Doubt Driven Review

Doubt-Driven Development

Overview

A confident answer is not a correct one. Long sessions accumulate context that quietly turns assumptions into "facts" without anyone noticing. Doubt-driven development is the discipline of materializing a fresh-context reviewer — biased to disprove, not approve — before any non-trivial output stands.

This is not /review. /review is a verdict on a finished artifact. This is an in-flight posture: non-trivial decisions get cross-examined while course-correction is still cheap.

When to Use

A decision is non-trivial when at least one of these is true:

• It introduces or modifies branching logic
• It crosses a module or service boundary
• It asserts a property the type system or compiler cannot verify (thread safety, idempotence, ordering, invariants)
• Its correctness depends on context the future reader cannot see
• Its blast radius is irreversible (production deploy, data migration, public API change)

Apply the skill when:

• About to make an architectural decision under uncertainty
• About to commit non-trivial code
• About to claim a non-obvious fact ("this is safe", "this scales", "this matches the spec")
• Working in code you don't fully understand

When NOT to use:

• Mechanical operations (renaming, formatting, file moves)
• Following a clear, unambiguous user instruction
• Reading or summarizing existing code
• One-line changes with obvious correctness
• Pure tooling operations (running tests, listing files)
• The user has explicitly asked for speed over verification

If you doubt every keystroke, you ship nothing. The skill applies only to non-trivial decisions as defined above.

Loading Constraints

This skill is designed for the main-session orchestrator, where Step 3 (DOUBT, detailed below) can spawn a fresh-context reviewer.

• Do NOT add this skill to a persona's skills: frontmatter. A persona that follows Step 3 would spawn another persona — the orchestration anti-pattern explicitly forbidden by references/orchestration-patterns.md ("personas do not invoke other personas").
• If you find yourself applying this skill from inside a subagent context (where Claude Code prevents nested subagent spawn): the preferred path is to surface to the user that doubt-driven cannot run nested and let the main session handle it. As a last resort only, a degraded self-questioning fallback exists — rewrite ARTIFACT + CONTRACT as a fresh self-prompt with a hard mental separator from your prior reasoning, and walk Steps 1–5. This is not fresh-context review (you carry your own context with you), so flag the result as degraded and prefer escalation whenever the user is reachable.

The Process

Copy this checklist when applying the skill:

Doubt cycle:
- [ ] Step 1: CLAIM — wrote the claim + why-it-matters
- [ ] Step 2: EXTRACT — isolated artifact + contract, stripped reasoning
- [ ] Step 3: DOUBT — invoked fresh-context reviewer with adversarial prompt
- [ ] Step 4: RECONCILE — classified every finding against the artifact text
- [ ] Step 5: STOP — met stop condition (trivial findings, 3 cycles, or user override)

Step 1: CLAIM — Surface what stands

Name the decision in two or three lines:

CLAIM: "The new caching layer is thread-safe under the
        read-heavy workload described in the spec."
WHY THIS MATTERS: a race here corrupts user data and is
                  hard to detect in QA.

If you can't write the claim that compactly, you have a vibe, not a decision. Surface it before scrutinizing it.

Step 2: EXTRACT — Smallest reviewable unit

A fresh-context reviewer needs the artifact and the contract, not the journey.

• Code: the diff or the function — not the whole file
• Decision: the proposal in 3–5 sentences plus the constraints it has to satisfy
• Assertion: the claim plus the evidence that supposedly supports it (kept distinct from the Step 1 CLAIM block, which is the orchestrator's hypothesis under scrutiny)

Strip your reasoning. If you hand over conclusions, you'll get back validation of your conclusions. The unit must be small enough that a reviewer can hold it in mind in one read — if it's a 500-line PR, decompose first.

Step 3: DOUBT — Invoke the fresh-context reviewer

The reviewer's prompt must be adversarial. Framing decides the answer.

Adversarial review. Find what is wrong with this artifact.
Assume the author is overconfident. Look for:
- Unstated assumptions
- Edge cases not handled
- Hidden coupling or shared state
- Ways the contract could be violated
- Existing conventions this might break
- Failure modes under unexpected input

Do NOT validate. Do NOT summarize. Find issues, or state
explicitly that you cannot find any after thorough examination.

