pantheon-org/challenge

Challenge

Apply structured provocation patterns to force reconsideration of current work.

Target: $ARGUMENTS

⚠️ AskUserQuestion Guard

CRITICAL: After EVERY AskUserQuestion call, check if answers are empty/blank. Known Claude Code bug: outside Plan Mode, AskUserQuestion silently returns empty answers without showing UI.

If answers are empty: DO NOT proceed with assumptions. Instead:

1. Output: "⚠️ Questions didn't display (known Claude Code bug outside Plan Mode)."
2. Present the options as a numbered text list and ask user to reply with their choice number.
3. WAIT for user reply before continuing.

Dispatch

Parse first word of $ARGUMENTS as subcommand:

| Subcommand | Error Type | Protocol | |---|---|---| | anchor | Premature commitment / anchoring bias | Read references/protocols/anchor.md → execute | | verify | Factual errors / hallucination | Read references/protocols/verify.md → execute | | framing | Wrong problem / framing errors | Read references/protocols/framing.md → execute | | deep | High stakes — all 9 patterns in fresh context | Spawn devil-advocate sub-agent via Agent |

No-Subcommand Fallback

If no subcommand detected:

AskUserQuestion: "What are you worried about with the current AI response?"

• A) Anchoring bias — AI committed too early to one approach
• B) Factual accuracy — claims may be wrong or hallucinated
• C) Wrong framing — solving the wrong problem
• D) High stakes — want all 9 patterns in fresh context (Devil's Advocate)

→ Dispatch to matching subcommand based on answer.

Deep Subcommand

Spawn via Agent tool a devil's advocate sub-agent with:

• prompt: target description + relevant file paths to read
• The agent runs ALL 9 patterns (anchor: Gatekeeper, Reset, Alt Approaches, Pre-mortem · verify: Proof Demand, CoVe, Fact Check List · framing: Socratic, Steelman) comprehensively in fresh context
• DO NOT pass parent conversation reasoning — fresh context is the point

Thinking Transparency (applies to all subcommands)

For every finding, make reasoning explicit:

1. Observation: What specifically in the target triggered this finding
2. Technique family: Which challenge family (anchor/verify/framing) and named pattern (e.g., Gatekeeper, CoVe, Steelman) — cite mechanism from references/reference.md pattern catalog
3. Reasoning: Why this observation matters — what cognitive bias or error it reveals
4. Confidence: How certain is this finding (High/Medium/Low) and what evidence supports that rating

Output

All subcommands produce a Challenge Report (structured, not prose). See references/reference.md for report format and pattern catalog.

When to Use

• An AI assistant or team member has proposed a solution without exploring alternatives — use anchor to surface premature commitment.
• Output contains specific facts, citations, or confident numerical claims that have not been verified — use verify to stress-test accuracy.
• The stated problem feels mis-framed or the scope is suspiciously narrow — use framing to question whether the right problem is being solved.
• A proposal carries high organisational or technical risk (irreversible change, security boundary, large refactor) — use deep to run all nine patterns in a clean context.
• A decision is about to be committed to (PR merged, ticket closed, design doc signed off) and no one has played devil's advocate yet.

When Not to Use

• The proposal is already in production and rollback is not possible — retrospective challenges generate friction without actionable outcomes; use a post-mortem instead.
• The work is exploratory or speculative and the author has explicitly labelled it a spike — early challenges can kill useful divergent thinking before it matures.
• A prior challenge session has already been run on the same target with the same subcommand and no new evidence has emerged.
• The requester is looking for encouragement or morale support, not critical analysis — misapplying challenge to emotional contexts causes harm.
• Time budget is under five minutes and the stakes are low — the protocol overhead exceeds the value; a quick gut-check comment is sufficient.

Anti-Patterns

• NEVER challenge without the anchor protocol first — Unconstrained challenges devolve into unproductive debate. Why: The anchor establishes shared facts before disagreement; without it, participants argue from different baselines.
• NEVER challenge the person, only the proposal — Personal challenges trigger defensiveness and shut down learning. Why: The goal is to stress-test the idea, not the author; role-separate the proposal from the proposer explicitly.
• NEVER issue a challenge without proposing an alternative — Pure objections without alternatives leave teams stuck. Why: A challenge that can't be resolved produces friction, not insight; offer a "what if instead..." path.
• NEVER run deep on a trivial or low-stakes target — All nine patterns applied to a minor decision wastes cognitive bandwidth. Why: deep is calibrated for high-stakes irreversible choices; applying it broadly devalues the signal and desensitises the team.
• NEVER suppress or soften findings to avoid conflict — Diluted challenge output is worse than no challenge at all. Why: The entire value of this skill is honest, evidence-backed pushback; hedging findings defeats the purpose and misleads decision-makers.

Usage Examples

Challenging a proposed architecture decision:

# Proposal: "Use a monorepo for all 40 services"
# Skill applies anchor: "What problem does this solve? What is the current pain?"
# Skill applies framing: "What alternatives were considered? What are the failure modes?"
# Skill applies verify: "Can we test this with 3 services first?"

Challenging an implementation shortcut:

# Proposal: "Just hardcode the config values for the demo"
# Skill challenges: "What is the rollback path? When does this become permanent?"
# Output: Structured challenge with anchor + alternative approach

Running a full devil's advocate review before a design doc is signed off:

# Target: architecture decision record for event-sourcing migration
# Invoke: /challenge deep path/to/adr.md
# Skill spawns a sub-agent with all 9 patterns (anchor x4, verify x3, framing x2)
# Output: Challenge Report with confidence ratings and ranked findings

References

• Reference — pattern catalog (9 patterns), when-to-use guide, and Challenge Report format
• Anchor Protocol — Gatekeeper, Reset, Alternative Approaches, Pre-mortem execution steps and output template
• Framing Protocol — Socratic and Steelman execution steps and output template
• Verify Protocol — Proof Demand, CoVe, Fact Check List execution steps and output template