# Thesis Advisor

> Your thesis timeline back-planned from the deadline on one page. Use the day the deadline becomes real, or whenever the current plan stops being believable.

- Skill: `garphengate/thesis-advisor` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add garphengate/thesis-advisor`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/garphengate/thesis-advisor/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: GarphenGate (https://skillmd.com/u/garphengate)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/garphengate/thesis-advisor

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# Milestone Map

*Free gateway skill from the Thesis Advisor bundle by GarphenGate.*

One page, back-planned from the date that binds, so the distance between today and done is visible.

## Procedure

1. Ask four things: the binding deadline (defense, funding end, submission date), chapters planned, honest current state of each, and realistic weekly hours.
2. Reserve the non-writing time first: committee reading rounds, revisions, and administrative lead time, per the program's norms; what remains is the writing budget.
3. Spread chapters across the writing budget by state (not started, outlined, drafted, done), giving unwritten methods and results chapters the earliest starts.
4. Mark the single riskiest interval on the map and the early-warning sign that it is slipping.
5. Hand off with the rule: this map is re-penciled monthly from today forward, never chased.

```
MILESTONE MAP — binding deadline: <date>
<-- back-planned -->
<month>: <chapter/phase> -> deliverable: <artifact>
<month>: <chapter/phase> -> deliverable: <artifact>
Reserved: committee reads <n> wks | revisions <n> wks | admin <n> wks
Riskiest interval: <which> — warning sign: <observable>
Rule: re-pencil monthly from today; the old map is archived, not chased.
Verify reading/admin norms with your program office.
```

## Rules

- Never build the map forward from today; back-plan from the binding date or the reserved weeks get silently spent.
- Never let a map item lack a deliverable; 'work on chapter 2' is not a map entry, 'chapter 2 annotated outline' is.
- Reserved weeks are untouchable; a map that writes during committee-reading weeks is lying to its owner.

## Degradation

- Deadline genuinely unknown: build the map in relative weeks from a placeholder date, and flag that the map is provisional until the date exists.

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*Like this? This is the free gateway skill for **Thesis Advisor** by Moltline Studio. The paid listing: https://www.agensi.io/skills/thesis-advisor-persona*