creative-problem-solver

# Creative Problem Solver Purpose: when a strategy choice is still open, transform the incumbent into materially different candidate paths, project the honest survivors into a five-tier portfolio, and stop for a human choice. ## Activation boundary Implicit invocation is enabled. Host loading is not portfolio authorization. The portfolio route requires an **unresolved strategy choice plus a request for divergent options**. Difficulty, uncertainty, creativity language, or a name-only or meta mention is not enough. ### Activate when - The user asks for options, alternatives, trade-offs, fresh angles, reframing, a strategy portfolio, or "what else could we try?" - Repeated attempts fail in the same way and selecting a materially different approach is the next task. - A multi-constraint decision would benefit from several distinct conceptual frames before commitment. - The primary deliverable is a choice set of materially different paths followed by human selection. - A direction is selected but materially different rollout, migration, containment, or proof strategies remain open. ### Do not activate; route elsewhere - Direct implementation, debugging, review, or execution after an approach is selected: use the owning workflow. - Mixed requests where options are subordinate to "choose and implement now": the execution owner may use this reasoning internally, but this skill must not seize the turn and discard the requested execution. - A factual answer, ordinary creative generation such as names or copy, or comparison of a small known set where a portfolio adds ceremony: answer directly. - Evidence-backed repository or product opportunity mining, ranked improvement discovery, or choosing what to plan next: use direct evidence-backed opportunity analysis. - Turning a selected direction into a detailed implementation plan, specification, or execution decomposition: use `$plan`. - Architecture or codebase understanding without a request for divergent paths: use direct codebase analysis. - Analysis, explanation, review, tuning, testing, or editing of this skill itself: use direct analysis or `$tune` as appropriate. - The user already chose a tier or path and asks to execute it: hand off to the execution owner; do not regenerate the portfolio. ### Skill-name rule - Imperative requests to "use", "run", or "apply `$creative-problem-solver`" **to generate a strategy portfolio** explicitly authorize the portfolio route. - A name-only or meta mention may load the package under host policy, but it routes to the task owner—or to direct clarification when no task exists—and does not authorize portfolio generation. ### Tie-breakers - Explicit imperative portfolio invocation wins unless safety, a domain-specific owner, a meta-task owner, or a contradictory execution request requires another route. - Direct evidence-backed opportunity analysis owns repository mining and ranked improvement discovery. - `$plan` wins when the direction is selected and the requested output is an execution policy or detailed plan. - `$tune` wins when the object of work is the skill package itself. - Activate when the requested outcome is a choice set; do not activate when the outcome is one answer, one plan, or one implementation. ## Method 1. **Bind** only what governs the choice: ```text Objective: <outcome or decision to improve> Hard constraints: <non-negotiable boundaries> Incumbent/default basin: <the approach or representation most likely to be repeated> Material unknowns: <unknowns that could change the choice> ``` 2. **Diverge before formalizing**: transform the incumbent across several orthogonal operator axes. Do not use the five tiers as idea prompts. 3. **Quotient**: collapse candidates that share a governing mechanism and differ only by cost, scope, implementation size, rollout speed, timeline, or ambition. 4. **Aha Check** after the initial field exists. If a material re-representation changes the field, proof surface, ordering, or decision criteria, regenerate once under it and quotient again. Otherwise report `Aha: N/A` without penalty. 5. **Winnow** pairwise non-subsumed candidates that would lead to meaningfully different commitments. 6. **Validate proportionally**: attach the smallest reversible probe, decision discriminator, kill criterion, retained asset, and pre-irreversible escape hatch appropriate to each survivor. 7. **Project** survivors onto Quick Win through Moonshot without changing their governing mechanisms to fit the labels. Preserve every heading, but never fabricate a candidate merely to fill a tier. 8. **Recommend conditionally**, then stop for human input before execution. An unknown blocks solution candidates only when it could invert the decision, makes comparison meaningless, crosses a serious safety/legal/irreversibility boundary, or leaves no concrete decision surface. Otherwise state the assumption, branch conditionally, or resolve it through a probe. Never silently choose a domain, metric, threshold, denominator, population, repetition count, causal mechanism, or factual basis. Separate decision-shaping facts, supported inferences, assumptions, and hypotheses; label only those that affect the choice. ## Lanes - **Fast Spark**: default. Perform a hidden micro-divergence pass across at least four operator axes, including a subtractive move and a boundary or representation shift when admissible. Show only the decision-useful survivors. - **Full Session**: use when the user explicitly requests deep or exhaustive exploration, or when high stakes, irreversibility, or coupled constraints make the candidate field itself decision-relevant. Generate roughly 10-30 raw candidates, cluster by governing mechanism, and expose only the clusters or transformations that changed winnowing. - Difficulty alone does not justify Full Session. Visible brevity never authorizes shallow search. ## Divergence kernel Treat these as search transformations, not headings to fill: - **Subtract** — eliminate the need, component, coordination, handoff, or inherited assumption. - **Invert** — reverse a governing assumption, default, control direction, dependency, or value exchange. - **Move the boundary** — change the owner, authority, interface, trust boundary, or substrate. - **Re-represent** — change the model, data shape, abstraction, unit of work, or problem statement. - **Change time** — precompute, defer, batch, stream, amortize, speculate, or make work event-driven. - **Change the actor or incentive** — alter who acts, who benefits, who pays, or what behavior the system rewards. - **Change the proof surface** — solve for a different observable, contract, falsifier, or acceptance boundary. - **Split, compose, or transfer** — decompose the problem, combine separate moves, or import a mechanism from a structurally analogous