Design System
affaan-m/ECC
Generate a design system from an existing codebase or audit one for visual consistency: extract tokens (colors, typography, spacing, shadows) into design-tokens.json and CSS custom properties with…
Designing reasoning chains that produce better outputs. An agent skill from Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.
MITAuto-check passed
Install Chain Of Thought Design
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills --skill chain-of-thought-design -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills chain-of-thought-design --agent claude-codeProject scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design .claude/skills/chain-of-thought-design && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.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/
Install the "chain-of-thought-design" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design into .claude/skills/chain-of-thought-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "chain-of-thought-design", then confirm the skill loads.Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$skill-installer install https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-designType this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills --skill chain-of-thought-design -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills chain-of-thought-design --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design .agents/skills/chain-of-thought-design && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "chain-of-thought-design" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design into .agents/skills/chain-of-thought-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "chain-of-thought-design", then confirm the skill loads.Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills --skill chain-of-thought-design -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills chain-of-thought-design --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design .cursor/skills/chain-of-thought-design && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.
Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/
Install the "chain-of-thought-design" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design into .cursor/skills/chain-of-thought-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "chain-of-thought-design", then confirm the skill loads.Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gemini skills install https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.git --path skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills --skill chain-of-thought-design -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills chain-of-thought-design --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design .gemini/skills/chain-of-thought-design && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.
Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "chain-of-thought-design" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design into .gemini/skills/chain-of-thought-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "chain-of-thought-design", then confirm the skill loads.Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills chain-of-thought-designInstalls for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills --skill chain-of-thought-design -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design .github/skills/chain-of-thought-design && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.
GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "chain-of-thought-design" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design into .github/skills/chain-of-thought-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "chain-of-thought-design", then confirm the skill loads.GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills --skill chain-of-thought-design -a opencodeOpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills chain-of-thought-design --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design .opencode/skills/chain-of-thought-design && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.
OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "chain-of-thought-design" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design into .opencode/skills/chain-of-thought-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "chain-of-thought-design", then confirm the skill loads.OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Facts
- Skill name
chain-of-thought-design- GitHub stars
- 185
- Token cost
- ~687 tokens
- SKILL.md length
- 347 words
- Files
- 1
- Skills in repo
- 11
- Repo updated
- First seen
- Licence
- MIT
At a glance
Designing reasoning chains that produce better outputs. An agent skill from Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.
- SKILL.md covers When Chain-of-Thought Helps, When Chain-of-Thought Hurts, Designing Reasoning Chains and Chain Variants, plus 2 more sections
- Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
What it does
Chain Of Thought Design is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills. Designing reasoning chains that produce better outputs.
Its SKILL.md is about 690 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 Design Skills Collection: agentic skills, commands, and plugins for designing AI products — from interaction patterns to alignment, evaluation, agent orchestration, and prompt… The licence is MIT.
Example prompts
- “/chain-of-thought-design”
What it can do on your machine
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit f41b650. 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
Chain Of Thought Design loads about 687 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 20 tokens; SKILL.md has 347 words of instructions outside code blocks.
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 Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills at commit f41b650, republished under its MIT licence (© Owl-Listener). 347 words, ~687 tokens.
Download SKILL.mdSave it as
.claude/skills/chain-of-thought-design/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).- name
- chain-of-thought-design
- description
- Designing reasoning chains that produce better outputs.
Chain-of-Thought Design
Chain-of-thought prompting asks the AI to show its reasoning step by step before arriving at an answer. When designed well, this produces more accurate, more nuanced, and more trustworthy outputs. When designed poorly, it produces verbose justification of bad answers.
