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Agent skill

Thinking Via Negativa

by tjboudreaux in tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills

A skill your agent uses when the reflex is to add a feature, layer, or process.

MITAuto-check passed

Install Thinking Via Negativa

skills CLI
$ npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-via-negativa -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills thinking-via-negativa --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/tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/thinking-via-negativa .claude/skills/thinking-via-negativa && 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
thinking-via-negativa
GitHub stars
1.6k
Token cost
~735 tokens
SKILL.md length
339 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
26
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when the reflex is to add a feature, layer, or process.

  • Works in 7 steps: Pause the add reflex. State the goal and… → Ask the subtraction question first. List… → Catalog candidates with evidence. Prefer… → …
  • The reflex is to add a feature
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use, When NOT to Use, Procedure and Output, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Thinking Via Negativa is an agent skill from tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills. Use when the reflex is to add a feature, layer, or process. Prefer removing harmful or nonessential elements first, with an irreversibility guard before deletion.

Its SKILL.md is about 740 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: 28 eval-informed mental models and critical-thinking skills for Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Cursor, and other Agent Skills-compatible tools. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • The reflex is to add a feature

Example prompts

  • “/thinking-via-negativa”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Pause the add reflex. State the goal and the proposed addition in one line.
  2. Ask the subtraction question first. List what could be removed or stopped to achieve the same goal with less surface area.
  3. Catalog candidates with evidence. Prefer unused, redundant, high-cost/low-value, or harmful elements. Require usage, call-graph, metrics…
  4. Apply the irreversibility guard. Classify reversible vs hard-to-restore; identify dependents; refuse deleting unproven mystery guards…
  5. Remove the safest high-value candidate first. Subtract, monitor, and verify absence of needed behavior before the next removal.
  6. Add only if the goal still fails. If subtraction cannot meet the need, add the minimum change and record why removal was insufficient.
  7. Stop when the goal is met by absence, or remaining candidates fail the irreversibility/evidence bar and a minimal addition is justified.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 7b8fece. 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

Thinking Via Negativa loads about 735 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 46 tokens; SKILL.md has 339 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~46
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~735

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 tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills at commit 7b8fece, republished under its MIT licence (© tjboudreaux). 339 words, ~735 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/thinking-via-negativa/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
thinking-via-negativa
description
Use when the reflex is to add a feature, layer, or process. Prefer removing harmful or nonessential elements first, with an irreversibility guard before deletion.
disable-model-invocation
true

Via Negativa

Improve by subtraction before addition. Prefer removing harm, waste, and nonessential complexity; add only when a demonstrated need remains after removal candidates are exhausted.

When to Use

  • About to add a feature, abstraction, dependency, process, or control to fix a problem.
  • Simplifying a system or workflow where complexity is the tax.
  • Prioritizing by deciding what not to keep, build, or maintain.
  • Performance or reliability work where eliminating a bad path beats bolting on mitigation.

When NOT to Use

  • Load-bearing controls: auth, validation, tests, rate limits, retries, safety checks — presume necessary until proven dead.
  • A demonstrated requirement that cannot be met by removal or simplification.
  • Aesthetic minimalism without evidence of non-use or net harm.
  • Irreversible deletion without a rollback path when impact is unknown.

Procedure

  1. Pause the add reflex. State the goal and the proposed addition in one line.
  2. Ask the subtraction question first. List what could be removed or stopped to achieve the same goal with less surface area.
  3. Catalog candidates with evidence. Prefer unused, redundant, high-cost/low-value, or harmful elements. Require usage, call-graph, metrics, or experiment evidence — not taste.
  4. Apply the irreversibility guard. Classify reversible vs hard-to-restore; identify dependents; refuse deleting unproven mystery guards. Plan staged removal or flag when risk is non-trivial.
  5. Remove the safest high-value candidate first. Subtract, monitor, and verify absence of needed behavior before the next removal.
  6. Add only if the goal still fails. If subtraction cannot meet the need, add the minimum change and record why removal was insufficient.
  7. Stop when the goal is met by absence, or remaining candidates fail the irreversibility/evidence bar and a minimal addition is justified.

Stop condition: Goal achieved via removal, or residual need documented after evidence-backed subtraction failed.

Output

text
Goal: <desired outcome>
Proposed add (if any): <thing>
Removal candidates: <element — evidence — risk — reversible?>
Action: remove <X> | staged remove <X> | add minimal <Y> because <why removal failed>
Verification plan: <how absence/success is checked>
Do-not-touch: <load-bearing items preserved>

Verification

  • Falsify if something was deleted without non-use/harm evidence, or a safety control was removed as "complexity."
  • Falsify if an addition shipped without a prior subtraction pass on the same goal.
  • Over-application guard: do not delete for line-count or purity when the element is load-bearing or the need is demonstrated.

© tjboudreaux, 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/thinking-via-negativa of tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 7b8fece

Compare with similar skills

Thinking Via Negativa 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.

Thinking Via Negativa compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Thinking Via Negativa this skilltjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills1.6k—~735Automated safety check: PassMIT
Think Tankdavila7/claude-code-templates33k—~3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Product Thinkingmillionco/react-doctor15k—~3.1kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Design Thinkingsickn33/agentic-awesome-skills47k1 repos~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Ten-Stage Think LoopAgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian15k—~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Scientific Thinking Literature Reviewaffaan-m/ECC277k1 repos~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Thinking Via Negativa

What does Thinking Via Negativa do?

A skill your agent uses when the reflex is to add a feature, layer, or process. Thinking Via Negativa is an agent skill from tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills. Use when the reflex is to add a feature, layer, or process.

When should I use Thinking Via Negativa?

Thinking Via Negativa fits situations like: the reflex is to add a feature.

How do I install Thinking Via Negativa in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-via-negativa -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/thinking-via-negativa in tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills) into .claude/skills/thinking-via-negativa in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Thinking Via Negativa in Codex?

Run `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-via-negativa -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/thinking-via-negativa in tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills) into .agents/skills/thinking-via-negativa in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Thinking Via Negativa 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 tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-via-negativa -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/thinking-via-negativa, .gemini/skills/thinking-via-negativa, .github/skills/thinking-via-negativa and .opencode/skills/thinking-via-negativa in your project.

What does Thinking Via Negativa need to run?

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

Does Thinking Via Negativa 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 Thinking Via Negativa 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 Thinking Via Negativa use?

Thinking Via Negativa 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 Thinking Via Negativa use?

About 735 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.9k 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 Thinking Via Negativa?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Thinking Via Negativa: Think Tank (davila7/claude-code-templates, 33k stars), Product Thinking (millionco/react-doctor, 15k stars), Design Thinking (sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills, 47k stars) and Ten-Stage Think Loop (AgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian, 15k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Thinking Via Negativa?

tjboudreaux (a GitHub user) maintains it in tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills, which has 1,613 GitHub stars. The repository holds 26 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 7, 2026.

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