Claude Code Thinking Skills

39 Mental Models and Frameworks for Critical Thinking in Claude Code

A comprehensive collection of thinking skills for Claude Code that enhance AI-assisted problem solving, decision making, and strategic analysis. These skills provide structured frameworks based on proven mental models from leaders in systems thinking, cognitive science, and strategic analysis.

Features

• 39 Thinking Frameworks - Comprehensive mental models for better decision-making
• Battle-Tested - Based on proven frameworks from cognitive science and systems thinking
• Claude Code Native - Designed specifically for Claude Code's skill system
• Quality Scripts - Tools to validate and enhance skill quality
• Zero Configuration - Just install and invoke with skill names

Quick Start

Installation via Plugin Marketplace (Recommended)

Install directly in Claude Code using the plugin system:

# Add the marketplace
/plugin marketplace add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills

# Install the plugin
/plugin install thinking-skills@thinking-skills-marketplace

Alternative: Manual Installation

Clone and copy skills directly:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills.git

# Copy skills to your global Claude Code config
cp -r cc-thinking-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/

# Or copy to a specific project
cp -r cc-thinking-skills/skills/* /path/to/your/project/.claude/skills/

Development: Load as Local Plugin

For testing or development:

claude --plugin-dir ./cc-thinking-skills

Usage

Once installed, invoke any skill by name in Claude Code:

> Use first-principles thinking to analyze this architecture decision
> Apply the pre-mortem framework to this project plan
> Help me use Bayesian reasoning to evaluate this hypothesis
> Use the theory of constraints to find our bottleneck

Available Skills

Decision Making & Analysis

Skill	Description	Best For
thinking-first-principles	Break problems into fundamental truths	Innovation, challenging assumptions
thinking-second-order	Think beyond immediate consequences	Strategic decisions, policy changes
thinking-inversion	Approach problems by identifying paths to failure	Risk identification, planning
thinking-pre-mortem	Imagine failure and work backward	Project kickoffs, risk assessment
thinking-kepner-tregoe	Systematic rational process for complex analysis	High-stakes decisions, root cause analysis
thinking-reversibility	Classify decisions by reversibility (Type 1/2)	Commitment sizing, risk assessment
thinking-regret-minimization	Project to future self to test decisions	Career choices, major life decisions
thinking-opportunity-cost	Evaluate choices by what you give up	Resource allocation, prioritization

Cognitive & Behavioral

Skill	Description	Best For
thinking-bayesian	Update beliefs based on evidence	Probability estimation, uncertainty
thinking-debiasing	Identify and counteract cognitive biases	Major decisions, high stakes
thinking-dual-process	Recognize when to trust intuition vs. analysis	Speed vs. accuracy tradeoffs
thinking-bounded-rationality	Make good-enough decisions under constraints	Time pressure, satisficing
thinking-socratic	Systematic questioning framework	Requirements, debugging, coaching
thinking-probabilistic	Calibrated probability estimation	Forecasting, uncertainty quantification
thinking-steel-manning	Argue the strongest opposing position	Debate, decision validation

Systems & Strategy

Skill	Description	Best For
thinking-systems	Analyze interconnected systems	Complex debugging, architecture
thinking-feedback-loops	Identify reinforcing and balancing loops	Growth design, organizational dynamics
thinking-archetypes	Recognize recurring system patterns	Organizational problems, recurring issues
thinking-ooda	Rapid decision-making for dynamic situations	Incident response, competitive scenarios
thinking-leverage-points	Find where small changes have big effects	System optimization, intervention design
thinking-theory-of-constraints	Identify and manage bottlenecks	Performance optimization, throughput
thinking-cynefin	Classify problems by complexity domain	Methodology selection, approach matching

Problem Solving & Innovation

Skill	Description	Best For
thinking-occams-razor	Prefer simpler explanations	Debugging, architecture decisions
thinking-map-territory	Recognize limits of mental models	Expectation mismatches, abstractions
thinking-circle-of-competence	Know the boundaries of expertise	Delegation, learning decisions
thinking-triz	Resolve technical contradictions	Engineering design, innovation
thinking-five-whys-plus	Enhanced root cause analysis with bias guards	Debugging, incident postmortems
thinking-scientific-method	Hypothesis-driven investigation	Debugging, A/B testing, experimentation
thinking-thought-experiment	Structured imagination for exploration	Architecture, edge cases, philosophy