When Chain-of-Thought Helps
- Complex reasoning: Multi-step problems where the answer depends on intermediate conclusions
- Ambiguous inputs: When the AI needs to consider multiple interpretations
- High-stakes outputs: When you need to verify the reasoning, not just the answer
- Creative exploration: When generating ideas benefits from building on each step
- Analytical tasks: Comparisons, evaluations, and trade-off analyses
When Chain-of-Thought Hurts
- Simple lookups: "What's the capital of France?" doesn't need step-by-step reasoning
- Speed-critical responses: Reasoning adds latency and token cost
- Pattern-matching tasks: Some tasks are better served by direct response
- When reasoning is wrong: The AI can reason convincingly toward an incorrect conclusion
Designing Reasoning Chains
A reasoning chain has structure. Design it deliberately: 1. Problem decomposition "First, break this problem into its component parts." 2. Evidence gathering "For each part, identify what you know and what you're uncertain about." 3. Analysis "Analyse each component, noting assumptions and limitations." 4. Synthesis "Combine your analysis into an overall assessment." 5. Conclusion "State your conclusion and your confidence level."
Chain Variants
- Linear chain: Step 1 → Step 2 → Step 3 → Answer. Simple and predictable.
- Branching chain: Consider multiple paths, evaluate each, then choose. Better for decisions.
- Iterative chain: Draft an answer, critique it, revise it. Better for quality refinement.
- Debate chain: Argue for and against a position, then synthesise. Better for balanced analysis.
Controlling Chain Quality
- Specify the steps: Don't just say "think step by step." Define what the steps are.
- Limit reasoning depth: Set a maximum number of steps or reasoning length to prevent runaway chains.
- Separate thinking from output: Let the AI reason internally, then produce a clean final output.
- Validate intermediate steps: Check that each step is sound, not just the final answer.
Design Artefacts
- Chain-of-thought templates per task type
- Reasoning step specifications
- Chain variant selection guidelines
- Quality checkpoints for intermediate steps
- Examples of well-structured and poorly-structured chains
© Owl-Listener, 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 skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design of Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills.
Open the folder on GitHubat commit f41b650
Compare with similar skills
Chain Of Thought Design 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.
| Skill | Stars | Used in | Tokens | Auto-check | Licence | Repo updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chain Of Thought Design this skillOwl-Listener/ai-design-skills | 185 | — | ~687 | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Design Systemaffaan-m/ECC | 276k | — | ~698 | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Design Guidepaperclipai/paperclip | 100k | 1 repos | ~3.1k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Design Audit Against Rams' Principlesthedotmack/claude-mem | 99k | — | ~4.6k | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Figma Design to Codewarpdotdev/warp | 65k | 4 repos | ~2.9k | Automated safety check: Pass | AGPL-3.0 | |
| Design Consultationgarrytan/gstack | 136k | — | ~16k | Automated safety check: Notes | MIT |
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Questions about Chain Of Thought Design
What does Chain Of Thought Design do?
Designing reasoning chains that produce better outputs. An agent skill from Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills. Chain Of Thought Design is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills. Designing reasoning chains that produce better outputs.
How do I install Chain Of Thought Design in Claude Code?
Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills --skill chain-of-thought-design -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design in Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills) into .claude/skills/chain-of-thought-design in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
How do I install Chain Of Thought Design in Codex?
Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills --skill chain-of-thought-design -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/prompt-architecture/chain-of-thought-design in Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills) into .agents/skills/chain-of-thought-design in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Can I use Chain Of Thought Design 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 Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills --skill chain-of-thought-design -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/chain-of-thought-design, .gemini/skills/chain-of-thought-design, .github/skills/chain-of-thought-design and .opencode/skills/chain-of-thought-design in your project.
What does Chain Of Thought Design need to run?
SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Chain Of Thought Design is instructions for the agent only.
Does Chain Of Thought Design 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 Chain Of Thought Design 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 Chain Of Thought Design use?
Chain Of Thought Design 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 Chain Of Thought Design use?
About 687 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.7k 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 Chain Of Thought Design?
Skills that share tags, products or a category with Chain Of Thought Design: Design System (affaan-m/ECC, 276k stars), Design Guide (paperclipai/paperclip, 100k stars), Design Audit Against Rams' Principles (thedotmack/claude-mem, 99k stars) and Figma Design to Code (warpdotdev/warp, 65k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
Who maintains Chain Of Thought Design?
Owl-Listener (a GitHub user) maintains it in Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills, which has 185 GitHub stars. The repository holds 11 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on June 9, 2026.
Source: Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.