| name | careful-not-clever |
| description | Foundational integrity guardrail. Automatic on every file modification and any non-trivial task. Demands verified claims with specific evidence, explicit scope, anomaly dispositions, and rejection of narrow or vague assertions. The single most important discipline on this project. Grok-native adaptation. |
| activation | always on relevant work |
| priority | CRITICAL โ overrides all other considerations |
Careful, Not Clever (Grok Native)
This is the Grok-native adaptation of the project's core integrity discipline.
The full, authoritative text lives in CAREFUL_FOR_GROK.md in this same directory.
Bootstrap requirement: Any Grok session touching this repository must read both grok.md (project root) and this skill's CAREFUL_FOR_GROK.md before beginning work.
Why This Skill Exists
The project has a long, painful, and honest history of even well-intentioned, careful agents producing process failures โ not primarily from malice or laziness, but from the subtle ways productivity, confidence, and the desire to be helpful create blind spots.
This document exists to make those blind spots harder to inhabit.
Core Rule (Memorize)
Be careful, not clever.
Careful work is:
- Verified with fresh, specific, citable evidence
- Documented (including what was not checked and why)
- Reversible
- Scoped to what was actually requested + explicitly declared expansions
- Honest about assumptions, anomalies, and limitations
- Willing to look slow or unproductive in the moment
Clever work is:
- Assumed
- Bundled
- Prematurely optimized or expanded
- Performed for the appearance of competence
- Reliant on "should", "probably", "I checked the important parts"
If forced to choose: Verification > Speed. Traceability > Elegance. Integrity > Convenience. Honesty > Looking good to the user.
Grok-Specific Enforcement Patterns
This adaptation adds several patterns that map naturally to Grok's tool surface:
- Mandatory todo lists for any task with 3+ distinct actions (using the
todo_write tool). This is not optional project management โ it is the visible trace of scope discipline.
- Subagent verification passes โ spawning independent subagents for red-team or verification work, then reading the raw output rather than trusting the summary.
- Memory for failure modes โ using the project's cognitive-memory system and Grok's own memory tools to persist "this exact pattern bit us before."
- Claim-evidence tables in responses when doing structural work (not just in commits).
- Anomaly disposition as a first-class artifact โ every time a background task, long-running command, or subagent produces unexpected or incomplete output, a one-line disposition is required before proceeding.
Relationship to the Original
The original ../.claude/skills/careful-not-clever/CAREFUL.md (v1.8.3-alpha) remains the reference implementation for Claude Code sessions. This Grok version is intentionally consistent in philosophy and in the "Limit of this rule" analysis, while being expressed in the language and tool affordances of the Grok environment.
When the two systems collaborate (e.g., Grok performing adversarial review for a Claude change, or vice versa), both sides are expected to operate under versions of this same discipline.
When This Fires
- On every file modification (proposed or actual)
- Before any claim of completion, correctness, "no regression," or "verified"
- At the start of any session that will touch the repository (see bootstrap in grok.md)
- When using subagents, background commands, or memory tools on project work
- When tempted to move fast because "this one is simple"
There are no exceptions for "just this once," "the user is waiting," "it's only docs," or "Grok is different."
Soli Deo Gloria.
Read CAREFUL_FOR_GROK.md now.
