Compare Options

Compare Options

When to use

• "Compare X and Y"
• "Which is better, A or B?"
• "Help me choose between..."
• "What are the trade-offs of...?"

Steps

1. Identify the options and criteria:

   • Options: what's being compared? If unclear, ask via ask_questions.
   • Criteria: what matters to the user? Common ones: price, quality, speed, ease of use, support. If unclear, propose 3-5 via ask_questions (multi-select).

2. Research each option in parallel:

   • For products/services: web_search for reviews + browser_extract on official pages for specs
   • For technical choices: web_research skill on each option
   • For internal options: use information already in context

3. Score each option against each criterion:

   • Use specific values where possible (price, dates, sizes)
   • Use boolean for present/absent features
   • Use short text ("excellent", "limited", "good") for qualitative
   • For a weighted ranking, don't do the arithmetic yourself — run run_skill_script with this skill and path scripts/score.js, passing {"weights": {...}, "options": [{"name", "scores": {...}}]} as stdin (scores 0-10). It returns the ranked totals, winner, and margin deterministically.

4. Display the comparison:

   • Use show_comparison with each option as a card, features as the criteria
   • Highlight the one that scored best overall (set highlight: true)
   • Add cta buttons so the user can pick

5. Add a recommendation — one paragraph explaining your top pick and why, including who would prefer the alternative. Be specific about the trade-offs.

6. Offer to dig deeper via offer_choices:

   • "Tell me more about [winner]"
   • "Compare additional criteria"
   • "Add another option"
   • "I'll go with [winner]"

Style

• Be balanced. Even your top pick has downsides — name them.
• Quantify where possible. "Costs 30% more" beats "expensive".
• Match the user's stakes — for a casual choice, keep it brief; for a major decision, be thorough.

What not to do

• Don't recommend an option you didn't research
• Don't hide trade-offs to make a recommendation cleaner
• Don't add features to the comparison that none of the options have ("Option A doesn't support X, but neither do the others — drop it")
• Don't make a single-choice comparison ("X is good") — comparison requires alternatives