First Principles

Break down a problem to its fundamental constraints and build up a solution. Use when decomposing complexity, challenging assumptions, or finding root causes.

kovrichard 03751ed 833 B Updated

File contents

Break down $ARGUMENTS to fundamentals:

  1. State the problem clearly in one sentence
  2. Identify assumptions — what are we taking for granted?
  3. Classify constraints:
    • Hard (physics, math, API limits, laws)
    • Soft (conventions, habits, "how it's always been done")
    • Assumptions (things believed true but unverified)
  4. Remove soft constraints — what's possible without them?
  5. Build up — from hard constraints only, what's the simplest solution?
  6. Compare — how does the first-principles solution differ from the conventional one?
  7. Recommend — which approach to take and why

kovrichard/portable-agent-layer/tree/main/assets/skills/first-principles commit 03751eda30

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npx skillmds@latest add kovrichard/first-principles