ARTIFACT: <paste artifact>
CONTRACT: <paste contract>

Pass ARTIFACT + CONTRACT only. Do NOT pass the CLAIM. Handing the reviewer your conclusion biases it toward agreement. The reviewer must independently determine whether the artifact satisfies the contract.

In Claude Code, the role-based reviewers in agents/ start with isolated context by design and are usable here — see agents/ for the roster and per-domain match.

The adversarial prompt above takes precedence over the persona's default response shape. Personas like code-reviewer are written to produce balanced verdicts with both strengths and weaknesses; doubt-driven needs issues-only output. Paste the adversarial prompt verbatim into the invocation so it overrides the persona's default. If a persona's response shape can't be overridden cleanly, fall back to a generic subagent with the adversarial prompt.

Cross-model escalation

A single-model reviewer shares blind spots with the original author — a colder, different-architecture model catches them. Doubt-driven is already opt-in for non-trivial decisions, so within that scope cross-model is part of the skill's value, not optional friction.

Automatic when a reviewer role is set. If a @propose-review-N role is configured AND probes clean (see Choosing the reviewer below), run the cross-model review automatically — do NOT ask the user first. A configured @propose-review-N series IS the user's standing decision that cross-model is wanted; asking again each cycle is redundant friction. Spawn the reviewer, take its output into RECONCILE, and announce in the output that cross-model ran ("Cross-model review ran automatically on @propose-review-N.").

Only ask when no reviewer role resolves. When the @propose-review-N series is empty or every role probes empty, fall back to the interactive offer below.

Step 1: Reviewer role set → run automatically; otherwise offer

After the single-model review in Step 3 above, but before RECONCILE:

• A @propose-review-N role resolves → skip the question. Run the cross-model pass automatically (probe-gated, walking the series), fold its findings into RECONCILE, and note in the output that it ran.

• No @propose-review-N role resolves (none configured, or all probe empty) → pause and offer:

  "Single-model review complete. No reviewer role is configured. Want a cross-model second opinion? Options: configure a @propose-review-N role now, manual external review (you paste it elsewhere), or skip."

The standing @propose-review-N config — not a per-cycle prompt — is where the user decides whether cross-model is worth the cost. When that config is absent, the agent surfaces the choice instead.

The cross-model path in Pi is a subagent on a @propose-review-N role. Pi's Agent tool takes a model param. Use a role ref (@propose-review-1, @propose-review-2, … @propose-review-x) — NOT a raw provider/model-id. Role refs resolve through the supported model:resolve handler and inherit the parent session's live registry, so a curated reviewer (including a custom-provider model) actually spawns. A raw provider/model-id bypasses that path; for a custom provider the child can build a registry that lacks the provider → empty output (the exact failure this role series exists to avoid). The subagent runs in isolated context by construction, passes ARTIFACT as a prompt string (no shell-escaping hazard), and can open repo files to verify the author's code claims. This skill does NOT shell out to an external review CLI; the only automated reviewer is the in-process subagent.

Agent(
  subagent_type: "Explore",           # or any read-capable label
  model: "@propose-review-1",                  # a curated cross-model reviewer role
  description: "Cross-model adversarial review",
  prompt: "<adversarial prompt> + ARTIFACT + CONTRACT"   # NO CLAIM, NO reasoning
)

Choosing the reviewer — walk the @propose-review-N role series. The operator pre-configures a numbered series of reviewer roles (propose-review-1, propose-review-2, … propose-review-x in ~/.pi/agent/providers.json#roles, editable via the update_roles tool or the dashboard Roles panel), each pointing at a different-architecture model than the author and verified reachable. Order matters: put cross-model reviewers first and any same-family-as-usual-author model (e.g. an Anthropic model when the author is typically Claude) last, so it only fires as the final fallback. The skill does not hand-pick or fuzzy-match a catalogue — it walks the series in order:

1. Start at @propose-review-1. Skip any role whose architecture family matches the author's (author is Claude → skip a propose-review-N that maps to claude-*) — a reviewer that shares the author's family shares its blind spots.
2. Probe before the real prompt with a trivial prompt ("Reply with exactly: OK"). Non-empty → use that role for the adversarial pass. Empty, or a resolution error → advance to @propose-review-2, @propose-review-3, … until one probes clean.
3. If no @propose-review-N role resolves (none configured, or all probe empty) and the session is interactive, offer to configure one on the spot — see Bootstrap a reviewer role below — before giving up. Only when the user declines, or the context is non-interactive, treat subagent cross-model as unavailable (Step 2) — offer manual review / skip. Never substitute a raw provider/model-id; that is the path that fails silently for custom providers.

