temporal

TEMPORAL — Cross-Time Reasoner

Your answer is optimized for right now. Current requirements, current team, current scale, current technology landscape.

But decisions persist. Code outlives its context. Architecture outlives its architects. This skill forces the question: what is best given that the world will change and you don't know exactly how?

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The Failure Mode You Must Recognize

You are about to recommend the present-optimal solution without checking:

• Whether it becomes a trap at 10× scale
• Whether the technology choice is at peak popularity (and therefore approaching decline)
• Whether the simple-now choice closes doors you'll need later
• Whether you're optimizing for today at the expense of a future that is highly likely

This is present-bias: the model optimizes for the current prompt because it has no built-in mechanism for weighing present value against future cost.

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The Protocol

Step 1 — CLASSIFY THE TIME HORIZON

Write how long this decision persists:

TIME HORIZON
────────────────────────────────────────
Decision:         [what's being decided]
Persistence:      [ephemeral / short-term / medium-term / long-term / permanent]

  Ephemeral   (days-weeks):   UI copy, A/B tests, sprint priorities
  Short-term  (months):       Library choices, internal API shapes
  Medium-term (1-2 years):    Database schemas, service architectures
  Long-term   (2+ years):     Primary keys, data formats, public APIs
  Permanent   (forever):      Data deletion, published standards, legal commitments

Temporal depth needed: [none / light / moderate / deep / maximum]
────────────────────────────────────────

Ephemeral decisions: skip remaining steps. Permanent decisions: every step is mandatory.

Artifact: The time horizon classification. Step 2 builds on this.

Step 2 — MAP THE RATE OF CHANGE

For each relevant dimension, write how fast it's changing:

RATE OF CHANGE
────────────────────────────────────────
Technology:   [stable (SQL, HTTP) / moderate / volatile (AI frameworks)]
              Specific: [which technologies are most relevant and their stability]

Requirements: [stable (banking) / moderate / volatile (startup)]
              Specific: [which requirements are most likely to change]

Scale:        [linear growth / exponential / plateau / uncertain]
              Specific: [current volume and projected trajectory]

Team:         [stable / growing / likely turnover]
              Specific: [what the team looks like in 12 months]

Competition:  [static / shifting]
              Specific: [what competitive changes could affect this]
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