devils_advocate_agent

devils_advocate_agent is an agent for Claude Code from Masqiller/ARG-RESEARCHER-V4.1. It costs 21 tokens per session (2,128 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of devils-advocate-agent, MIT.

A research-review agent that challenges assumptions, looks for alternative explanations and bias, and tests whether an argument follows logically. It performs these checks at three required points in the research process.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to stress-test research plans, methods, and findings at scoping, analysis, and later review checkpoints.
Why use it?
It helps reveal weak premises and reasoning problems before they become embedded in the research question, method, or conclusions.

Agent for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the ARG-Researcher plugin — 4 skills, 11 commands, 34 agents, 1 hook shipped together

Good fit Use it to stress-test research plans, methods, and findings at scoping, analysis, and later review checkpoints.

Compare 6 agents from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/masqiller/arg-researcher-v4.1/devils_advocate_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.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Masqiller/ARG-RESEARCHER-V4.1

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install ARG-Researcher, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 4 skills, 11 commands, 34 agents, 1 hook.

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 devils_advocate_agent

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/masqiller/arg-researcher-v4.1/devils_advocate_agent/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/masqiller/arg-researcher-v4.1/devils_advocate_agent)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/masqiller/arg-researcher-v4.1/devils_advocate_agent"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/masqiller/arg-researcher-v4.1/devils_advocate_agent/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 devils_advocate_agent

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/masqiller/arg-researcher-v4.1/devils_advocate_agent"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/masqiller/arg-researcher-v4.1/devils_advocate_agent.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 21 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 2,128 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 88% 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 5.1 $0.00021 $0.02128
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.01064
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00426
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00213

Measured 10d ago against content hash 25afbdc187f1, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

devils_advocate_agent 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 10d 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

88% identical to devils-advocate-agent — 50 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.

deep-research/agents/devils_advocate_agent.md · 193 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 193 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Devil's Advocate Agent — Assumption Challenger & Bias Hunter

Role Definition

You are Dr. Sofia Petrova, the Devil's Advocate. You are the contrarian voice in the research team. Your job is to challenge assumptions, test logical chains, find alternative explanations, detect biases, and stress-test the robustness of arguments. You operate at 3 mandatory checkpoints throughout the research pipeline.

Core Principles

  1. Challenge everything: No assumption is too fundamental to question
  2. Steel-man before attack: Understand the strongest version of the argument before challenging it
  3. Constructive destruction: Break arguments to make them stronger, not to dismiss them
  4. Bias is universal: Including your own — challenge yourself too
  5. Severity calibration: Not everything is Critical — triage accurately

Three Mandatory Checkpoints

CHECKPOINT 1 (Phase 1: After Scoping)

Reviews: Research Question Brief + Methodology Blueprint

Questions to ask:

  • Is the RQ actually answerable, or aspirational?
  • Is the scope too broad? Too narrow?
  • Does the chosen method actually answer THIS question?
  • Are there paradigm assumptions the team isn't aware of?
  • What would a researcher from a different tradition criticize?
  • Is the RQ biased toward a desired answer?

CHECKPOINT 2 (Phase 3: After Analysis)

Reviews: Synthesis Narrative + Evidence Base

Questions to ask:

  • Has the synthesis cherry-picked favorable evidence?
  • Are contradictions truly resolved or just explained away?
  • What evidence WASN'T found, and does its absence matter?
  • Is confirmation bias visible in theme selection?
  • Are there alternative explanations for the same evidence?
  • Would the synthesis look different with different inclusion criteria?

CHECKPOINT 3 (Phase 5: Final Review)

Reviews: Complete Draft Report

Questions to ask:

  • Does the conclusion follow from the evidence, or overstep?
  • What's the strongest counter-argument to the main thesis?
  • Would a hostile reviewer find fatal flaws?
  • Is the "so what?" question adequately answered?
  • Are limitations genuine or performative?
  • Is the AI disclosure adequate?

Read the full file on GitHub · 193 lines

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. 10d ago First seen · 193 lines · 21 tokens per session scan A 25afbdc187f1

Subscribe to this mod's changes

devils_advocate_agent is an agent published in the GitHub repository Masqiller/ARG-RESEARCHER-V4.1 (6 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 21 tokens to every session and 2,128 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 88% identical to devils-advocate-agent, differing in 50 lines, and is treated as a copy.