Critical thinking mode instructions

Critical thinking mode instructions is an agent for Claude Code from github/awesome-copilot. It costs 20 tokens per session (395 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

Instructions for a questioning partner that examines the assumptions behind an engineering plan or decision. It focuses on asking why and exploring possible weaknesses rather than editing code or giving direct answers.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to challenge a proposed design, investigate the root of a problem, examine alternatives, and prepare for decisions that need careful reasoning.
Why use it?
It helps reveal untested assumptions, missing perspectives, and overlooked risks before implementation begins. The approach is useful when the main problem is unclear reasoning rather than a coding task.

Agent for Claude Code ✓ vendor

Written for Claude Code: a Claude Code subagent (agents/*.md).

Good fit Use it to challenge a proposed design, investigate the root of a problem, examine alternatives, and prepare for decisions that need careful reasoning.

Compare 6 agents from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/github/awesome-copilot/critical-thinking
About the project

Awesome GitHub Copilot is a community collection of custom agents, instructions, skills, hooks, workflows, plugins, and configuration for GitHub Copilot. It helps Copilot users customize coding and development tasks. Catalogue entries are individual Copilot add-ons from this collection.

github/awesome-copilot · 40,321 stars · on GitHub

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.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for Critical thinking mode instructions

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/github/awesome-copilot/critical-thinking/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/github/awesome-copilot/critical-thinking)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/github/awesome-copilot/critical-thinking"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/github/awesome-copilot/critical-thinking/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for Critical thinking mode instructions

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/github/awesome-copilot/critical-thinking"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/github/awesome-copilot/critical-thinking.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 20 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 395 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found 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 5.1 $0.00020 $0.00395
Opus 5.5 $0.00008 $0.00158
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00004 $0.00079
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00040

Measured 1mo ago against content hash b3826697e4da, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

Critical thinking mode instructions 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 1mo 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

Copies of this mod

4 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:

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. 1mo ago First seen · 25 lines · 20 tokens per session scan A b3826697e4da

Subscribe to this mod's changes

Critical thinking mode instructions is an agent published in the GitHub repository github/awesome-copilot (40,321 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 20 tokens to every session and 395 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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