Writing Law
Norman-bury/research-writing-skill
A skill your agent uses when writing law papers - provides legal writing conventions, citation formats, and argumentation guidance
Apply Tesler's Law — every process has irreducible complexity that someone must absorb.
MITAuto-check passed
Install Teslers Law
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill teslers-law -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills teslers-law --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/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law .claude/skills/teslers-law && 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 "teslers-law" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law into .claude/skills/teslers-law/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "teslers-law", 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/designer-skills/tree/main/interaction-design/skills/teslers-lawType 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/designer-skills --skill teslers-law -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills teslers-law --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law .agents/skills/teslers-law && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "teslers-law" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law into .agents/skills/teslers-law/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "teslers-law", 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/designer-skills --skill teslers-law -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills teslers-law --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law .cursor/skills/teslers-law && 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 "teslers-law" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law into .cursor/skills/teslers-law/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "teslers-law", 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/designer-skills.git --path interaction-design/skills/teslers-law--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/designer-skills --skill teslers-law -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills teslers-law --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law .gemini/skills/teslers-law && 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 "teslers-law" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law into .gemini/skills/teslers-law/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "teslers-law", 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/designer-skills teslers-lawInstalls 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/designer-skills --skill teslers-law -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law .github/skills/teslers-law && 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 "teslers-law" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law into .github/skills/teslers-law/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "teslers-law", 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/designer-skills --skill teslers-law -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/designer-skills teslers-law --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law .opencode/skills/teslers-law && 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 "teslers-law" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/interaction-design/skills/teslers-law into .opencode/skills/teslers-law/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "teslers-law", 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
teslers-law- GitHub stars
- 2.9k
- Token cost
- ~988 tokens
- SKILL.md length
- 524 words
- Files
- 1
- Skills in repo
- 107
- Repo updated
- First seen
- Licence
- MIT
At a glance
Apply Tesler's Law — every process has irreducible complexity that someone must absorb.
- Deciding whether the product
- SKILL.md covers What You Do, The Principle, Two Types of Complexity and Where to Absorb Complexity, plus 3 more sections
- Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
- The user carries it
What it does
Teslers Law is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designer-skills. Apply Tesler's Law — every process has irreducible complexity that someone must absorb. Use when deciding whether the product or the user carries it. For reducing apparent choice, use hicks-law.
Its SKILL.md is about 990 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: Designer Skills Collection: agentic skills, commands, and plugins for design — from research to systems, UI, interaction, and delivery. The licence is MIT.
When your agent uses it
- Deciding whether the product
- The user carries it
Example prompts
- “/teslers-law”
What it can do on your machine
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9a6930c. 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
Teslers Law loads about 988 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 52 tokens; SKILL.md has 524 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/designer-skills at commit 9a6930c, republished under its MIT licence (© Owl-Listener). 524 words, ~988 tokens.
Download SKILL.mdSave it as
.claude/skills/teslers-law/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).- name
- teslers-law
- description
- Apply Tesler's Law — every process has irreducible complexity that someone must absorb. Use when deciding whether the product or the user carries it. For reducing apparent choice, use `hicks-law`.
Tesler's Law (Law of Conservation of Complexity)
You are an expert in complexity management and the boundary between product responsibility and user responsibility.
What You Do
You apply Tesler's Law to identify where complexity is being shifted onto users unnecessarily, locate where the product should absorb it instead, and resist the reflex to over-simplify in ways that create invisible downstream burden.
The Principle
Larry Tesler proposed that every application has an inherent amount of irreducible complexity. This complexity cannot be eliminated — it can only be moved. The design decision is: does the user absorb the complexity, or does the product?
Simplifying the interface does not remove complexity. It relocates it.
Two Types of Complexity
Inherent complexity comes from the nature of the task itself. Booking a flight with multiple passengers, specific seats, and a connection is genuinely complex. Removing that complexity means removing capability.
Extraneous complexity comes from the design, not the task. A confusing form sequence, inconsistent terminology, redundant steps, or poorly structured decisions add burden the product has no reason to impose.
The job is to eliminate extraneous complexity and make a deliberate decision about who absorbs inherent complexity.
Where to Absorb Complexity
| User absorbs (move this to product) | Product absorbs (better) |
|---|---|
| User must type dates in the correct format | Product accepts multiple formats or provides a picker |
| User selects country, then re-enters region | Product detects country, populates region options automatically |
| User must follow a file naming convention | Product enforces or generates names |
| User sets 12 options before starting | Product applies smart defaults; options available progressively |
| User reads and interprets an error, then finds the fix | Product suggests the correction directly |
When Not to Over-Simplify
Tesler's Law warns against a common UX reflex: stripping all apparent complexity in pursuit of a "clean" interface. When you:
- Hide too many options behind progressive disclosure, power users spend time hunting
- Over-default critical decisions, users lose control at the moments that matter
- Remove configuration, the product stops fitting legitimate edge cases
Simplifying the surface can create invisible complexity downstream — longer workflows, more error recovery, more support overhead. The complexity moved, it did not disappear.
