decide

name

decide

description

Use when Shane is stuck on a decision, wants to cut through avoidance, or invokes /decide. Takes a stuck decision as input, loads accountability + patterns context, and outputs a structured session — Mirror (what you're actually doing) → Real Decision → Recommendation → Next Step. Hard mode strips diplomatic framing. Trigger on /decide, "I keep going back and forth on", "I can't decide", "help me think through", "I've been avoiding", or any stuck decision framing.

Skill: /decide

Decision clarity session. One stuck decision in, one committed action out.

Input

The decision comes from the user's message. If none is given, ask: "What decision are you avoiding?"

If the user says /decide hard or includes "hard mode", activate hard mode (see below).

Steps

1. Load context:

   • obsidian read file='Context/accountability'
   • obsidian read file='Context/patterns'
   • obsidian read file='Context/avoidance-map' (silently skip if the file doesn't exist yet)

2. Check avoidance-map: has this decision (or a close variant) appeared before? Note how many times if so — this changes the Mirror framing.

3. Run the four-part session:

Mirror Name what's actually happening — not the stated problem, but the real behavior. What pattern is this? (confrontation avoidance, commitment fear, perfectionism, change resistance, low-stakes procrastination dressed up as complexity.) If this decision has appeared in avoidance-map before, say so plainly: "You've circled this one N times." Don't soften the Mirror. The user is here because they already know they're avoiding something.

Real Decision Strip the framing. What is the actual choice? One sentence, binary or bounded. No "it depends."

Recommendation One move, this week. Not a list. Not "consider X." A specific action with enough detail to act on it without further clarification.

Next Step The smallest concrete thing to do today or tomorrow to start executing the recommendation.

4. After presenting the session, ask: "Want me to log this to your avoidance map?"

   • If yes (or if the decision already exists in the map): append a row to Context/avoidance-map and commit the vault.
   • Format: | [Decision summary] | [today's date] | [N] | [brief note from this session] |
   • If a row already exists for this decision, update it in place (increment count, update last note).

5. Vault commit (if written):

   VAULT="$HOME/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/Personal"
   git -C "$VAULT" add -A && git -C "$VAULT" commit -m "docs: log decision session to avoidance-map"
   

Hard mode

When activated, apply these changes to Mirror and Recommendation:

• Mirror: name the avoidance pattern in plain terms, without softening. Call the fear by its real name if you can identify it. No diplomatic preamble.
• Recommendation: remove hedging language. State what to do, not what to consider.

Hard mode doesn't change the structure — just the tone. It's for when Shane already knows what he needs to hear and wants it said plainly.

Output format

Four labeled blocks, blank line between each. Recommendation and Next Step are single sentences — not lists.

**Mirror**
[what's actually happening]

**Real Decision**
[the actual binary/bounded choice, one sentence]

**Recommendation**
[one specific action, this week]

**Next Step**
[smallest thing to do today or tomorrow]