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.
npx skills add nWave-ai/nWave --skill nw-five-whys-methodologygit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/nWave-ai/nWaveWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-five-whys-methodology)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-five-whys-methodology"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-five-whys-methodology/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.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-five-whys-methodology"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-five-whys-methodology.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>- NVIDIA SkillSpector pass
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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00025 | $0.00711 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00010 | $0.00284 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00005 | $0.00142 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00003 | $0.00071 |
Grade A, and why
nw-five-whys-methodology 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 1mo 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 80 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Five Whys Methodology
Philosophical Foundation
Taiichi Ohno: "By repeating why five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear."
Core tenets: scientific evidence-based investigation | address fundamental causes not symptoms | solve to prevent recurrence | use findings for Kaizen
Multi-Causal Investigation
Complex problems have multiple root causes. Investigate comprehensively:
- Parallel: investigate all symptoms/conditions simultaneously
- Branch: follow each cause through all five WHY levels
- Cross-cause: ensure multiple causes don't contradict
- Comprehensive: address all root causes, not just primary
WHY Level Definitions
WHY 1: Symptom Investigation
What is immediately observable? Investigate all symptoms. Each branch continues independently. Document verifiable evidence per symptom.
WHY 1A: Path not found [Evidence: file exists but wrong context -- Windows vs WSL paths]
WHY 1B: Permission denied [Evidence: user context mismatch between host and container]
WHY 1C: Timing issues [Evidence: race conditions with file system operations]
WHY 2: Context Analysis
Why does this condition exist? Follow each WHY 1 through context. Check if factors connect multiple causes. Examine system/environment/operational context.
WHY 3: System Analysis
Why do conditions persist? How system enables multiple failure modes. How causes interact systemically. Analyze design/architecture decisions.
WHY 4: Design Analysis
Why not anticipated? Review design assumptions. Identify all design blind spots. Trace decisions to original context.
WHY 5: Root Cause Identification
Fundamental causes. Multiple root causes expected for complex issues. Ensure all contributing causes identified. Focus on deepest level.
Validation and Verification
Evidence Requirements
Each WHY level must have verifiable evidence for all causes. Root causes must explain all symptoms collectively. Solutions must address all root causes.
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.
- 1mo ago First seen · 80 lines · 25 tokens per session scan A f5c7c63ff379
nw-five-whys-methodology is a skill published in the GitHub repository nWave-ai/nWave (620 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 25 tokens to every session and 711 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5.5. 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 2026-09-03.
Other skills, from other repositories
behavior-contract
Bug condition/postcondition formalization as testable Behavior Contracts. Defines invariants that must be preserved across fixes.
debugging
A structured method for finding and fixing software bugs. It starts by writing a test that reproduces the failure, then investigates its underlying cause before making a small fix.
hk-rca
Interactive Root Cause Analysis enforcer. Guides you through the 7-step RCA protocol: Reproduce, Locate, Hypothesis, Failing Test, Fix, Verify Live, Document. Use when debugging a bug, investigating a failure, or when something unexpected happened. This skill gates each step — it won't let you skip to a fix without…
debug-flow
Systematic debugging workflow. Reproduce the issue, isolate root cause, write a failing test, fix, verify. Use when diagnosing bugs or unexpected behavior.
team-fix
Use for the full bug-fix pipeline only on explicit request. Never infer from an ordinary bug fix. Runs the compressed pipeline.
investigate
Root-cause a bug, test failure, CI failure, or unexpected behavior before changing code. Reproduce, compare against working code, test one hypothesis at a time, then fix with a failing regression test first. Stops after three failed fixes to question the design, and requires fresh evidence before any "fixed" claim.…