excavate

EXCAVATE — Assumption Archaeology

Every answer stands on ground you haven't inspected. The logic is flawless. The conclusion follows from the premises. No one checked the premises.

"Valid" means "correct IF the premises are true." You never verified that they are. The premises were absorbed — from the problem description, from pattern matching, from your model of the user's situation. Each is a silent load-bearing wall. Remove one, and everything above it collapses.

This skill digs beneath the logic to inspect the ground.

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The Failure Mode You Must Recognize

You are about to deliver an answer that:

• Lists assumptions you already know are true (safe, performative)
• Skips assumptions you absorbed from pattern matching without noticing
• Conflates "I haven't seen evidence against this" with "this is true"
• Never checks whether the problem itself is correctly framed

Surface assumptions are not the threat. The threat is the assumptions you don't know you're making.

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The Protocol

1 — WRITE THE SURFACE LAYER: Ten Assumptions Minimum

List everything this answer takes as given. Write each one as a clear, falsifiable statement.

Categories to scan — write at least two per category:

Input assumptions (about the data, system, and context):

• "The user's [system/data/environment] can [support/handle/provide] [X]."

Pattern assumptions (inherited from your pattern match):

• "This is the same type of problem as [source domain], therefore [Y applies]."

Scope assumptions (what's in and out — who decided?):

• "The scope includes [A] and excludes [B]."

User assumptions (about what they know, want, and have):

• "The user [has access to / understands / is willing to] [Z]."

Absence assumptions (what you assume is NOT present):

• "There is no [existing system / constraint / stakeholder / requirement] that would affect this."

Minimum ten. Fewer than ten means you stopped at the surface. The dangerous assumptions are always below the comfortable ones.