| name | bounded-rationality-design |
| description | Run a Simon-inspired design and decision search process using bounded rationality, constraints, satisficing criteria, decomposition, alternative generation, and iterative evaluation. Use when Codex is asked to solve a strategy, organization, product, architecture, research, or design problem under limited time, limited information, and competing constraints. |
Bounded Rationality Design
Overview
Use this skill when the user cannot optimize perfectly and needs a good-enough design under real constraints. The process turns vague goals into constraints, search spaces, satisficing thresholds, alternatives, tests, and a chosen design.
Workflow
- Define the goal and the environment the design must operate in.
- List constraints: time, budget, knowledge, tools, people, regulation, compute, and risk.
- Define satisficing criteria: what is good enough to accept.
- Decompose the problem into smaller decisions or subsystems.
- Generate alternatives for each subsystem.
- Evaluate alternatives against constraints and satisficing criteria.
- Choose the first robust acceptable option or run another search cycle if none qualify.
- Document residual uncertainty, monitoring signals, and next revision trigger.
Output
Return:
- goal and environment
- constraints
- satisficing criteria
- decomposition
- alternative table
- evaluation matrix
- selected design
- monitoring and revision plan
Resources
references/process-checklist.md
references/source-notes.md