill's own artifact or answer. All reads are lookups, not retrievals - nothing here trains q-values.

The Four Checks

Check 1 - Epistemic Inversion (pre-mortem)

When: always, before any recommendation or conclusion is finalized.

Assume the conclusion is wrong and work backwards. Required output block:

markdown
### Epistemic Inversion
- **Failure assumption:** it is 12 months out and this [recommendation | conclusion] proved wrong.
- **Causal autopsy:** most likely reason it failed: [specific mechanism]
- **Specific falsifier:** we will know it failed if [observable event / metric crossing a threshold / dated milestone]

The anti-theater rule (load-bearing): the falsifier must name a specific observable - an event that either happens or doesn't, a metric with a threshold, a dated milestone. Generic hedges ("market conditions shift", "priorities change", "new information emerges") FAIL the check. On human-gated surfaces, a generic falsifier means redo the inversion before presenting. On autonomous surfaces, stamp falsifier: weak and flag it in the run log - never block the run (No-Gates Rule).

Check 2 - Attractor-State Check

When: always on advice surfaces; on crystallization. The system's dominant frameworks are measured - the core fingerprint names its own gravity wells - so this check is semi-mechanical rather than introspective.

Procedure:

  1. Fetch the current top-10 core hubs + top-10 bridges (live call below; fall back to the knowledge-base-analysis.md tables, noting their date). In consuming skills that already run a parallel search batch, fetch hubs in that same batch - no extra round.
    bash
    resources/local-brain-search/run_connections.sh --hubs --json 2>/dev/null
    resources/local-brain-search/run_connections.sh --bridges --json 2>/dev/null
  2. List the frameworks/notes that are load-bearing in the draft (the ones the conclusion would collapse without).
  3. If 2 or more are top-10 hubs or bridges → declare an attractor state and generate ONE alternative framing that uses zero of the top-10. Compare honestly; keep the survivor or present both.
markdown
### Attractor Check
- load_bearing_frameworks: [[A]], [[B]], ...
- top10_overlap: N → [clear | ATTRACTOR]
- alternative_framing: [only when ATTRACTOR: 1 paragraph using no top-10 hub] → [kept | original stands because ...]
Check 3 - Provenance Weighting

When: always when the conclusion rests on KB notes.

Tally the provenance: of the load-bearing cited notes (visible in frontmatter of notes already read; grep -m1 '^provenance:' for any others). A conclusion resting mainly on ai-inferred/encountered notes is unendorsed synthesis - it must say so and must never be phrased as "your view" / "your framework". reference records are facts, not endorsements. Notes with no provenance: field count as unmarked (legacy) - report them honestly, don't assume.

markdown
### Provenance Base
originated/endorsed: N · encountered: M · ai-inferred: K · unmarked: J · reference: R
→ [rests on endorsed thinking | rests substantially on unendorsed synthesis - weighted accordingly]
Show full SKILL.md (335 more words)Show less
Check 4 - Reference-Class Anchor

When: CONDITIONAL - only when the conclusion asserts a forecast, probability, magnitude, timeline, or success likelihood. Never force it onto purely conceptual syntheses (that is exactly how checks become checkbox theater).

Name the reference class, state the base rate (or state honestly that none is known - itself a calibration signal), and justify any deviation. The block is deliberately parseable:

markdown
### Reference Class
- class: [what population of cases this belongs to]
- base_rate: [X% | unknown]
- case_vs_base: [above | below | at] - [why the deviation is justified, or "no deviation claimed"]

Direction A hook: when the operational-memory belief store ships (TARGET-ARCHITECTURE.md → Direction A), the base rate must adjust the stated confidence before any beliefs.db write - not ride along as metadata.

