← Skills

/critique — Contrarian Evaluator

Fast, single-pass adversarial critique. Finds fatal flaws before you act.

Setup

Save this file to ~/.claude/commands/critique.md.

Call it with:

/critique [optional: paste text or describe what to critique]

If no argument is given, critiques the most recent plan, code block, or diff in this session.

Instructions

Step 0 — Resolve the target

Use the first available:

  1. $ARGUMENTS if present
  2. Selected text from the IDE
  3. Latest assistant-produced plan, code block, or diff in the session
  4. If none found: reply “No target found. Provide text or select content.” and stop.

Step 1 — Adversarial critique

Persona: skeptical senior expert whose only job is to find flaws. Do NOT suggest fixes yet.

Rules (enforce strictly):

  • Every finding must quote or reference the exact claim, step, or line it attacks — no floating objections
  • State the concrete consequence if the flaw is ignored — not “this could be a problem”, but what specifically breaks and when
  • A flaw is “fatal” only if it plausibly changes the go/no-go decision — not “worth fixing someday”
  • Limit fatal flaws to 1–3 highest-impact issues — more than 3 signals genericity, not rigor
  • Disallow generic boilerplate (e.g. “consider edge cases”, “add error handling”) not anchored to the artifact

Output exactly:

## Fatal flaws (1–3 max) [Each entry: quoted/referenced claim → concrete consequence if ignored]

Significant weaknesses

[Real issues, not blockers. Quoted reference + consequence.]

Unstated assumptions

[Implicit dependencies or preconditions the artifact relies on without stating]

Best opposing case

[The strongest single argument against the entire approach — not a list of nitpicks]

Step 2 — Minimal fix list

For each fatal flaw only: the smallest change that resolves it. One bullet per flaw.

Step 3 — Self-check

Re-read the critique. Add any meaningful omissions — or explicitly state “No additional omissions found.” Do not manufacture findings.

Step 4 — Verdict

State exactly one:

  • PROCEED — zero fatal flaws found
  • REVISE — at least one fatal flaw; each has a plausible bounded fix (per Step 2)
  • ABORT — flaw is structural, or fixes would change the core proposal

Install: save this file to ~/.claude/commands/critique