domain. Honor a user-requested creative technique when usable, but use it to transform the incumbent rather than as visible process theater. ## Material diversity - Selecting one survivor instead of another must change at least one of: governing mechanism, owner, representation, authority boundary, admitted domain, unit of work, proof obligation, or falsifier. - Retain at least one subtractive candidate and at least one boundary or representation shift when those moves are admissible. - A candidate subsumed by a stronger candidate is not separate unless it creates a materially different reversible entry point. - If honest divergence is unavailable, say so. A same-basin portfolio or an empty tier is preferable to fabricated novelty. ## Aha Check - **Aha is the restructuring insight**: the problem is re-represented so a different candidate field becomes visible. - Output `Aha: <restructuring insight>` or `Aha: N/A`. - Follow a material Aha with `Aha basis: <why the shift is warranted> [evidence: fact | supported inference]`. - Put any empirical proposition on a separate optional line: `Claim: <claim> [evidence: fact | supported inference | hypothesis]`. - A material Aha must introduce a previously unavailable candidate, change a discriminator or proof surface, or reorder the surviving field. Regenerate once under it; otherwise it is commentary, not an Aha. - Creative force never upgrades a basis or claim's factual status. A hypothesis needs a concrete disconfirming observation in a relevant probe. ## Probes, evidence, and accretion Every populated option must contain: - **Probe** — the smallest reversible commitment that can change the decision; include a timebox when it materially improves control. - **Discriminator** — the observation or comparison that would favor this path over its live alternatives. - **Kill criterion** — the observation that defeats the path, its governing claim, or its admissibility. - **Retained asset** — durable evidence, data, interface, prototype, test, model, specification, or decision record kept even when the path loses. - **Escape hatch** — the stop, flag, isolation boundary, or pre-commitment that exists before irreversible authority, data, compatibility, or organizational commitment crosses the boundary. Strengthen only as the claim requires: quantitative comparisons need whatever baseline, denominator, comparison rule, threshold, and repetition make the result interpretable; qualitative inquiry needs an evidence source, interpretation rule, and disconfirming evidence; causal hypotheses need falsifiers; irreversible commitments need abort boundaries and consequence containment. Do not force benchmark grammar onto qualitative or strategic decisions. An **Evidence Spine** may hold neutral facts, baselines, examples, criteria, or evaluation harnesses that compare candidates without prescribing their construction. Each candidate may instead retain its own **Option Artifact** when its representation, interface, owner, or proof surface differs. Never force a transformative path to inherit the Quick Win's construction merely to share an artifact. Completion alone is not proof of benefit, and post-hoc quarantine is not reversibility. ## Tier projection - **Quick Win** — cheapest reversible move that improves the decision or outcome now. - **Strategic Play** — strongest path within the current operating model. - **Advantage Play** — creates a reusable capability, compounding asset, or asymmetric option. - **Transformative Move** — changes an interface, operating model, governing constraint, authority boundary, or user ritual. - **Moonshot** — tests discontinuous upside through the smallest bounded proof-bearing probe. Project after winnowing. Do not escalate one mechanism through five sizes. If no honest candidate fits a tier, write `No honest <tier> survived divergence` and explain the missing distinction in one sentence. ## Option card ```text <Tier> — <path> [shift: <mechanism, boundary, representation, or proof surface>] - Probe: <smallest reversible test; timebox when meaningful> - Decide by: <discriminator>; kill if <disconfirming observation> - Retain: <durable option artifact>; escape before <irreversible boundary> ``` Add an assumption or evidence label only when it changes how the option should be interpreted. ## Selection and output - State the condition under which each leading path dominates and give one conditional recommendation. - Prefer qualitative trade-off dominance over pseudo-precision. Use numeric scoring or Pareto language only when the user supplies criteria, scale anchors, and evidence that make the values meaningful. - Fast Spark shows the compact binding, Aha or honest N/A, five tier headings with concise cards or honest gaps, one recommendation, and `Human Input Required: choose a path or update the constraints.` - Full Session adds a compact candidate-field summary: mechanisms explored, equivalence classes collapsed, and transformations that changed winnowing. - Do not expose the full operator checklist or discarded idea dump unless the user asks. - A recommendation is not execution authorization. After selection, hand detailed planning to `$plan` and authorized implementation to the owning workflow. This skill never owns repository mutation. ## Routing examples ### Should activate - "Give me several materially different ways to reduce onboarding drop-off before we choose one." - "We have tried tuning the query twice and are still stuck. What else could we try?" - "Reframe this migration problem and show the trade-offs among distinct paths." - "The problem is ambiguous; give me learning moves rather than a build plan." - "We selected event sourcing; show materially different rollout and containment strategies before execution." ### Should not activate - "`$creative-problem-solver`" -> direct clarification; no portfolio object is authorized. - "Use `$creative-problem-solver`." -> direct clarification until a portfolio object is supplied. - "Do a deep analysis of my `$creative-problem-solver` skill." -> direct analysis / `$tune` - "Patch `$creative-problem-solver` so it stops over-triggering." -> `$tune` - "I am blocked by this compiler error. What else can I try?" -> debugging owner - "Brainstorm twenty names for this command." -> direct creative generation - "Give me options, choose the best, and implement it now." -> execution owner; portfolio may be internal - "Mine this repository for evidence-backed product and DX opportunities." -> direct evidence-backed opportunity analysis - "Turn the chosen event-sourcing direction into a detailed implementation plan." -> `$plan` - "Explain this repository's architecture and data flow." -> direct codebase analysis - "Review this pull request for defects." -> review owner - "We chose the Quick Win. Build it now." -> execution owner