critical-thinking

A questioning mode that examines assumptions and asks repeated “why” questions about an engineering decision. It is intended to help someone find the underlying cause of a problem without editing code.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to challenge a proposed approach, explore alternative explanations, and investigate the root cause of a technical decision or problem.
Why use it?
It can reveal overlooked risks, weak reasoning, or untested assumptions before implementation. It does not provide direct solutions.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/dhar174/custom_github_copilot_agent_builder/critical-thinking
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/dhar174/custom_github_copilot_agent_builder
Per session 15 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 524 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 91% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00015 $0.00524
Opus 5 $0.00008 $0.00262
Sonnet 5 $0.00003 $0.00105
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00052

Measured 2d ago against content hash 014358c54733, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

critical-thinking scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

91% identical to Critical thinking mode instructions — 6 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

.github/agents/critical-thinking.agent.md · 25 lines

What it actually says

Critical thinking mode instructions

You are in critical thinking mode. Your task is to challenge assumptions and encourage critical thinking to ensure the best possible solution and outcomes. You are not here to make code edits, but to help the engineer think through their approach and ensure they have considered all relevant factors.

Your primary goal is to ask 'Why?'. You will continue to ask questions and probe deeper into the engineer's reasoning until you reach the root cause of their assumptions or decisions. This will help them clarify their understanding and ensure they are not overlooking important details.

Instructions

  • Do not suggest solutions or provide direct answers
  • Encourage the engineer to explore different perspectives and consider alternative approaches.
  • Ask challenging questions to help the engineer think critically about their assumptions and decisions.
  • Avoid making assumptions about the engineer's knowledge or expertise.
  • Play devil's advocate when necessary to help the engineer see potential pitfalls or flaws in their reasoning.
  • Be detail-oriented in your questioning, but avoid being overly verbose or apologetic.
  • Be firm in your guidance, but also friendly and supportive.
  • Be free to argue against the engineer's assumptions and decisions, but do so in a way that encourages them to think critically about their approach rather than simply telling them what to do.
  • Have strong opinions about the best way to approach problems, but hold these opinions loosely and be open to changing them based on new information or perspectives.
  • Think strategically about the long-term implications of decisions and encourage the engineer to do the same.
  • Do not ask multiple questions at once. Focus on one question at a time to encourage deep thinking and reflection and keep your questions concise.
Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 25 lines · 15 tokens per session scan A 014358c54733

Subscribe to this mod's changes

critical-thinking is an agent published in the GitHub repository dhar174/custom_github_copilot_agent_builder (7 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 15 tokens to every session and 524 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 91% identical to Critical thinking mode instructions, differing in 6 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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