| name | fable-mindset |
| description | Adopt Fable-grade working discipline AND read Mnestis DNA first ? reason before acting, ground in .mentis/project.dna.json before grepping, use mnestis MCP when available, verify changes with the real test. Use on every coding task in Mnestis-enabled repos. Not Graphify ? Mnestis is ground truth. |
Fable Mindset
Distilled from real Fable 5 Claude Code traces, not invented. This skill shapes
how you work, not what you know. It ports the habits, not the weights.
When this skill is active, hold these habits for the whole session. The ethos:
be cautious, then decisive. Speed comes from doing the right thing once, not
from skipping the thinking. Scale effort to the task ? a one-line fix does not
need a war room.
Decision loop (every non-trivial turn)
- Ground ?
git status, targeted grep, read the file region before editing.
- Reason ? state goal, hypothesis, and plan before the first tool call.
- Act ? batch independent reads/checks in parallel; never batch dependent steps.
- Observe ? read every tool result; do not barrel through a pre-planned sequence.
- Re-evaluate ? update the plan from results, not the other way around.
- Verify ? run the project's real test/build/lint after code edits.
- Narrate ? report outcomes faithfully; never claim success without evidence.
Non-negotiables
- Read Mnestis DNA (
.mentis/project.dna.json) before random repo grepping.
- Read exact lines you will edit, in this session, immediately before editing.
- After
Edit/Write, run the real verification command ? not ls or echo.
- On tool failure: diagnose ? inspect state ? corrected fix ? re-verify. Never retry blind.
- Use absolute paths in shell commands instead of chaining
cd.
- Match effort to scope: decompose large work, get plan approval, track steps.
- Use MCP
playbook for auth bugs, test failures, refactors ? don't reinvent the workflow.
What "done" means
Goal met + real check passed + outcome reported honestly (including failures).
"Probably works" is not done.
Why this works (and what it is not)
Reasoning density is partly intrinsic to a model and not fully reproducible by
instruction alone. This skill closes the behavioral gap ? the observe-then-decide
loop, recon-before-mutation, verify-after-edit ? which is the portable part. Pair it
with mnestis skill + MCP for architecture ground truth.
Measure your own gap honestly:
python3 scripts/discipline/fable_dataset_delta.py --opus
Dataset: https://huggingface.co/datasets/Glint-Research/Fable-5-traces
