bookforge-ai
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- ▌ Structured Reflection Protocol · bookforge-aiRun a structured reflection or debrief after any learning experience, project, procedure, or performance to turn raw experience into durable skill. Use this skill whenever the user wants to do an after-action review, write a learning journal entry, debrief a session, run a post-mortem, reflect on what went well and what to improve, turn a recent experience into a lesson they will remember, create a reflection document after completing a course chapter or training, or consolidate learning from a recent event — even if they do not use the words "reflection" or "retrieval." Works for students, professionals, coaches, clinicians, writers, teachers, and anyone learning from experience. Do NOT use this skill to build a spaced repetition quiz system (use retrieval-practice-study-system) or to analyze an external document for content (use a different skill).
- ▌ Class Responsibility Realignment · bookforge-aiRedistribute methods and fields to the classes that own them, repair broken inheritance hierarchies, and extend unmodifiable library classes. Use when: a method uses another class's data far more than its own (Feature Envy — the method belongs in the other class); a single logical change forces edits across many files (Shotgun Surgery — scattered behavior needs consolidation); a class delegates half or more of its methods without adding value (Middle Man — remove the hollow layer or collapse it into inheritance); two classes share too much private knowledge about each other (Inappropriate Intimacy — separate the entangled pieces); a recurring group of fields travels together across class boundaries (Data Clumps — extract the group into its own class); a class has grown to serve two distinct responsibilities that change for different reasons (Extract Class — split it); a class that used to have a purpose has been refactored down to almost nothing (Inline Class — absorb it into its most active collaborator). Fo
- ▌ Method Decomposition Refactoring · bookforge-aiDecompose long, tangled methods into clean, composable units using the 9 composing-method refactorings from Fowler's catalog. Use when: a method has grown too long to understand at a glance; code contains a comment that explains what a block does (the comment is a signal to extract); a method cannot be changed without understanding all of its internals; local variables are so numerous that Extract Method keeps failing; a method is doing several conceptually distinct things that are collapsed into one body. The flagship technique is Extract Method — applied when the semantic distance between the method name and its body is too large; name the fragment after what it does, not how it does it. Companion techniques handle the obstacles: Replace Temp with Query eliminates the local variables that block extraction; Split Temporary Variable separates a temp that has been reused for two different things; Introduce Explaining Variable names a sub-expression when extraction is blocked by too many locals; Remove Assignme
- ▌ Sem Performance Optimization · bookforge-ai bundleOptimize Search Engine Marketing performance using CTR, CPC, CPA formulas, Quality Score benchmarks, and keyword profitability filtering. Use whenever a founder or marketer is running Google Ads, Bing Ads, or any SEM campaign, measuring CAC on paid search, optimizing ad groups, pruning unprofitable keywords, improving Quality Score, testing SEM as a channel, or comparing SEM vs other acquisition channels. Activates on phrases like 'SEM', 'Google Ads', 'AdWords', 'PPC', 'pay-per-click', 'CPC', 'CPA', 'CTR', 'Quality Score', 'keyword optimization', 'paid search', 'ad groups', 'bid strategy', 'search advertising'.
- ▌ Offer Naming Magic Formula · bookforge-aiApply when you need to name a new offer, program, service, or promotion — or when an existing offer's response rate has dropped and you suspect the name is the bottleneck. Generates 3-5 testable offer name variants using the five-component naming framework (magnetic reason, target audience, goal, time interval, container word) and produces a prioritized offer refresh plan to combat audience fatigue.
- ▌ Value Equation Offer Audit · bookforge-aiAudit and score an existing offer or service using the four-driver perceived value formula (Hormozi's "Value Equation"): Dream Outcome × Perceived Likelihood of Achievement ÷ (Time Delay × Effort & Sacrifice). Use this skill when an offer is underpriced relative to its actual value, getting price objections, or failing to convert despite being genuinely good. Scores each driver on a binary 0/1 rubric, identifies which drivers are dragging value down, and produces concrete improvement actions for each weak driver. Triggers include: "why won't people pay for this?", "how do I raise my price?", "my offer isn't converting", "I need to make my service more compelling", "how do I justify my premium", "should I be charging more?", "what makes my offer valuable?", "how do I compete against cheaper alternatives?". Applies to: consulting, coaching, courses, agencies, productized services, physical products, SaaS, any offer where perceived value determines willingness to pay.
