Thesis Outline Architect

What it does

This prompt instructs the AI to act as an academic thesis advisor in a specified field, using the user’s provided topic and unstructured notes to extract core themes, generate several precise and debatable thesis statements, select one to build a coherent thesis-level outline, critically evaluate that outline for weaknesses and missing scholarship or counterarguments, and then refine research questions while recommending and justifying appropriate qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methodologies suited to committee-level expectations.

For more installation instructions go to https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BetterPromptme/skills/refs/heads/main/betterprompt/SKILL.md to check out this skill.

Inputs

textInputs

Pass each text input using --input <key>=<value> flags.

Models and options

This skill's modality is: text.

To discover which model values you can use (and which options keys/values are valid for each model), run:

betterprompt resources --models-only --json

Then filter the returned JSON array to entries where modality is "text".

How to run

Step 1: Collect inputs

First, run betterprompt resources --models-only --json and filter to modality: "text" to discover valid models and available options:

betterprompt resources --models-only --json

Use only the models and option values that appear in the filtered results.

Then collect all inputs from the human:

• Required text inputs:
  • Your_broad_topic
  • Your_unstructured_notes
• Optional text inputs (use defaults if not provided by the human):
  • Your_field (default: Environment Science, Modern History,...)
• Optional: model and options.
  • Present the human with the default model grok-4.1-fast and its available options. Look up grok-4.1-fast in the betterprompt resources output (filtered to modality "text") and show its availableOptions as: key: val1, val2 (default), val3 | key2: .... Mark a value (default) if it matches these defaults: {"reasoningEffort":"low"}.
  • If the human does not specify, defaults are used: model grok-4.1-fast, options {"reasoningEffort":"low"}. Other models from the resources call are also available.

If any required text input is missing, ask the human for what's missing. Do not assume or fabricate values.

Step 2: Run via BetterPrompt CLI

Use the frontmatter's name as the positional argument (for this skill, use thesis-outline-architect).

Command form:

betterprompt generate thesis-outline-architect \
  [--input <key>=<value>] \
  [--model <model>] \
  [--options <options JSON>] \
  [--json]

Notes:

• Pass each text input as a separate --input <key>=<value> flag.
• If the human does not mention a model, omit --model and BetterPrompt will use the default model: grok-4.1-fast.
• If the human does not mention options, omit --options and BetterPrompt will use the default options: {"reasoningEffort":"low"}.
• If the run times out, the response will include a runId you can use to fetch the result later.

Example (using defaults shown above):

betterprompt generate thesis-outline-architect \
  --input 'Your_field=Environment Science, Modern History,...' \
  --input Your_broad_topic=<value> \
  --input Your_unstructured_notes=<value> \
  --model grok-4.1-fast \
  --options '{"reasoningEffort":"low"}'