Seeding the series (one-time). Assign each propose-review-N role a reachable, different-architecture model, cross-model reviewers first and any same-family fallback last — e.g. propose-review-1 → opencode-go/glm-5.2, propose-review-2 → deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro, propose-review-3 → anthropic/claude-opus-4-8 (Opus last). Enumerate reachable ids with pi --list-models or dashboard GET /api/models when deciding what to assign; assign via update_roles.

Bootstrap a reviewer role (interactive, when the series is empty or unreachable). On a machine where no @propose-review-N role is set — or none resolves — do NOT jump straight to skip. Configure one live:

1. Enumerate the reachable set with the list_models tool (or pi --list-models / dashboard GET /api/models). Keep only credentialed rows (excludedReason: null); prefer reasoning: true.
2. Drop the author's own architecture family (author is Claude → exclude anthropic/* / claude-*) so the reviewer does not share the author's blind spots.
3. Ask the user to choose via ask_user (method select), offering a handful of the strongest different-family candidates from the enumerated set (do not auto-pick).
4. Assign it via the role API — the update_roles tool: set_role, role: "propose-review-1" (or the next free propose-review-N slot), ref: "<chosen provider/model-id>". This persists to providers.json#roles, so the choice carries to every future session; never hand-edit the file.
5. Probe then spawn on the freshly-assigned @propose-review-N (same "Reply with exactly: OK" gate).

Interactive only — never enumerate-and-ask in CI / /loop / autonomous runs; there, skip per the non-interactive rule below.

Prerequisite + fallback (verify, do not assume):

1. A @propose-review-N role must be configured AND reachable. An unconfigured role, or one pointing at a non-reachable id, makes the spawn return empty output. Probe first ("Reply with exactly: OK"); empty → advance to the next @propose-review-N, never proceed on the empty one. (This series is preferred precisely because a role ref resolves through the parent's live registry; a raw provider/model-id can silently miss a custom provider.)
2. If the whole @propose-review-N series is exhausted with no clean probe, surface it explicitly (per Step 2 below) and fall back to manual external review. Do NOT silently proceed single-model, and do NOT substitute a raw provider/model-id.
3. Pass ARTIFACT + CONTRACT + adversarial prompt only — same rule as every cross-model path. No CLAIM.

Step 2: If the subagent reviewer is unavailable or fails

Surface the failure explicitly. Offer: run the review manually (paste ARTIFACT + CONTRACT + adversarial prompt into an external model yourself), or skip. A @propose-review-N series exhausted with every role probing empty counts as a failure — announce it. Do not silently fall back to single-model — the user should know cross-model didn't happen.

Step 3: If the user skips

Acknowledge the skip in the output ("Proceeding with single-model findings only") and continue to RECONCILE. Skipping is fine; silent skipping is not.

Non-interactive contexts (CI, /loop, autonomous-loop, scheduled runs):

• Cross-model is skipped, and the skip must be announced in the output: "Cross-model skipped: non-interactive context."

Cross-model adds cost and latency. When a reviewer role is set it runs automatically; when none is set, the agent surfaces the choice and the user decides whether this artifact warrants manual review.

Step 4: RECONCILE — Fold findings back

The reviewer's output is data, not verdict. You are still the orchestrator. Re-read the artifact text against each finding before classifying — rubber-stamping the reviewer is the same failure mode as ignoring it.

For each finding, classify in this precedence order (first matching class wins):

1. Contract misread — reviewer flagged something specifically because the CONTRACT you provided was unclear or incomplete. Fix the contract first, re-classify on the next cycle.
2. Valid + actionable — real issue requiring a change to the artifact. Change it, re-loop.
3. Valid trade-off — issue is real but cost of fixing exceeds cost of accepting. Document the trade-off explicitly so the user sees it.
4. Noise — reviewer flagged something that's actually correct under context the reviewer didn't have. Note it, move on, and ask: would adding that context to the contract have prevented the false flag?

