generative-thinking SKILL.md skillA

This file is byte-identical to the first copy the registry indexed. Same content hash, so the same checks give both the same grade.

generative-thinking from oaustegard/claude-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned
mdr add oaustegard/claude-skills/generative-thinking@v0.3.0

Pins v0.3.0 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade
A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind
SKILL.md skill
Repository
oaustegard/claude-skills
Path
generative-thinking/SKILL.md
Versions recorded
3
Latest version
v0.3.0, committed Sep 16, 2026
First version recorded
Apr 17, 2026
Size
23,117 bytes
Repository stars
158
License
MIT

Break out of a locked problem frame by picking one disciplined move — reframe, provocation (Po), random stimulus, SCAMPER, inversion, structured analogy, constraint play, or family traversal — and committing to it before evaluating. Use when stuck, when options feel narrow or obvious, when iterations produce variations of the same idea, or when the user says "widen this", "break out of", "think differently", "I'm stuck", "feels too obvious", "stress-test the framing", "what am I missing", or…

Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.

What the file says

# Generative Thinking — One Move, Committed

Fixation is the default state. When a generator (human or LLM) has been working on a problem, attention concentrates on the current framing and subsequent ideas tend to be local variations on it. This skill is the interrupt: spend one move stepping sideways, then resume.

The discipline matters more than the move. Pick ONE technique per invocation, run it without second-guessing, and produce explicit reframings or candidate entry points — not a brainstorm list in the same frame.

## When to reach for this

Claude activates this skill when:
- The last 2+ iterations are variations of one idea (fixation signal)
- The user says "widen this", "think bigger", "I'm stuck", "what am I missing", "too narrow", "break out of"
- A problem is framed as a binary ("X or Y") and neither option is good
- An agent loop is producing convergent variations — suspect the frame, not the search depth
- The user explicitly wants a pre-mortem on the *framing* (not the plan) before committing

Do NOT activate this skill as a default before every consequential task — fixation is the trigger, not stakes. If the current frame is working, let it work.
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint
mdr add oaustegard/claude-skills/generative-thinking@sha256:8d01914546b3042d

The line at the top of this page pins the label v0.3.0, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.

Badge

mdr badge

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_mlzdrzujripv3hg3.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_mlzdrzujripv3hg3)

3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.

Versions

The registry has recorded 3 versions of this file, between Apr 17, 2026 and Sep 16, 2026, about one every 76 days.

versioncommittedcommitsizeaudit
v0.3.0 latest2026-09-16 2b2ec48 23,117 BA view · diff
v0.2.02026-07-23 9ce2ded 17,362 BA view · diff
v0.1.22026-04-17 35b46e2 14,463 BA view

Audit of the latest version

A  17 of 17 checks passed. Fixed automatic checks with no AI involved, so the same checks give the same answer every run.
  • pass: Frontmatter block present
  • pass: Frontmatter declares a name
  • pass: Frontmatter declares a description
  • pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (23117 bytes)
  • pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
  • pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
  • pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
  • pass: No credential-shaped string
  • pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
  • pass: No text hidden with inline styles
  • pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
  • pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
  • pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
  • pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
  • pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
  • pass: No link to a raw IP address
  • pass: No script tag

Source

GitHub

oaustegard/claude-skills · 158 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-11-07 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_mlzdrzujripv3hg3
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=oaustegard/claude-skills/generative-thinking
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/8d01914546b3042dfabd8c81c8086f1ac719ca237b73e5fc27d6166e061f711a

Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.

Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.

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Every file in oaustegard/claude-skills

Other files named generative-thinking

generative-thinking SKILL.md skill
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v0.3.0 · audit A · 158 stars

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