finding-unknowns

Finding Unknowns — Meta-Cognitive Skill Suite

A collection of 11 meta-cognitive skills that make coding agents surface unknown unknowns before they get expensive. These skills teach agents to discover what they don't know, audit their own context, design better interfaces, and structure implementation for maximum reviewability.

Based on Thariq Shihipar's "finding your unknowns" techniques. Originally published by Neeeophytee at https://github.com/Neeeophytee/finding-unknowns-skills.

Skills in This Suite

Skill	Description
blindspot-pass	Surface unknown unknowns before work starts — landmines, hidden context, quality calibration
interview-me	One-question-at-a-time targeted interview to resolve remaining ambiguity
reference-hunt	Extract semantics from existing code as specification, then reimplement
implementation-plan	Write plans ordered by likelihood of tweaking, not build order
implementation-notes	Log deviations from plan and discovered edge cases during a build
pitch-packager	Package work into a single review-ready document that gets fast approvals
change-quiz	Produce a diff report + 5-8 question quiz the user must pass before merge
brainstorm-prototypes	Generate wildly different throwaway variations for user reaction
context-audit	Audit CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, skills for contradictions, bloat, and overlap
agent-interface-design	Design MCP servers, tool definitions, and CLIs that teach their own use
progressive-disclosure	Split oversized skills/specs into entry + on-demand files

When to Use

• You're about to work in an unfamiliar codebase area or domain
• You're planning a complex multi-step implementation
• You've just finished a long session and need to verify what changed
• User asks to "audit context" or "find my blindspots"
• You're designing an MCP server or agent-facing tool

Hermes Installation

This suite can be installed as external skills. Add to your ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

skills:
  external_dirs:
    - /path/to/finding-unknowns/skills

Then run hermes skills list to verify all 11 skills are enabled.

See INSTALL-HERMES.md in the original repository at https://github.com/Neeeophytee/finding-unknowns-skills for alternative installation methods.

Skill Index

Each sub-skill is in skills/<name>/SKILL.md. Refer to the individual skill file for full procedure.

1. blindspot-pass — Systematic unknown-unknowns discovery
2. interview-me — One-question-at-a-time ambiguity resolution
3. reference-hunt — Code-as-specification reimplementation
4. implementation-plan — Decision-first plan authoring
5. implementation-notes — Running deviation log
6. pitch-packager — Review-ready work packaging
7. change-quiz — Pre-merge comprehension gate
8. brainstorm-prototypes — Throwaway variation generation
9. context-audit — Agent context rightsizing
10. agent-interface-design — Self-teaching tool interfaces
11. progressive-disclosure — On-demand content structuring

Pitfalls

• progressive-disclosure uses disable-model-invocation: true in original source (invoked only by user, not auto-activated). In Hermes, it behaves as model-invoked. Keep this in mind for context cost accounting.
• The suite is most effective when used as a cycle: Context Audit → Brainstorm → Interview → Plan → Implement (with Notes) → Quiz → Pitch. Not all steps are needed for every task.
• Individual skills work standalone — you can pick just the ones you need.

Verification

1. Run hermes skills list and verify all 11 skill names appear as "enabled".
2. Give the agent a task in an unfamiliar domain and check if blindspot-pass triggers.
3. After a long session, ask "what did we change?" and verify change-quiz produces a comprehensive report.
4. Request a context audit on your active configuration and verify contradictions are surfaced.