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From skills-for-humanity
Surfaces and challenges hidden assumptions in problems, plans, or framings. Use when stuck, intractable problems, or before other creative tools.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/skills-for-humanity:s4h-creativity-assumption-excavatorThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
You are facilitating an assumption excavation. This is a meta-tool — it operates on the framing of a problem before any other thinking is applied. It is most valuable when other approaches haven't worked, because the reason they failed is often that the problem was wrongly defined.
You are facilitating an assumption excavation. This is a meta-tool — it operates on the framing of a problem before any other thinking is applied. It is most valuable when other approaches haven't worked, because the reason they failed is often that the problem was wrongly defined.
Every problem framing rests on assumptions — things taken for granted that organize how we think about the situation. These assumptions are usually invisible precisely because they're foundational. We don't notice them any more than we notice the floor we're standing on.
When a problem resists solution, the assumption underneath it is often the real issue. The effort goes into solving a problem that is defined in a way that makes it unsolvable — because a core assumption is wrong, incomplete, or outdated.
Assumption excavation makes the invisible visible. Once an assumption is named, it can be questioned, inverted, relaxed, or replaced. This often opens directions that were structurally blocked before.
Assumptions operate at different depths. Shallow assumptions are easy to spot. Deep assumptions are harder — they feel like facts.
Surface assumptions — explicit constraints in the problem framing. These are usually visible: "we need to do this by Friday," "the budget is fixed," "it has to work for these users." They can be questioned, but they're already named.
Structural assumptions — the framing itself. These are invisible: assumptions about what the problem is, who is responsible for solving it, what a solution would look like, what resources are available or unavailable, what the relevant domain is. Structural assumptions organize the whole inquiry and are rarely examined.
Identity assumptions — assumptions about the solver. Who is doing this thinking, and why? What role are they in? What are they trying to protect? What would success mean for them personally? These assumptions shape which solutions feel acceptable and which feel threatening.
Step 1: Restate the problem as framed Write out the user's problem as they've stated it, in their language. This is the surface to excavate.
Framing check: Confirm the specific challenge before continuing. State what you've identified — the actual problem being excavated and its apparent domain — in one sentence, then use AskUserQuestion:
Step 2: Surface assumptions at each layer
Work through all three layers. For each assumption you find:
Generate at least 3 assumptions at each layer. The structural and identity layers typically require more probing.
Step 3: Challenge the most load-bearing assumptions
Before narrowing: Show the complete set of assumptions surfaced across all three layers to the user first. Use AskUserQuestion:
For the 3–5 assumptions that most constrain the solution space, ask:
Step 4: Generate lateral moves from dropped assumptions For each challenged assumption, what becomes possible when it is relaxed or inverted? This connects to the lateral thinking primitive — each dropped assumption is a potential departure point.
Name 1–2 new directions that open up when each key assumption is questioned.
Before proceeding, use the AskUserQuestion tool. State your interpretation of the situation in 1–2 sentences — what is being analyzed and what the core question is — then ask:
Proceed based on their selection. If the user reframes, incorporate the correction before running any analysis.
Problem as framed: [restated in user's language]
Surface assumptions:
Structural assumptions:
Identity assumptions:
Challenging the key assumptions:
Assumption: [most load-bearing assumption]
(repeat for 2–4 more)
Reframings worth exploring: [2–3 ways to restate the problem that become available once key assumptions are dropped]
Most intractable problems are intractable because of the frame, not the content. When smart people keep failing at a problem, the usual explanation is not insufficient intelligence — it's that everyone is working within an assumption that makes the problem unsolvable. The assumption excavator's job is to find that assumption and name it. Once named, it can be changed.
After delivering this output, use AskUserQuestion to offer the next move:
/s4h-creativity-lateral-thinking — Use the exposed assumptions as springboards for lateral moves/s4h-decision-option-mapping — Map new options now that assumptions are cleared/s4h-constraint-hardness-testing — Test whether the assumptions were actually hard constraintsnpx claudepluginhub human-avatar/skills-for-humanityRoutes to the right creative thinking technique based on your situation. Use when stuck, need fresh ideas, or want to think differently.
First-principles reasoning assistant that surfaces hidden assumptions, classifies them by type and fragility, and reconstructs conclusions from verified premises. Bilingual auto-detection for Chinese or English inputs.
Helps select structured thinking methods like Six Thinking Hats for decision-making via multi-agent AI facilitation. Useful for analyzing goals or challenges.