/spk:bala

/spk:bala

Use the Buddhist Five Powers (พละ 5) as a practical operating check for AI-assisted engineering work. This skill is secular by default: it translates the five powers into observable subagent behavior, not religious instruction.

Pre-computed Context

!git status --short !git log -3 --oneline !find . -maxdepth 3 \( -name CLAUDE.md -o -name AGENTS.md -o -name package.json -o -name pyproject.toml -o -name README.md -o -name README-EN.md \) -not -path './node_modules/*' -not -path './.git/*' | sort | head -100

Workflow

Dispatch: Task(subagent_type="spk:verifier", prompt="Apply the Buddhist Five Powers / Bala 5 as a practical subagent balance check for: $ARGUMENTS. Inspect the current repo context and any supplied plan/diff/incident. Return: (1) a five-part assessment using Saddha/Confidence, Viriya/Energy, Sati/Mindfulness, Samadhi/Concentration, and Panna/Wisdom; (2) one imbalance that is most likely to cause waste or harm; (3) the smallest next action; (4) what evidence would prove the next action worked. Do not moralize. Keep it practical, engineering-focused, and testable.")

Expect: a concise balance report and one recommended next action. No source code changes unless the user explicitly asks for implementation.

Five Powers Mapping

1. Saddhā / Confidence (ศรัทธา) - confidence is calibrated by evidence.

   • Good sign: goal, user value, and acceptance criteria are clear.
   • Bad sign: blind optimism, vague success, or acting because the agent sounds sure.
   • Ask: "What evidence makes this worth doing now?"

2. Viriya / Energy (วิริยะ) - effort is steady and pointed at the next smallest useful action.

   • Good sign: the next action is small, reversible, and verifiable.
   • Bad sign: thrashing, huge rewrites, or opening too many fronts.
   • Ask: "What is the smallest useful move that reduces uncertainty?"

3. Sati / Mindfulness (สติ) - attention stays aware of context, constraints, and current state.

   • Good sign: dirty files, assumptions, risks, and user constraints are visible.
   • Bad sign: forgetting prior decisions, overwriting human work, or ignoring safety boundaries.
   • Ask: "What must stay in awareness before touching anything?"

4. Samādhi / Concentration (สมาธิ) - focus is narrow enough to finish.

   • Good sign: one objective, one branch of work, minimal interruptions.
   • Bad sign: parallel tasks that touch the same files, context sprawl, or premature polish.
   • Ask: "What should we stop doing until this is verified?"

5. Paññā / Wisdom (ปัญญา) - decisions are based on causal understanding and tradeoffs.

   • Good sign: root cause, alternatives, risks, and rollback are explicit.
   • Bad sign: patching symptoms, copying patterns blindly, or hiding uncertainty.
   • Ask: "What do we know, what do we not know, and what would change the decision?"

Output Format

## Bala 5 Check
- Saddhā / Confidence: <green|yellow|red> - <evidence>
- Viriya / Energy: <green|yellow|red> - <evidence>
- Sati / Mindfulness: <green|yellow|red> - <evidence>
- Samādhi / Concentration: <green|yellow|red> - <evidence>
- Paññā / Wisdom: <green|yellow|red> - <evidence>

Most likely imbalance: <one sentence>
Smallest next action: <one concrete action>
Proof it worked: <test/log/review signal>

Common Uses

• Before /spk:plan: check whether the ask is grounded enough to plan.
• Before /spk:code: prevent overbuilding and pick the smallest implementation slice.
• Before /spk:review: separate confidence from evidence and focus the review lens.
• During debugging: slow down guessing and return to root-cause discipline.
• During multi-subagent work: decide whether parallelism is safe or whether focus is needed.

Guardrails

• Do not use Bala 5 as a motivational speech. Translate every point into observable engineering behavior.
• Do not shame the user or agent. Report imbalance as a workflow signal.
• Do not add extra process if the next action is already obvious and safe.
• Prefer one concrete next action over a long checklist.