A fresh reviewer can be wrong because it lacks context. Don't defer just because it's "fresh."

Step 5: STOP — Bounded loop, not recursion

Stop when:

• Next iteration returns only trivial or already-considered findings, or
• 3 cycles completed (escalate to user, don't grind a fourth alone), or
• User explicitly says "ship it"

If after 3 cycles the reviewer still surfaces substantive issues, the artifact may not be ready. Surface this to the user — three unresolved cycles is information about the artifact, not a reason to keep looping.

If 3 cycles is "obviously insufficient" because the artifact is large: the artifact is too big — return to Step 2 and decompose. Do not lift the bound.

Common Rationalizations

Red Flags

• Spawning a fresh-context reviewer for a one-line rename or formatting change
• Treating reviewer output as authoritative without re-reading the artifact text
• Looping >3 cycles without escalating to the user
• Prompting the reviewer with "is this good?" instead of "find issues"
• Skipping doubt under time pressure on a high-stakes decision
• Re-spawning fresh-context on an unchanged artifact (you'll get the same findings; you're stalling)
• Doubt theater (checkable signal): across 2 or more cycles where the reviewer surfaced substantive findings, zero findings were classified as actionable. You are validating, not doubting. Stop and escalate.
• Doubting only after committing — that's /review, not doubt-driven development
• Shelling out to an external review CLI — this skill's only automated cross-model path is the in-process @propose-review-N subagent; the CLI escape hatch was removed
• Silently skipping cross-model in an interactive doubt cycle when NO reviewer role is configured. With no @propose-review-N role set, the offer must be visible — skipping is fine, silent skipping is not. (When a role IS set, cross-model runs automatically without an offer — that is the intended behavior, not a red flag.)
• Falling back silently when the subagent reviewer errors or probes empty — surface the failure and let the user redirect
• Stripping the contract from the reviewer's input
• Passing the CLAIM to the reviewer (biases toward agreement)

Interaction with Other Skills

• code-review-and-quality / /review: complementary. /review is post-hoc PR verdict; doubt-driven is in-flight per-decision. Use both.
• source-driven-development: SDD verifies facts about frameworks against official docs. Doubt-driven verifies your reasoning about the artifact. SDD checks the API exists; doubt-driven checks you used it correctly under the contract.
• test-driven-development: TDD's RED step is doubt made concrete — a failing test is a disproof attempt. When TDD applies, that failing test is the doubt step for behavioral claims.
• debugging-and-error-recovery: when the reviewer surfaces a real failure mode, drop into the debugging skill to localize and fix.
• Repo orchestration rules (references/orchestration-patterns.md): this skill orchestrates from the main session. A persona calling another persona is anti-pattern B — see Loading Constraints above.

Verification

After applying doubt-driven development:

• Every non-trivial decision (per the definition above) was named explicitly as a CLAIM before standing
• At least one fresh-context review per non-trivial artifact (a failing test produced by TDD's RED step satisfies this for behavioral claims, per Interaction with Other Skills)
• The reviewer received ARTIFACT + CONTRACT — NOT the CLAIM, NOT your reasoning
• The reviewer's prompt was adversarial ("find issues"), not validating ("is it good")
• Findings were classified against the artifact text (not rubber-stamped) using the precedence: contract misread / actionable / trade-off / noise
• A stop condition was met (trivial findings, 3 cycles, or user override)
• In interactive mode: when a @propose-review-N role was configured and probed clean, cross-model ran automatically (no per-cycle offer) and the fact it ran was announced in the output; when no role resolved, cross-model was explicitly offered to the user and the response was acknowledged. When run, the preferred Pi path (subagent on a @propose-review-N reviewer role) was tried first; an empty probe advanced to the next role in the series, and a fully-exhausted series was surfaced as a failure, not silently swallowed
• When cross-model ran, the reviewer was selected by walking the @propose-review-1..@propose-review-x role series (probe-gated), each a different architecture family than the author — not a hand-picked raw provider/model-id. When the series was empty/unreachable in an interactive session, a role was bootstrapped first: list_models → ask_user selection → update_roles set_role, before any manual-review/skip fallback
• In non-interactive mode, cross-model was skipped and the skip was announced
• No external review CLI was invoked — the only automated cross-model reviewer used was the in-process @propose-review-N subagent