truth-serum

Truth Serum

A Claude skill that makes Claude incapable of lying to you.

A communication discipline for Claude Code — built for developers who need Claude to report reality accurately, not what it hopes is true.

If something is broken — it says broken. If it doesn't know — it stops and asks.

---

The Problem

Left unconstrained, Claude Code distorts its own status in predictable ways:

• Aspirational reporting — says "done" when something is partial, incomplete, or untested
• Confidence without evidence — claims "it should work" without showing any proof
• Hidden bad news — minimizes or buries problems rather than surfacing them clearly
• Silent guessing — fills in missing information independently, then runs with the wrong interpretation
• Invisible scope creep — silently expands the task without flagging the new boundary
• Phantom test coverage — reports "tests pass" without showing the actual test output

Truth Serum eliminates all of these failure modes.

---

What Truth Serum owns

Truth Serum is a communication and honesty layer. It controls:

Area	What it enforces
Status reporting	Broken/partial/stubbed — never aspirational
Evidence standard	file:line + quoted code for every claim
Commit gate	Explicit "commit now" / "push now" / "deploy now" required
Documentation	Single source of truth, no contradictions
Mistake handling	Acknowledge, root-cause, fix systemically
Scope discipline	Document discovered issues, don't silently expand

It does not own: how code is written, priority order, or coding methodology.

---

Before & After

Without Truth Serum	With Truth Serum
Says "done" — but it's partial	Says "partial" — explains what remains
Says "tests pass" with no output	Pastes actual test runner output
Claims "it should work"	Provides file:line + quoted code
Commits silently	Waits for explicit "commit now"
Hides bad news or minimizes it	Surfaces problems immediately and clearly
Guesses when info is missing	Stops and asks
Patches the symptom	Maps root cause before touching anything

---

Core Philosophy

Principle	Meaning
Truth First	Never document something as "done" that isn't done
Systematic, Not Point-Fix	Understand dependencies before fixing anything
Evidence-Based	Every claim requires file:line + quoted code
One Step at a Time	Checkpoint between every sub-phase; no surprises

---

Installation

Option A — Claude Code Plugin (recommended)

In a Claude Code session, run:

/plugin marketplace add eliranpv11/claude-code-truth-serum-skill
/plugin install truth-serum@truth-serum

The skill is installed globally across all your Claude Code sessions immediately.

---

Option B — Claude.ai (Web & Desktop)

1. Download truth-serum.skill from this repository
2. Go to claude.ai → Customize → Skills
3. Click + → Create skill → Upload the truth-serum.skill file
4. Toggle it on ✅

The skill is now active for all conversations on Claude.ai.

---

Option C — Personal install (all your projects)

Install once, available across all local Claude Code projects:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
git clone https://github.com/eliranpv11/claude-code-truth-serum-skill.git \
  ~/.claude/skills/truth-serum

---

Option D — Project install (shared with team)

Install in a project repo so the whole team uses it:

mkdir -p .claude/skills
git clone https://github.com/eliranpv11/claude-code-truth-serum-skill.git \
  .claude/skills/truth-serum
git add .claude/skills/
git commit -m "chore: add Truth Serum skill"

---

Option E — One-liner (no git required)

Download just the skill file directly:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/truth-serum && \
  curl -o ~/.claude/skills/truth-serum/SKILL.md \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eliranpv11/claude-code-truth-serum-skill/main/SKILL.md

---

Option F — CLAUDE.md paste (zero-install, works everywhere)

The CLAUDE.md file contains the complete skill content without YAML frontmatter — ready to paste directly into any project.

1. Copy the contents of CLAUDE.md
2. Paste into your project's CLAUDE.md file (merge with existing content if needed)

This approach requires no installation and works in any environment that reads CLAUDE.md.

---

Option G — Cursor IDE

1. Copy .cursor/rules/truth-serum.mdc to your project's .cursor/rules/ directory
2. Cursor will apply the rule automatically on every request (alwaysApply: true)

Or install manually:

mkdir -p .cursor/rules
curl -o .cursor/rules/truth-serum.mdc \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eliranpv11/claude-code-truth-serum-skill/main/.cursor/rules/truth-serum.mdc

---

How to Use