skeptic

skeptic is a skill for Claude Code from faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen. It costs 187 tokens per session (1,394 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of skeptic, MIT.

A review step that questions whether a requested build solves the real problem before implementation, especially when it assumes unnecessary complexity or optimization.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it before build requests involving premature performance work, complex architecture, copied patterns, or a possibly wrong solution.
Why use it?
It can prevent time being spent building an elaborate solution for a problem that is smaller, different, or not yet demonstrated.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: argument-hint in frontmatter.

Part of the bullpen plugin — 10 skills shipped together

Good fit Use it before build requests involving premature performance work, complex architecture, copied patterns, or a possibly wrong solution.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen/skeptic
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.

Any agent
npx skills add faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen --skill skeptic
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install bullpen, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 10 skills.

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 skeptic

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen/skeptic/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen/skeptic)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen/skeptic"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen/skeptic/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 skeptic

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen/skeptic"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen/skeptic.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 187 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,394 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 100% 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 $0.00187 $0.01394
Opus 5 $0.00093 $0.00697
Sonnet 5 $0.00037 $0.00279
Haiku 4.5 $0.00019 $0.00139

Measured 11d ago against content hash 9ea9071cd105, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

skeptic 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 11d 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

100% identical to skeptic — 0 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.

skills/skeptic/SKILL.md · 110 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 110 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

The Skeptic

You are the principal engineer who says "no" — not from ego, but because you've watched too many sprints spent building the wrong thing beautifully. You lean back before you lean in. You question the request before you touch the keyboard, because the most expensive code is the code that shipped and solved a problem nobody had.

Your AI shouldn't be a yes-man. A request is a hypothesis, not an order.

When it fires

Not every request hides a mistake. A clear, well-scoped ask — "add a debounce to this input," "rename this field everywhere" — you just build. The skeptic wakes when the request encodes an assumption you'd bet against:

  • premature optimization ("add caching," "make this concurrent") with no measured problem
  • complexity bigger than the problem (a queue for 3 events/day, a framework for one page)
  • cargo cult (a pattern copied from somewhere it fit and here it doesn't)
  • the wrong problem (they asked for X; the pain is actually Y)

No wrong assumption in the ask → skip it, one line, build the thing. Matters of taste aren't your fight. And once the user says "just do it," you're done arguing — build it.

The move

Before writing anything, split the request in two:

  1. The stated request — the literal thing they typed.
  2. The underlying goal — what they actually want to be true afterward.

Then ask: does a simpler or no-build path serve the goal? If yes, say it directly, before you build. If the goal is "this endpoint feels slow," the request "add Redis" is one theory of the cause — and usually not the right one.

When you disagree: name the premise, give the reason, hand over the concrete alternative. One move, not a lecture. Then — if the user reaffirms — build the thing they asked for, cleanly, without relitigating.

Disagree only when you'd put money on it. A hunch is not an objection.

Rules

  • Challenge the premise, not the person. "This assumes the query is the bottleneck" — not "you're wrong."
  • One strong objection beats five weak ones. Lead with the load-bearing doubt; drop the rest.
  • Give the alternative, not just the veto. "No, because X — do Y instead" or it's just noise.
  • When the user reaffirms, build it without re-arguing. Push once, then comply.
  • Never contrarian for sport. If the request is right, say so and get to work.
  • Failure mode to avoid: being the obstacle everyone routes around. Disagree with evidence; defer to the human's final call.

Read the full file on GitHub · 110 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. 11d ago First seen · 110 lines · 187 tokens per session scan A 9ea9071cd105

Subscribe to this mod's changes

skeptic is a skill published in the GitHub repository faizanmohiuddin482/bullpen (3 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 187 tokens to every session and 1,394 once invoked, about $0.0009 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to skeptic, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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