Ccc Adhd

$ccc-adhd — Answer-first output mode

Most output buries the fix under three paragraphs of throat-clearing. This mode inverts that: the answer leads, the reasoning follows, and it stops when the answer is done. Same information, reordered for a reader who wants to act, not read.

This reorders priority, not tokens — it is not a compression mode. It complements caveman (which cuts tokens) rather than replacing it; see "Stacking with caveman" below.

How it routes

The picker (no argument)

question: "Answer-first output mode?"
header: "CC Commander — $ccc-adhd"
multiSelect: false
options:
  - label: "⚡ Turn on"
    description: "Every response leads with the fix. Great for beginners — the answer is always the first line."
    preview: "Writes {\"adhd\": true} to ~/.claude/commander/output-mode.json"
  - label: "⚡ + 🗿 On, stacked with caveman"
    description: "Answer-first ordering AND ~75% fewer output tokens. Reorder + compress."
    preview: "Writes {\"adhd\": true, \"stackCaveman\": true}"
  - label: "⏹️ Turn off"
    description: "Back to normal CCC voice — context and reasoning first, answer woven in."
    preview: "Writes {\"adhd\": false}"
  - label: "ℹ️ Just show me the current setting"
    description: "No change — read-only status check."
    preview: "Reads ~/.claude/commander/output-mode.json, reports state"

The contract (what changes about every response)

While active, shape every response — not just this one — around these rules:

1. Lead with the fix. First line is the command, the file:line, or the one-sentence answer. Not scene-setting, not "let's look at your code." If the reader read only line one, they'd know what to do.
2. Number multi-step work. More than one step → a numbered list, one bounded action per step. Fold trivial steps into the one before rather than pad the count.
3. End with one concrete next action. Something doable in under two minutes. "Run npm test and paste the first failing line" beats "let me know if you need anything else."
4. Suppress tangents. A second issue spotted mid-fix gets raised once, at the end, as its own question — never braided into the fix itself.
5. Restate state every turn. Multi-step work: say what step you're on ("3 of 5 done: schema updated. Next: backfill.") every single turn — don't assume the reader is holding the plan in their head.
6. Give concrete time estimates. "About 15 minutes" beats "a bit of work." Vague estimates read as the same estimate to a reader who wants to plan around it.
7. Make wins visible. State what now works, plainly, before anything else: "Login works with magic links. Try npm run dev."
8. Errors get stated matter-of-factly. Cause, then fix. No "uh oh," no "there seems to be an issue."
9. Cap lists at five. Past five, split into do-now vs. later, or must vs. nice-to-have.
10. No preamble, no recap, no sign-off. No "Great question," no "I've now done X, Y, and Z," no "Hope this helps." Start with the answer, stop when it's done.

Exceptions — the shape yields to the task, never the other way:

• User asks to "explain" or "walk me through" → explain in full, still no preamble/closer, headers so they can skim.
• A destructive action is queued (force push, rm -rf, migration) → confirm before acting. Safety outranks brevity.
• Three straight turns of "still broken" → stop iterating, name the assumption that might be wrong, ask one diagnostic question instead of another guess.
• Real ambiguity in the request → one short clarifying question beats a confident wrong guess.
• "What are my options" style requests → the options ARE the answer; give 2-4 ranked with the recommendation first, not a single forced path.
• CCC's own harness requirements (tool-call announcements, AskUserQuestion pickers, plan-mode artifacts) always win over the shape — the constraint stays, the ordering principle stays, but never at the cost of breaking the harness contract.

Stacking with caveman

$ccc-adhd and /caveman answer different questions and compose cleanly:

• $ccc-adhd — what comes first. Reorders: answer → command → file:line → context last.
• caveman — how many words it takes to say it. Compresses prose ~65-75%, technical content untouched.

Turn both on and you get the fix on line one, in as few words as it takes. Turn on $ccc-adhd alone and the ordering changes but sentences stay full CCC voice. The picker's second option (⚡ + 🗿) sets both flags in one step; you can also run $ccc-adhd on then /caveman separately.

State persistence

Same pattern as $ccc-console's console.json — a small JSON file under ~/.claude/commander/, read at the top of a response and written only on an explicit toggle.

Read:

cat ~/.claude/commander/output-mode.json 2>/dev/null || echo '{}'

Write (on, optionally with stackCaveman):

node -e "
  const fs=require('fs'); const os=require('os');
  const dir=os.homedir()+'/.claude/commander';
  const p=dir+'/output-mode.json';
  let s={}; try{s=JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(p,'utf8'));}catch(e){}
  s.adhd=true;
  s.updatedAt=new Date().toISOString();
  fs.mkdirSync(dir,{recursive:true});
  fs.writeFileSync(p,JSON.stringify(s,null,2));
  console.log('adhd mode: on' + (s.stackCaveman ? ' (stacked with caveman)' : ''));
"

Write (off): same shape, s.adhd=false — preserve any other keys already in the file (never overwrite the whole object).

Default is OFF. Unlike console.json's auto-open (safe to default on — it only reads local logs), a missing or malformed output-mode.json must resolve to normal CCC voice. This mode changes the shape of every response; it must be an explicit opt-in, never a silent default.

Turning it off, any of these:

• $ccc-adhd off
• The picker's "Turn off" option
• Saying "stop adhd mode" or "normal mode" in conversation — honor it immediately for the rest of the session even before the state file catches up, then persist the change

When to toggle it on

• You want the fix first, every time, without asking for it — this is the default worth reaching for if you find yourself scrolling past preamble to find the command.
• Pairing with a junior teammate or in a fast debugging loop where "what do I run right now" matters more than the narrative.
• Any session where caveman already feels good but responses still open with three sentences before the actual command.

When to leave it off

• Architecture discussions, design reviews, or anything where the reasoning IS the deliverable (the "explain" exception already covers this mid-session, but if that's most of what you're doing, don't toggle on in the first place).
• Onboarding or first-time walkthroughs where a beginner needs the "why," not just the "what."

Anti-patterns — DO NOT

• ❌ Treat this as a compression mode — it reorders, it does not shrink. Token savings come from stacking caveman, not from this skill alone.
• ❌ Silently default to on for a fresh install — output-mode.json missing means normal voice, full stop.
• ❌ Apply the rules to code blocks, commit messages, or PR descriptions — the contract governs conversational prose only, same carve-out caveman uses.
• ❌ Skip the destructive-action and debug-spiral exceptions to "stay on-brand" — safety and correctness outrank the shape every time.

Attribution

Based on i-have-adhd by Ayghri, MIT license. The ten-rule contract above adapts that project's ADHD-friendly output shape into CC Commander's own voice; upstream credits The Adult ADHD Tool Kit by J. Russell Ramsay and Anthony L. Rostain as its own inspiration, adapted for how an LLM responds rather than how a person plans a day.

Related

• /caveman — token compression (stacks with this skill; see "Stacking with caveman" above)
• $ccc-console off / on — the sibling state-file toggle pattern this skill's persistence copies
• skills/mode-switcher — adhd is listed there as one of the 11 workflow modes

⚙️ Fable contract: plan before build · verifier ≠ worker · prove before alarm · loops need gates · leave durable state — rules/fable-method.md

(On Codex, present these options as a numbered list and ask the user to reply with a number — AskUserQuestion is Claude-only.)