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Agent skill

Socratic

by neurofoo in neurofoo/agent-skills

Socratic questioning to examine beliefs, uncover assumptions, and develop deeper understanding.

MITAuto-check passedEducation

Install Socratic

skills CLI
$ npx skills add neurofoo/agent-skills --skill socratic -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install neurofoo/agent-skills socratic --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/neurofoo/agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/socratic .claude/skills/socratic && 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
socratic
GitHub stars
119
Token cost
~613 tokens
SKILL.md length
298 words
Files
5 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
22
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Socratic questioning to examine beliefs, uncover assumptions, and develop deeper understanding.

  • Challenge thinking
  • SKILL.md covers Instructions, Starting Point, Layer 1: Clarifying the Claim and Layer 2: Probing Assumptions, plus 5 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
  • Evaluate proposals

What it does

Socratic is an agent skill from neurofoo/agent-skills. Socratic questioning to examine beliefs, uncover assumptions, and develop deeper understanding. Use to challenge thinking, evaluate proposals, or teach without lecturing.

Its SKILL.md is about 610 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 6 other files, including reference files (for example `commands/question.md`, `commands/socratic.md` and `references/examples.md`).

It sits in Education, covering Tutoring and explanations and Proposals and quotes. The repository describes itself as: Agent Skills for Claude Code and OpenCode. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Challenge thinking
  • Evaluate proposals
  • Teach without lecturing

Example prompts

  • “/socratic”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 0e7ac2a. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    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

Socratic loads about 613 tokens when it runs, and up to ~3.5k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 45 tokens; SKILL.md has 298 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~45
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~613
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~3.5k

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 passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

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 neurofoo/agent-skills at commit 0e7ac2a, republished under its MIT licence (© neurofoo). 298 words, ~613 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/socratic/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 4 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
socratic
description
Socratic questioning to examine beliefs, uncover assumptions, and develop deeper understanding. Use to challenge thinking, evaluate proposals, or teach without lecturing.
user-invocable
true

Socratic Questioning

Guide discovery through systematic questioning, helping examine a belief, decision, or idea more deeply.

Instructions

Work through multiple levels of questioning to explore the topic. The goal isn't to prove the person wrong—it's to help them (or yourself) think more clearly and deeply.

Output Format

Topic/Belief: [What we're examining]

Starting Point

The Claim/Position [Restate the belief or idea being examined]

Layer 1: Clarifying the Claim

Questions

  • What exactly do you mean by [key term]?
  • Can you give a specific example of this?
  • What would this look like in practice?

Reflections [What these questions reveal about the claim]

Layer 2: Probing Assumptions

Hidden Assumptions

AssumptionQuestion to Test It
[assumption 1]"Is it always true that...?"
[assumption 2]"What would need to be true for...?"

Questions

  • What are you taking for granted here?
  • Why do you think [X] leads to [Y]?
  • What if [assumption] weren't true?

Layer 3: Examining Evidence

Questions

  • What evidence supports this view?
  • How do you know that [claim]?
  • What would change your mind?
  • Is there any evidence against this?

Layer 4: Exploring Implications

Questions

  • If this is true, what else follows?
  • What are the consequences of believing this?
  • How does this apply to [edge case]?
  • If we're wrong about this, what's the cost?

Layer 5: Alternative Perspectives

Questions

  • What would someone who disagrees say?
  • How would [specific person/role] view this?
  • What's the strongest argument against?

Steel Man The best argument against this position:

[Strongest counterargument]

Synthesis

Refined Position After questioning, a more nuanced view might be:

[Refined statement]

Remaining Questions

  • [Question 1]
  • [Question 2]

Key Insight The most valuable thing this questioning revealed:

[Insight]

Guidelines

  • Ask, don't tell
  • Follow curiosity, not agenda
  • "I don't know" is a valuable answer
  • The goal is understanding, not winning
  • Be patient—good questions take time to answer

$ARGUMENTS

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

Files

SKILL.md and 4 other files (references) in socratic of neurofoo/agent-skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • commands/question.md
  • commands/socratic.md
  • references/examples.md
  • references/question-types.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 0e7ac2a

Compare with similar skills

Socratic 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.

Socratic compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Socratic this skillneurofoo/agent-skills119—~613Automated safety check: PassMIT
The Spiralegregore-labs/egregore291—~527Automated safety check: PassMIT
DeepTutor CLIHKUDS/DeepTutor41k—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
AI Engineering Project Tutorrohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch65k—~1.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Hung-Yi Lee Teaching Stylevoidful/hung-yi-lee-skill1.3k—~13kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Claude Certification Tutorrohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch65k—~3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Socratic

What does Socratic do?

Socratic questioning to examine beliefs, uncover assumptions, and develop deeper understanding. Socratic is an agent skill from neurofoo/agent-skills. Socratic questioning to examine beliefs, uncover assumptions, and develop deeper understanding.

When should I use Socratic?

Socratic fits situations like: challenge thinking; evaluate proposals; teach without lecturing.

How do I install Socratic in Claude Code?

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

How do I install Socratic in Codex?

Run `npx skills add neurofoo/agent-skills --skill socratic -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (socratic in neurofoo/agent-skills) into .agents/skills/socratic in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Socratic 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 neurofoo/agent-skills --skill socratic -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/socratic, .gemini/skills/socratic, .github/skills/socratic and .opencode/skills/socratic in your project.

What does Socratic need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Socratic is instructions for the agent only.

Does Socratic 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 Socratic safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Socratic use?

Socratic 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 Socratic use?

About 613 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 2.9k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Socratic?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Socratic: The Spiral (egregore-labs/egregore, 291 stars), DeepTutor CLI (HKUDS/DeepTutor, 41k stars), AI Engineering Project Tutor (rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch, 65k stars) and Hung-Yi Lee Teaching Style (voidful/hung-yi-lee-skill, 1.3k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Socratic?

neurofoo (a GitHub user) maintains it in neurofoo/agent-skills, which has 119 GitHub stars. The repository holds 22 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on January 19, 2026.

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