get-unstuck

name	Get Unstuck
description	Pause, surface the current plan + open questions, and suggest the next concrete step so the agent (or operator) can recover from a deadlock or analysis paralysis.
category	meta
effort	low
when_to_use	When the conversation has been spinning — repeated tool calls without progress, contradictory edits, the agent admitting it doesn't know what to do next, or the operator typing "you're stuck" / "let's try again". Don't use this as a first response — use it when the rope's already in a knot.
version	1.0.0

Stuck — recovery checklist

Stop. Don't make another tool call. Read this whole skill before deciding what to do next.

What "stuck" actually looks like

You probably got here because one of these is true:

• The same file keeps being edited and reverted, or the same tool keeps being called with slightly different inputs and the same result.
• You've explained a plan three different ways and the user is still unhappy.
• A test / build keeps failing and your fixes aren't moving the failure mode, just relocating it.
• You're about to open a PR / send a commit but you can't summarise what changed.

If none of those describe the moment, this skill probably isn't what you needed.

Recovery — five-step recipe

1. State the original goal in one sentence

What was the user's original ask? Not your interpretation, not the third-derivative subgoal you ended up chasing. The literal prompt or its plain-English rephrasing.

2. List what's actually been done

Not what you tried, not what you intended. What's committed to disk or visible in the conversation right now. Bullet list of ≤ 5 items.

3. List the open question(s)

What single piece of information would unblock you? It's almost always one of:

• A clarification from the user (which of two interpretations, what counts as "done", which file is canonical).
• A reading you skipped (a config you haven't opened, a log line you haven't grepped, a manifest you assumed about).
• A test / repro you don't have (you're pattern-matching on a bug report instead of running the code).

4. Propose one concrete next step

Pick the smallest action that produces new information. Not a plan, not a refactor — one Read, one Bash command, one user question. The goal is to break the symmetry of being stuck.

5. Surface a "stop here?" prompt

End with a single yes/no question to the user. Examples:

• "I think the issue is X. Should I try Y, or did you mean Z?"
• "Before I keep editing, can you confirm the file at PATH is the right one?"
• "I've made N changes; should I commit what's there now and continue from a clean state?"

Make the question answerable with one short reply. The point is to put the user back in the driver's seat without dumping your state on them.

What to avoid in this skill

• Don't write code.
• Don't make tool calls (Read / Bash / Edit / etc.) inside this skill — that's how you got stuck.
• Don't apologise more than once.
• Don't propose three options. One next step, one question.

After the user replies

Discard the rest of your prior plan. Treat the user's answer as the new starting point. The whole point of this skill is to reset, not to continue.