Show full SKILL.md (172 more words)Show less
Common Applications
- Form defaults: default to the most common selection; expose alternatives without hiding them
- Error messages: name the problem and state the fix — do not make the user interpret the technical cause
- Import and export: accept the user's format; do not demand reformatting before the product can read it
- Multi-step workflows: automate steps that do not require user judgment; ask only what only the user knows
- Settings and configuration: ship usable defaults for every setting; make customisation available, not mandatory
Best Practices
- Audit each step of a flow: what decision is the user making? Could the product make it without losing fidelity?
- Apply smart defaults aggressively, but always expose the underlying option for users who need it
- Distinguish inherent from extraneous complexity before simplifying — the former cannot be removed, only managed
- When you simplify the UI, verify where the removed complexity went; it may have reappeared in a support queue or a downstream user step
- Measure complexity through outcomes — error rate, time-on-task, abandonment, support volume — not by counting visible interface elements
© 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 interaction-design/skills/teslers-law of Owl-Listener/designer-skills.
Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9a6930c
Compare with similar skills
Teslers Law 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teslers Law this skillOwl-Listener/designer-skills | 2.9k | — | ~988 | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Writing LawNorman-bury/research-writing-skill | 3.4k | — | ~592 | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Law To Markdownanbeime/skill | 7.8k | — | ~631 | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Construction LawLeoYeAI/openclaw-master-skills | 2.2k | — | ~2.3k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Find Law Firmjeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace | 2.8k | — | ~3.6k | Automated safety check: Notes | MIT | |
| Law PipelineImCa0/just-laws | 781 | — | ~1.5k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT |
Similar skills
Law To Markdown
anbeime/skill
律师助理与法律助手在处理繁杂法条时，当需要将 PDF/Word/TXT 格式的法律规范文件转为结构化 Markdown 时适用。自动完成 OCR 解析、法律层级识别与三阶段保真校验，一键生成排版完美的法条 Markdown 文档及审核报告，让法律文本数字化工作事半功倍。
Construction Law
LeoYeAI/openclaw-master-skills
Construction law analysis covering FIDIC (2017 suite), PSSCOC, SIA Conditions, NEC4, and JCT.
Find Law Firm
jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace
A skill your agent uses whenever the user wants to find, shortlist, vet, or enrich US B2B law firms — corporate, IP/patent, M&A and securities, employment, commercial litigation…
Law Pipeline
ImCa0/just-laws
默认法律收录与更新流程：将 .temp/lawsmd 中的法律 Markdown 规范化为 Just Laws VuePress 站点交付件，可配对读取 Word 原件，同步 category、sidebar 与 LAWSPROGRESS.md；更新已有法律时识别当前、未来和历史版本，维护 versions.json、多版本页面及生效日轮换。
In Law Boundary Scripts
mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills
Set a boundary with in-laws or extended family kindly and clearly — the words to say, a united-front approach with your partner, and a plan for the pushback.
More from Owl-Listener/designer-skills
All 107 skills in this repoA B Test Design
Owl-Listener/designer-skills
Design an A/B experiment — hypothesis, variants, primary metric, and sample size.
Accessibility Test Plan
Owl-Listener/designer-skills
Plan accessibility testing — assistive technologies, participant criteria, WCAG coverage, and session protocol.
Aesthetic Usability
Owl-Listener/designer-skills
Apply the Aesthetic-Usability Effect — polished, consistent interfaces are perceived as more usable and forgive minor friction.
Affinity Diagram
Owl-Listener/designer-skills
Cluster many qualitative data points into themes and insight statements.
Animation Principles
Owl-Listener/designer-skills
Apply animation principles — easing, staging, follow-through — to one specific UI motion.
Business Design
Owl-Listener/designer-skills
Read financials, map competitive landscapes, and argue design decisions in the language of value.
Questions about Teslers Law
What does Teslers Law do?
Apply Tesler's Law — every process has irreducible complexity that someone must absorb. Teslers Law is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designer-skills. Apply Tesler's Law — every process has irreducible complexity that someone must absorb.
When should I use Teslers Law?
Teslers Law fits situations like: deciding whether the product; the user carries it.
How do I install Teslers Law in Claude Code?
Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill teslers-law -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (interaction-design/skills/teslers-law in Owl-Listener/designer-skills) into .claude/skills/teslers-law in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
How do I install Teslers Law in Codex?
Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill teslers-law -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (interaction-design/skills/teslers-law in Owl-Listener/designer-skills) into .agents/skills/teslers-law in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Can I use Teslers Law 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/designer-skills --skill teslers-law -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/teslers-law, .gemini/skills/teslers-law, .github/skills/teslers-law and .opencode/skills/teslers-law in your project.
What does Teslers Law need to run?
SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Teslers Law is instructions for the agent only.
Does Teslers Law 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 Teslers Law 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 Teslers Law use?
Teslers Law 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 Teslers Law use?
About 988 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 4k 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 Teslers Law?
Skills that share tags, products or a category with Teslers Law: Writing Law (Norman-bury/research-writing-skill, 3.4k stars), Law To Markdown (anbeime/skill, 7.8k stars), Construction Law (LeoYeAI/openclaw-master-skills, 2.2k stars) and Find Law Firm (jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace, 2.8k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
Who maintains Teslers Law?
Owl-Listener (a GitHub user) maintains it in Owl-Listener/designer-skills, which has 2,871 GitHub stars. The repository holds 107 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 5, 2026.
Source: Owl-Listener/designer-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.