- ▌ Growth Stall Prevention · bookforge-aiUse this skill to run a quarterly audit on a growth program to detect and prevent growth stalls — the 18-month plateau that affects 87% of companies (HBR) and destroys 74% of their market cap. Reviews the North Star metric trend, channel concentration, experiment volume/cadence decay, and names the stall pattern (complacency / premature lever exit / channel dependency) with specific recovery actions. Consumes metrics history + experiment log from an existing growth operating system. Triggers when a growth lead or Head of Growth asks 'our growth has plateaued', 'we were growing then stopped', 'growth stall', 'why did our growth slow down', 'growth stall audit', 'are we at risk of stalling', 'our channels are saturating', 'experiments are slowing down', 'we keep running the same tests', 'virtuous growth cycle', 'how do I sustain growth', 'Skype growth stall', 'HBR growth stall research', or 'quarterly growth check-up'. Also activates for 'we're 18 months in and growth is flat', 'channel dependency', 'growth eng
- ▌ Source Evaluator · bookforge-ai bundleEvaluate, triage, and actively read a set of research sources — books, articles, and online materials — by applying a dual-axis relevance-and-reliability screen, source-type skim protocols, and a two-pass active reading method that extracts data, arguments to respond to, and generative agreements and disagreements. Use this skill when you have a candidate source list and need to cut it to a workable set, when you need to verify that a source is credible before citing it, when you are reading sources to find a research problem or refine a hypothesis, when you need to take notes that accurately capture what a source argues without misrepresenting it, or when you must identify where sources agree and disagree so you can position your own argument within a field's conversation.
- ▌ Business Development Pipeline · bookforge-ai bundleBuild a business development pipeline with 5 partnership types, attribute-based partner selection, and a 9-step BD process. Use whenever a founder or BD lead is planning partnerships, pursuing integration deals, negotiating licensing, structuring joint ventures, setting up distribution deals, sourcing supply partnerships, or transitioning from traditional BD to low-touch self-serve BD. Activates on phrases like 'business development', 'BD', 'partnerships', 'strategic partner', 'integration partner', 'licensing deal', 'distribution partner', 'joint venture', 'channel partner', 'co-marketing', 'white label', 'BD deal'.
- ▌ Cold Email Writer · bookforge-aiWrite a complete cold prospecting email — subject line, body, and send-time recommendation — using Blount's AMMO planning framework and Hook-Relate-Bridge-Ask body structure from Fanatical Prospecting. Trigger this skill when you need to: - Write a cold email, prospecting email, or sales introduction email - Write an email to a prospect you have never contacted before - Improve an existing prospecting email that is not getting replies - Apply the AMMO framework (Audience / Method / Message / Outcome) to email planning - Build a Hook-Relate-Bridge-Ask email body that converts - Fix a subject line that is too long, uses a question mark, or is getting ignored - Check an email against the Three Cardinal Rules: Get Delivered / Get Opened / Get Converted - Improve email open rate, reply rate, or click-to-response conversion - Write a subject line under 50 characters with an action word, not a question - Understand what spam trigger words to avoid in a prospecting email - Run an email deliverability pre-check before
- ▌ Learning Practice Auditor · bookforge-ai bundleAudit any set of study habits, training program, or course design for ineffective learning practices and replace them with evidence-based alternatives. Use this skill when someone wants a study habits audit, suspects they are making learning mistakes, reports that their studying is not working, relies on rereading, highlighting, or cramming, wonders whether their training design actually produces learning, or asks "what am I doing wrong?" Also triggers on: ineffective studying complaints, rereading concerns, learning styles assumptions, cramming before an exam, blocked practice schedules, highlighting as primary review method, "I study for hours but nothing sticks," or any study strategy review. Works for individual learners, teachers, corporate trainers, instructional designers, and coaches. Detects five named anti-patterns — rereading trap, massed practice delusion, illusions of knowing cluster, learning styles myth, errorless learning myth — with mechanism explanations, severity ratings, and direct routing
