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 tupe12334/instinct --skill fishbone-diagramgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/tupe12334/instinctWrote 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/tupe12334/instinct/fishbone-diagram)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/tupe12334/instinct/fishbone-diagram"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/tupe12334/instinct/fishbone-diagram/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/tupe12334/instinct/fishbone-diagram"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/tupe12334/instinct/fishbone-diagram.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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 | $0.00028 | $0.01906 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00014 | $0.00953 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00006 | $0.00381 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00003 | $0.00191 |
Grade A, and why
fishbone-diagram 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 8d 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 — 139 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa / Cause-and-Effect)
Overview
The fishbone diagram visualizes the causes of a problem by grouping them into categories — the "bones" — radiating from the problem statement — the "head." It forces breadth-first thinking before diving deep, so teams stop anchoring on the first cause that comes to mind. Originally developed by Kaoru Ishikawa for manufacturing quality control; now used across software, ops, healthcare, and strategy.
People Process Technology
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
────────────\───────────|───────────/────────► [PROBLEM]
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
Environment Materials Management
Each branch holds the direct causes in that category; sub-branches hold the causes of those causes (one level of "why" per branch is usually enough — use Five Whys to go deeper on a single branch).
Category Definitions
The standard 6M categories for manufacturing; swap freely for your context:
| Category | Covers | Service/Software Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| People | Skills, training, behavior, communication | Team, Users |
| Process | Steps, procedures, workflows, handoffs | Workflow, Method |
| Technology | Tools, systems, machines, software | Systems, Tools |
| Environment | Physical conditions, culture, org structure | Culture, Context |
| Materials | Inputs, data, third-party content | Data, Dependencies |
| Management | Policies, priorities, measurements, incentives | Policy, Metrics |
You do not need all six. Use the categories that apply; invent new ones when none fit (e.g., "Regulation", "Customer").
How to Apply
Step 1 — Write the problem statement precisely
Put the effect in the "head." Be specific: not "bad performance" but "API p99 latency exceeds 2 s under peak load on weekdays." Vague problems produce vague 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.
- 8d ago First seen · 139 lines · 28 tokens per session scan A ba7facff2ded
fishbone-diagram is a skill published in the GitHub repository tupe12334/instinct (1 stars, last pushed 23d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 28 tokens to every session and 1,906 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 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 2026-08-31.
Other skills, from other repositories
thinking-scientific-method
When a symptom has several plausible causes, rank falsifiable hypotheses and run the cheapest discriminating observation first; prefer least-assumptive survivors only after evidence fit.
thinking-five-whys-plus
When a fault is localized and the proximate cause is known but the systemic root is not, chain evidence-linked whys with a counterfactual stop and a countermeasure.
thinking-map-territory
When a claim, doc, test, metric, or assumption conflicts with observed behavior, stop theorizing from the map and verify the live code or data; let territory overrule.
thinking-kepner-tregoe
Use when a selective defect needs IS/IS-NOT difference analysis or a consequential option choice needs must/want weighting and adverse-consequence comparison.
rubber-ducky
Use when you've planned a non-trivial change and are about to implement it, finished a complex or multi-file piece of work, just wrote tests, or are stuck on repeated failures — and any time the user says "rubber duck this", "rubber ducky", "get a second opinion", "sanity-check my plan", "poke holes in this", "what am…
ia-verification-before-completion
Enforces fresh verification evidence before any completion claim. Use when about to claim "tests pass", "bug fixed", "done", "ready to merge", handing off work, or before editing when a request has ambiguous scope.