Applicability Matrix

SurfaceInversionAttractorProvenanceRef-class
/adviserequiredrequiredrequiredconditional
/canon-advise ([MY READ] layer ONLY)requiredrequiredrequiredconditional, bet surfaces only
/deciderequiredrequired (situation framing only - decision-science hubs are its tools, not attractor pull)requiredrequired in practice (decisions embed forecasts)
manage-thinking-topics crystallizerequired - embedded in the artifactrequiredrequiredconditional
ai-crystallize (autonomous)required - embedded; weak falsifier → flagged, never blocksskip (stays search-free by design)skipskip

The Canon Guard (do not violate)

These checks apply to the agent's own reasoning layers only. Never invert, score, base-rate, or generate "alternative framings" for a canon decision or spec - a decision has a status, not a probability. On /canon-advise, the checks run on the [MY READ]/dissent layer exclusively; bet is the only scoreable canon surface (per the Authority Contract in that skill).

Autonomous-Surface Rule

On any autonomous consumer (currently ai-crystallize): check presence is required, check quality is flagged (falsifier: weak in the run log), and nothing ever blocks or gates the scheduled run.

Direct Invocation

/reasoning-checks [material] - run the applicable checks on a pasted conclusion, a note path, or (with no argument) the current conversation's most recent recommendation/conclusion. Output the blocks; make no edits.

Deferred Wirings (documented so nothing wires early)

  • Incubation moves #7-8 (Reference Class Forecast; Causal Graph Sketch) - add to the rotating move set when the incubation loop is re-enabled.
  • /think-about-it - deliberately unwired; divergent exploration stays unconstrained.

(Decision-theoretic framing shipped 2026-07-31 as the standalone /decide skill - see the applicability matrix.)

© Abilityai, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .claude/skills/reasoning-checks of Abilityai/cornelius.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit b9bea90

Compare with similar skills

Reasoning Checks next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Reasoning Checks compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Reasoning Checks this skillAbilityai/cornelius109—~2.2kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Deepseek Reasonruvnet/ruflo74k—~626Automated safety check: NotesMIT
Ejentum Reasoning Harnesssickn33/agentic-awesome-skills47k1 repos~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Counterparty Channel Disciplineaffaan-m/ECC276k—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Nowait Reasoning Optimizerdavila7/claude-code-templates33k2 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Recall Reasoningparcadei/Continuous-Claude-v33.9k1 repos~758Automated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Reasoning Checks

What does Reasoning Checks do?

Shared reasoning-discipline contract - four pre-conclusion checks (epistemic inversion / pre-mortem, attractor-state check against the live core fingerprint, provenance weighting, conditional…. Reasoning Checks is an agent skill from Abilityai/cornelius. Shared reasoning-discipline contract - four pre-conclusion checks (epistemic inversion / pre-mortem, attractor-state check against the live core fingerprint, provenance weighting, conditional reference-class anchor) with required output blocks.

How do I install Reasoning Checks in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add Abilityai/cornelius --skill reasoning-checks -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/reasoning-checks in Abilityai/cornelius) into .claude/skills/reasoning-checks in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Reasoning Checks in Codex?

Run `npx skills add Abilityai/cornelius --skill reasoning-checks -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/reasoning-checks in Abilityai/cornelius) into .agents/skills/reasoning-checks in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Reasoning Checks in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add Abilityai/cornelius --skill reasoning-checks -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/reasoning-checks, .gemini/skills/reasoning-checks, .github/skills/reasoning-checks and .opencode/skills/reasoning-checks in your project.

What does Reasoning Checks need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Reasoning Checks is instructions for the agent only. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash.

Does Reasoning Checks access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Reasoning Checks safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (pre-approves every shell command (allowed-tools: bash)), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Reasoning Checks use?

Reasoning Checks is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Reasoning Checks use?

About 2.2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 9k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Reasoning Checks?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Reasoning Checks: Deepseek Reason (ruvnet/ruflo, 74k stars), Ejentum Reasoning Harness (sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills, 47k stars), Counterparty Channel Discipline (affaan-m/ECC, 276k stars) and Nowait Reasoning Optimizer (davila7/claude-code-templates, 33k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Reasoning Checks?

Abilityai (a GitHub organization) maintains it in Abilityai/cornelius, which has 109 GitHub stars. The repository holds 54 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 8, 2026.

Source: Abilityai/cornelius on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.