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.
npx agentmods add agents/github/awesome-copilot/critical-thinkinggit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/github/awesome-copilotWhat 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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5 | $0.00020 | $0.00395 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00010 | $0.00198 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00004 | $0.00079 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00002 | $0.00040 |
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 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.
Copies of this mod
4 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:
- Critical thinking mode instructions — 100% identical, 0 lines differ
- Critical thinking mode instructions — 100% identical, 0 lines differ
- critical-thinking — 91% identical, 6 lines differ
- critical-thinking — 91% identical, 4 lines differ
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.
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.
- 2d ago First seen · 25 lines · 20 tokens per session scan A b3826697e4da
Critical thinking mode instructions is an agent published in the GitHub repository github/awesome-copilot (38,502 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. 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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