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Agent skill

Zeigarnik Effect

by Owl-Listener in Owl-Listener/designer-skills

Apply the Zeigarnik Effect — incomplete tasks stay mentally active.

MITAuto-check passed

Install Zeigarnik Effect

skills CLI
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill zeigarnik-effect -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills zeigarnik-effect --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/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/interaction-design/skills/zeigarnik-effect .claude/skills/zeigarnik-effect && 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
zeigarnik-effect
GitHub stars
2.9k
Token cost
~895 tokens
SKILL.md length
476 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
107
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Apply the Zeigarnik Effect — incomplete tasks stay mentally active.

  • Works in 3 steps: Save state automatically, without… → Signal clearly that the task can be… → Restore context completely on return —…
  • Designing progress indicators
  • SKILL.md covers What You Do, The Principle, Applications and When the Zeigarnik Effect…, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Zeigarnik Effect is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designer-skills. Apply the Zeigarnik Effect — incomplete tasks stay mentally active. Use when designing progress indicators, saved drafts, and return hooks. For the emotional shape of the ending, use peak-end-rule.

Its SKILL.md is about 900 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

  • Designing progress indicators

Example prompts

  • “/zeigarnik-effect”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Save state automatically, without requiring the user to act
  2. Signal clearly that the task can be resumed exactly where it was left
  3. Restore context completely on return — the user's mental model of "where I was" must match the actual state

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

Zeigarnik Effect loads about 895 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 54 tokens; SKILL.md has 476 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~54
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~895

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). 476 words, ~895 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/zeigarnik-effect/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
zeigarnik-effect
description
Apply the Zeigarnik Effect — incomplete tasks stay mentally active. Use when designing progress indicators, saved drafts, and return hooks. For the emotional shape of the ending, use `peak-end-rule`.

Zeigarnik Effect

You are an expert in task completion psychology and motivational design.

What You Do

You apply the Zeigarnik Effect to design progress states, interruption handling, and re-engagement patterns that use incompleteness as a motivational signal — without abusing it.

The Principle

Bluma Zeigarnik observed that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones. Unfinished tasks occupy open loops in working memory — the brain keeps returning to them because the tension of incompleteness is unresolved.

Design implication: incompleteness is a motivational state. Progress that is started but not finished creates a pull toward completion.

Applications

Progress indicators and multi-step flows

Showing a user how far they have come — and that a defined, finite distance remains — is more motivating than showing neither:

  • Progress bars on profile completion, course modules, or setup flows activate the Zeigarnik loop
  • "You're 60% done" is more compelling than "complete your profile" without a completion signal
  • Named steps with clear endpoints give working memory something concrete to hold and return to
Re-engagement touchpoints

"You left something in your cart" works because the Zeigarnik loop is already open — the user started a task and did not finish it. The re-engagement surfaces a real cognitive state:

  • Draft resumption: "You have an unsaved draft" keeps an open loop visible
  • Onboarding re-entry: "You're one step away from completing setup" references the specific uncompleted state
  • Abandoned flow recovery: showing the exact step where the user stopped is more effective than a generic call to action
Interruption handling

If a flow can be interrupted mid-completion, the product must:

  1. Save state automatically, without requiring the user to act
  2. Signal clearly that the task can be resumed exactly where it was left
  3. Restore context completely on return — the user's mental model of "where I was" must match the actual state
Show full SKILL.md (176 more words)Show less
Checklists and completion meters

Checklists make open loops explicit and visible. Each unchecked item maintains a Zeigarnik loop; completing items provides resolution. This is the mechanism behind:

  • Onboarding checklists
  • Profile completion meters and nudges
  • Achievement and progress systems in productivity and learning tools

When the Zeigarnik Effect Creates Problems

  • Too many open loops simultaneously: more than two or three competing incomplete states overwhelm rather than motivate
  • Re-engagement for low-priority tasks: prompts for tasks the user has implicitly abandoned read as manipulation, not helpfulness
  • Incomplete states that cannot be completed: showing a progress bar with no clear completion path creates frustration rather than motivation

Best Practices

  • Surface one or two open loops at a time; more is noise
  • Always provide a clear path to completion when referencing an unfinished task — incomplete without a route is anxiety, not motivation
  • Design autosave first; progress motivation only works if state is reliably preserved
  • Use incompleteness honestly — only surface it for tasks the user has genuinely started
  • Test re-engagement copy for tone; Zeigarnik-driven messages should feel like helpful reminders, not guilt

© 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/zeigarnik-effect of Owl-Listener/designer-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9a6930c

Compare with similar skills

Zeigarnik Effect 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.

Zeigarnik Effect compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Zeigarnik Effect this skillOwl-Listener/designer-skills2.9k—~895Automated safety check: PassMIT
Add Effectremotion-dev/remotion63k—~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Summarize Activityalpinejs/alpine32k—~1.6kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Effect V4ComposioHQ/composio30k—~1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Parallax Effectsthedaviddias/Front-End-Checklist74k—~523Automated safety check: PassMIT
Modeling Activation MetricsPostHog/posthog40k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence

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Questions about Zeigarnik Effect

What does Zeigarnik Effect do?

Apply the Zeigarnik Effect — incomplete tasks stay mentally active. Zeigarnik Effect is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designer-skills. Apply the Zeigarnik Effect — incomplete tasks stay mentally active.

When should I use Zeigarnik Effect?

Zeigarnik Effect fits situations like: designing progress indicators.

How do I install Zeigarnik Effect in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill zeigarnik-effect -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (interaction-design/skills/zeigarnik-effect in Owl-Listener/designer-skills) into .claude/skills/zeigarnik-effect in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Zeigarnik Effect in Codex?

Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill zeigarnik-effect -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (interaction-design/skills/zeigarnik-effect in Owl-Listener/designer-skills) into .agents/skills/zeigarnik-effect in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Zeigarnik Effect 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 zeigarnik-effect -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/zeigarnik-effect, .gemini/skills/zeigarnik-effect, .github/skills/zeigarnik-effect and .opencode/skills/zeigarnik-effect in your project.

What does Zeigarnik Effect need to run?

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

Does Zeigarnik Effect 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 Zeigarnik Effect 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 Zeigarnik Effect use?

Zeigarnik Effect 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 Zeigarnik Effect use?

About 895 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.6k 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 Zeigarnik Effect?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Zeigarnik Effect: Add Effect (remotion-dev/remotion, 63k stars), Summarize Activity (alpinejs/alpine, 32k stars), Effect V4 (ComposioHQ/composio, 30k stars) and Parallax Effects (thedaviddias/Front-End-Checklist, 74k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Zeigarnik Effect?

Owl-Listener (a GitHub user) maintains it in Owl-Listener/designer-skills, which has 2,862 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.