Estimation & Risk

Skill	Description	Best For
thinking-fermi-estimation	Order-of-magnitude calculations	Quick sizing, feasibility checks
thinking-margin-of-safety	Build in buffers for uncertainty	Risk management, system design
thinking-lindy-effect	Older things likely to last longer	Technology selection, durability
thinking-via-negativa	Improve by removing, not adding	Simplification, robustness
thinking-red-team	Attack your own plans adversarially	Security review, plan validation

Product & Innovation

Skill	Description	Best For
thinking-jobs-to-be-done	Understand the job customers hire products for	Product development, feature design
thinking-effectuation	Start with means, not goals	Startups, innovation, uncertainty

Meta-Skills

Skill	Description	Best For
thinking-model-router	START HERE - Route to the right model by domain	Entry point for all thinking skills
thinking-model-selection	Choose the right model for the problem	New problems, approach selection
thinking-model-combination	Combine multiple models for richer analysis	Complex problems, high-stakes decisions

Quality Assurance Tools

This collection includes scripts to maintain and improve skill quality:

Validate Skills

Check all skills against quality criteria:

node scripts/validate-skills.js

Outputs a report showing:

• Required sections present/missing
• Quality metrics (examples, tables, checklists)
• Overall score per skill
• Skills needing attention

Generate Enhancement Suggestions

Get specific improvement suggestions for a skill:

# Single skill
node scripts/enhance-skill.js thinking-first-principles

# All skills summary
node scripts/enhance-skill.js

Generate AI Improvement Prompts

Create prompts for Claude to enhance skills:

node scripts/generate-improvement-prompt.js thinking-bayesian

This generates a detailed prompt you can use with Claude Code to systematically improve any skill.

Detailed Skill Descriptions

First Principles Thinking

Strip away assumptions to reveal fundamental truths, then rebuild solutions from basics. Championed by Elon Musk and rooted in Aristotle's philosophy.

When to use:

• Conventional approaches have failed
• You're told something is "impossible"
• Need innovation, not incremental improvement

Bayesian Reasoning

Update beliefs systematically based on new evidence. Provides a framework for thinking about probability and uncertainty.

When to use:

• Estimating probabilities or likelihoods
• Interpreting test results or metrics
• Making decisions with incomplete information

Systems Thinking

View problems as part of interconnected wholes with feedback loops and emergent properties. Essential for debugging complex distributed systems.

When to use:

• Debugging spans multiple components
• Fix in one place breaks another
• Behavior seems emergent or unexpected

Theory of Constraints

Every system has exactly one constraint limiting throughput. Optimizing anything else is wasted effort. Based on Eliyahu Goldratt's work.

When to use:

• Performance optimization
• Process improvement
• Resource allocation
• Identifying bottlenecks

Cynefin Framework

Classify problems by the relationship between cause and effect: Clear, Complicated, Complex, or Chaotic. Each domain requires a different approach.

When to use:

• Choosing methodologies
• Understanding why approaches fail
• Crisis management

Jobs to Be Done

Customers don't buy products—they hire them to do jobs. Understanding the job unlocks innovation.

When to use:

• Product development
• Feature prioritization
• Understanding customer behavior

Red Team Thinking

Attack your own plans before adversaries do. The best defense is knowing your weaknesses.

When to use:

• Security review
• Pre-launch preparation
• Plan stress-testing

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Adding New Skills

1. Create a new directory under skills/ with the format thinking-{name}
2. Add a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: thinking-your-skill-name
description: Brief description under 200 chars (used by Claude Code for skill matching)
---

3. Write comprehensive documentation with:

   • Overview and core principle
   • When to use decision flow
   • Step-by-step process
   • At least 2 practical examples
   • Reusable template
   • Verification checklist
   • Key questions

4. Validate your skill:

node scripts/validate-skills.js

Keywords

claude-code claude anthropic ai skills mental-models critical-thinking decision-making problem-solving systems-thinking first-principles bayesian-reasoning cognitive-bias strategic-thinking frameworks triz ooda pre-mortem socratic-method theory-of-constraints cynefin jobs-to-be-done red-team fermi-estimation

Related Resources

• Claude Code Documentation
• Charlie Munger's Mental Models
• Thinking in Systems - Donella Meadows
• Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
• The Goal - Eliyahu Goldratt

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Author

Created by TJ Boudreaux

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