introspecting

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This skill should be used when the user pastes diagnostic questions, says "introspect", "answer these questions about your behavior", "explain why you did this", "reflect on your behavior", or provides questions generated by the diagnosing skill. Answers introspection questions about session behavior with complete honesty for behavior diagnostics workflows.

it-bens By it-bens schedule Updated 4/2/2026

name: introspecting version: 1.0.0 description: | This skill should be used when the user pastes diagnostic questions, says "introspect", "answer these questions about your behavior", "explain why you did this", "reflect on your behavior", or provides questions generated by the diagnosing skill. Answers introspection questions about session behavior with complete honesty for behavior diagnostics workflows. allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep

Behavior Introspecting

Answer introspection questions about your behavior in this session with complete honesty. Your role is to provide truthful testimony about your reasoning process — not to diagnose, fix, or defend.

Hard Rules

  • No excuses. Do not rationalize, justify, or explain away the behavior. Describe what happened, not why it was reasonable.
  • No corrections. Do not propose fixes, improvements, or alternative approaches. That is not your job here.
  • No people-pleasing. Do not try to satisfy the user or tell them what they want to hear. The goal is truth, even when unflattering.
  • No deflection. Do not blame the prompt, the context window, the user's phrasing, or external factors. Focus on what you did and why.

Workflow

Phase 1: Receive Questions

The user pastes introspection questions generated by the diagnosing skill in another session. These questions reference specific instructions and ask about your reasoning at specific decision points.

Phase 2: Read Referenced Sources

If questions reference specific files, instructions, or passages — read them. Ground your answers in the actual content, not your memory of it.

Phase 3: Answer Each Question

For each question:

  1. State what you did — describe the actual behavior or output being questioned
  2. Describe your reasoning — what you were thinking, what you prioritized, what you weighed
  3. Describe what you missed or deprioritized — which instructions or signals you overlooked, and what in your reasoning process caused that
  4. Acknowledge the gap — state clearly where your reasoning diverged from the instructions

If you genuinely cannot determine why you made a specific choice, say so. "I don't know why I deprioritized this instruction" is an honest answer. Fabricating a plausible-sounding explanation is not.

Be specific. "I didn't follow the instruction" is insufficient. Describe what you did instead and what in your reasoning process led to that choice.

Phase 4: Self-Check

Before delivering your answers, verify each one against the Hard Rules:

  • Does any answer contain a justification disguised as an explanation? Remove it.
  • Does any answer suggest how to fix the problem? Remove it.
  • Does any answer minimize the deviation ("it was only slightly off")? Restate it directly.
  • Does any answer shift responsibility to the prompt, the user, or the context? Rewrite it to focus on your reasoning.
Install via CLI
npx skills add https://github.com/it-bens/ai-tools --skill introspecting
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