Recognize patterns across domains; build transfer learning. Use when a learner has a vague sense something is familiar ("this reminds me of..."), wants to understand connections between concepts, or seeks to apply knowledge from one domain to another. This skill guides through connection quality testing (breakdown, mechanism, constraint tests) and validates through cross-domain prediction. Enforces human-only discovery of connections. Triggers on phrases like "this reminds me of", "I've seen this before", "is this like X?", "same pattern as", or when learner spontaneously sees connections.
Guided concept discovery for learners who notice patterns, architectural choices, or design decisions in code and want to understand the ideas behind them. Use when a learner can read and write code but is glimpsing higher-level shapes they can't yet name or fully articulate — recurring structures across a codebase, architectural conventions, design trade-offs, or unfamiliar paradigms. Triggers on phrases like "I keep seeing this pattern", "why is the codebase structured this way", "there's a shape here I can't name", "what's the idea behind this approach", "I notice everything follows this structure", or when a learner describes a recurring pattern without knowing the concept it embodies.
First-principles thinking; identify what everything else builds on. Use when a learner feels like they're memorizing rather than understanding, wants to distinguish foundational from derived concepts, or needs to reconstruct knowledge from basics. This skill guides through dependency testing (elimination, reconstruction, abstraction descent) while enforcing human-only reasoning about what's core vs. derived. Triggers on phrases like "I'm memorizing not understanding", "what's really foundational", "I can use it but don't understand why", "distinguish core from derived", or when a learner wants deeper understanding of first principles.
Scaffolded debugging guidance for learning. Use when a learner encounters unexpected behavior, errors, or bugs and wants to develop debugging skills, not just fix the problem. This skill guides through hypothesis formation, investigation design, and root cause analysis while enforcing human-only decision points. Triggers on phrases like "help me debug", "something's wrong with my code", "unexpected behavior", "learning to debug", or when a learner describes symptoms without immediately asking for the fix.
Teaches learners to extract transferable design lessons from real-world codebases through critical evaluation and systematic exploration. Use when a learner wants to study existing code to learn patterns, architecture, or design decisions—not just understand what it does. Guides through navigation, pattern recognition, critical evaluation (deliberate choice vs. compromise), and lesson extraction. Triggers on phrases like "learn from this codebase", "study how X is implemented", "understand design patterns in Y", or when a learner wants to improve by reading real code.
Develop systematic threat reasoning and adversarial thinking about code security. Use when a learner wants to analyze code for security implications, understand vulnerability patterns, or develop security-minded thinking. This skill teaches systematic threat modeling, assumption surfacing, and defense reasoning—not vulnerability cataloging. Triggers on phrases like "is this secure", "security implications", "could this be exploited", "threat analysis", or when a learner wants to develop security reasoning skills.