categorize

A guide for classifying a problem with the Cynefin framework, which groups situations by how clearly their causes and solutions are understood. It links each group to a suitable way of responding.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to decide whether to apply a known practice, ask an expert, run experiments, or act quickly during a crisis.
Why use it?
It helps prevent using a routine fix for an unfamiliar or rapidly changing problem.

Command

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 commands/neurofoo/agent-skills/categorize
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/neurofoo/agent-skills
Per session 0 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 508 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
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 $0.00000 $0.00508
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00254
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00102
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00051

Measured 2d ago against content hash f8b1d863e23d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

categorize 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.

cynefin/commands/categorize.md · 86 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 86 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Categorize Problem Domain

Quickly determine which Cynefin domain a problem belongs to and what that means for how to approach it.

Instructions

Assess the characteristics of the problem to determine its domain, then provide the corresponding approach.

Output Format

Problem: [What we're categorizing]


Quick Domain Test

Question Answer Points To
Is the right answer obvious or well-documented? [Yes/No] Simple if Yes
Would an expert know what to do after analysis? [Yes/No] Complicated if Yes
Can we only understand cause→effect in hindsight? [Yes/No] Complex if Yes
Is the situation unstable and urgent? [Yes/No] Chaotic if Yes
Are we genuinely unsure what kind of problem this is? [Yes/No] Confused if Yes

Classification

Domain: [Simple / Complicated / Complex / Chaotic / Confused]

Confidence: [High / Medium / Low]


What This Means

Response Approach

Domain Your Approach
Simple Sense → Categorize → Respond (use best practice)
Complicated Sense → Analyze → Respond (consult experts)
Complex Probe → Sense → Respond (run experiments)
Chaotic Act → Sense → Respond (stabilize first)
Confused Break down into sub-problems, categorize each

For Your Problem

Approach: [The approach matching your domain]

First Step: [Immediate next action]

Common Mistake to Avoid: [What people typically do wrong in this domain]


Domain Indicators

Simple/Obvious

  • Everyone agrees on the answer
  • There's a standard process
  • "We've done this before"

Complicated

  • Experts can figure it out
  • Analysis leads to answers
  • Multiple good solutions exist

Complex

  • Cause and effect unclear in advance
  • Patterns emerge over time
  • "It depends" is the honest answer

Chaotic

  • High turbulence, no clear patterns
  • Need to act immediately to stabilize
  • No time for analysis

Read the full file on GitHub · 86 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. 2d ago First seen · 86 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A f8b1d863e23d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

categorize is a command published in the GitHub repository neurofoo/agent-skills (111 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 508 tokens. 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.