Bane
Surface every weakness in a plan, system, or argument.
What This Skill Does
Bane curses targets, making them worse at everything they try. The real-world version is systematic weakness analysis: finding every crack, bad assumption, and failure mode in a plan, architecture, or argument. Unlike Vicious Mockery (which delivers the critique sharply), Bane is comprehensive and methodical — it maps the full attack surface.
In this grimoire, Bane is treated as a metaphorical spell with a shipping-now delivery profile.
Canonical reference input: Bane (spell).
When To Use
- You need a thorough weakness analysis before committing to a plan, architecture, or strategy.
- Something feels fragile and you want to know exactly where it will break.
- You want a pre-mortem focused specifically on vulnerabilities rather than general risks.
Prerequisites
- No extra runtime dependencies beyond Hermes Agent and the normal toolset for this session.
Procedure
- Restate the target, the success condition, and any no-touch boundaries before taking action.
- Accept the target: the plan, system, argument, or design to analyze.
- Systematically probe each component, assumption, and dependency for weaknesses.
- Categorize weaknesses by severity and exploitability.
- Deliver a ranked vulnerability map with the most dangerous weaknesses first.
- Package the result as the deliverables below, with confidence, assumptions, and unresolved risk called out explicitly.
Deliverables
- A ranked weakness map: every identified vulnerability sorted by severity.
- For each weakness, a brief note on how it could be exploited or how it would fail.
Pitfalls / Guardrails
- Keep the metaphor anchored to a real mechanism instead of drifting into lore.
- Bane finds weaknesses, it does not exploit them. The output is a diagnostic, not an attack plan.
- If the target has no significant weaknesses, say so. Forced negativity is as dishonest as forced positivity.
Verification
- Check that the result includes every deliverable promised above.
- Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and inferences are visibly separated.
- Check that the metaphor still maps cleanly to a real operational mechanism.
Example Invocation
/bane find every weakness in this [plan/system/argument]. Give me a ranked vulnerability map
1---2name: bane-23description: Bane curses targets, making them worse at everything they try. The real-world version is systematic weakness analysis: finding every crack, bad assumption, and failure mode in a plan, architecture, or argument. Unlike Vicious Mockery (which delivers the critique sharply), Bane is comprehensive and methodical — it maps the full attack surface.4license: CC0-1.05---6# Bane7Surface every weakness in a plan, system, or argument.8## What This Skill Does9Bane curses targets, making them worse at everything they try. The real-world version is systematic weakness analysis: finding every crack, bad assumption, and failure mode in a plan, architecture, or argument. Unlike Vicious Mockery (which delivers the critique sharply), Bane is comprehensive and methodical — it maps the full attack surface.10In this grimoire, Bane is treated as a metaphorical spell with a shipping-now delivery profile.11Canonical reference input: Bane (spell).12## When To Use1314- You need a thorough weakness analysis before committing to a plan, architecture, or strategy.15- Something feels fragile and you want to know exactly where it will break.16- You want a pre-mortem focused specifically on vulnerabilities rather than general risks.1718## Prerequisites1920- No extra runtime dependencies beyond Hermes Agent and the normal toolset for this session.2122## Procedure23241. Restate the target, the success condition, and any no-touch boundaries before taking action.252. Accept the target: the plan, system, argument, or design to analyze.263. Systematically probe each component, assumption, and dependency for weaknesses.274. Categorize weaknesses by severity and exploitability.285. Deliver a ranked vulnerability map with the most dangerous weaknesses first.296. Package the result as the deliverables below, with confidence, assumptions, and unresolved risk called out explicitly.3031## Deliverables3233- A ranked weakness map: every identified vulnerability sorted by severity.34- For each weakness, a brief note on how it could be exploited or how it would fail.3536## Pitfalls / Guardrails3738- Keep the metaphor anchored to a real mechanism instead of drifting into lore.39- Bane finds weaknesses, it does not exploit them. The output is a diagnostic, not an attack plan.40- If the target has no significant weaknesses, say so. Forced negativity is as dishonest as forced positivity.4142## Verification4344- Check that the result includes every deliverable promised above.45- Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and inferences are visibly separated.46- Check that the metaphor still maps cleanly to a real operational mechanism.4748## Example Invocation49```text50/bane find every weakness in this [plan/system/argument]. Give me a ranked vulnerability map51```
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