Hmbown Variable Sword
Choose the shape of the cut when the situation is clear but the right pattern is not.
What This Skill Does
Use Variable Sword when you know something needs to be cut but the attack pattern — narrow precision, wide sweep, or long reach — should be determined by the shape of the target at execution time. In this chip pack, Variable Sword is treated as a metaphorical battle-chip procedure with a shipping-now delivery profile. Canonical reference input: Variable Sword. Hermes shelf: Direct Fire and Breach.
When To Use
- The target is identified but its extent, depth, or blast radius varies depending on context you can only read at execution time.
- You need one tool that can perform a surgical fix, a broad refactor, or a cross-file sweep, and committing to one pattern prematurely would be wasteful.
- The cut is definitely happening — the only question is which configuration fits the terrain.
Prerequisites
- These procedures rely on the normal tools already present in the active Hermes runtime; this repo does not ship a separate integration layer.
Procedure
- Restate the target, success condition, and no-touch boundaries before you spend the chip.
- Read the target terrain and classify the required pattern: narrow, wide, or far-reaching.
- Lock in the configuration and execute the cut in a single committed motion.
- Confirm the chosen pattern matched the problem and did not overcut or undercut.
- Package the result with concrete evidence, what stayed untouched, and the next recommended chip only if follow-up is truly needed.
Deliverables
- A context-shaped edit whose pattern was determined by inspection, not assumption.
- A brief note identifying which pattern was selected and why.
Pitfalls / Guardrails
- Keep the metaphor anchored to a real operator move instead of drifting into lore.
- Do not use Variable Sword as an excuse to avoid committing to a specific pattern — classify, choose, and execute.
- If the terrain is genuinely unknown and cannot be read before the cut, switch to a recon chip first.
- Variable Sword is not a free pass to scope-creep a simple cut into a broad refactor.
- Keep the chip metaphor anchored to a real operating move; do not let flavor substitute for procedure.
Verification
- Check that the response includes every promised deliverable and leaves an inspectable audit trail.
- Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and proposed follow-up are visibly separated.
- Check that the metaphor still maps cleanly to a real operator mechanism.
Example Invocation
/variable-sword inspect the target, choose the right cut pattern, and execute one committed edit whose shape matches the actual problem