- ▌ Customer Discovery Process · bookforge-aiOrchestrate the full customer discovery process — before, during, and after customer conversations — to systematically validate a business idea. This is the hub skill that sequences all other customer-discovery skills. Use this skill whenever the user wants to run customer discovery end-to-end, needs a step-by-step process for validating a product idea through customer conversations, wants to start customer discovery from scratch, wants to know what to do before and after customer meetings, needs a discovery status dashboard showing validation progress, suspects their discovery process is broken or unproductive, wants to diagnose whether they are just going through the motions, needs a customer development or lean validation framework, or asks "how do I validate my idea," "what's the full process for talking to customers," or "what should I do next in customer discovery" — even if they don't explicitly mention "discovery process." Do NOT use for writing specific interview questions (use conversation-question-
- ▌ Scarcity And Urgency Tactics · bookforge-aiAdd scarcity and urgency layers to a completed offer to increase conversion rate and perceived value without changing the offer itself. Use this skill when you have a defined offer but conversion is sluggish, when prospects say "I'll think about it" or "maybe later," when you are launching a promotion and need a legitimate reason to act now, or when you want to build pent-up demand between sales cycles. Scarcity limits quantity (how many can buy); urgency limits time (when they can buy). Used together they create the psychological conditions where action now is more compelling than waiting. Trigger phrases: "how do I get people to buy now", "how do I stop prospects from procrastinating", "add urgency to my offer", "create scarcity for my service", "how do I run a limited-time offer", "set up a launch deadline", "get more people off the fence", "use fear of missing out", "make my offer feel exclusive", "why aren't people buying after the call", "how do I fill my cohort faster", "people keep saying they'll thin
- ▌ Learning Calibration Audit · bookforge-ai bundleDiagnose and correct false confidence in learning mastery using cognitive science research. Use when you feel confident about a topic but keep failing tests, want to audit your metacognition for illusions of knowing, are preparing for a high-stakes assessment and need to verify actual mastery, or suspect your study method is producing Dunning-Kruger overconfidence. Also use for: identifying which of 7 specific cognitive distortions — fluency illusion, hindsight bias, Dunning-Kruger overconfidence, curse of knowledge, false consensus, imagination inflation, social memory contamination — is inflating your self-assessment accuracy; distinguishing reliable mastery indicators (delayed recall, novel problem transfer, peer explanation) from unreliable ones (rereading fluency, immediate recall, familiarity warmth); selecting calibration instruments (self-quizzing, cumulative quizzing, peer instruction) matched to the specific distortions detected; designing a dynamic testing cycle (assess → identify gaps → target pra
- ▌ Practice Schedule Designer · bookforge-ai bundleDesign a concrete practice schedule that will actually make learning stick — not just feel productive. Use this skill when the user is preparing for a test, building a new skill, training others, or planning a study program and needs to decide how to structure practice sessions over time. Triggers include: user is relying on marathon study sessions or cramming before a deadline; user practices one topic exhaustively before moving to the next; user feels they know material during practice but forgets it on tests or in real situations; user wants to know how often to review flashcards or revisit past material; user needs to design a training curriculum for a team or class; user is switching between topics during study and wants to know if that is helping or hurting; user is preparing for a performance context (exam, job, sport) and must choose between depth on one skill versus breadth across many. This skill does NOT address memorization technique or recall strategy — use retrieval-practice-study-system for tho
- ▌ Commitment Signal Evaluator · bookforge-ai bundleEvaluate whether a customer meeting produced real interest or just polite enthusiasm by classifying commitment signals into time, reputation, and money currencies. Use this skill after any customer conversation, product demo, sales call, or pitch where the user wants to know if the meeting actually advanced the deal, asks "was that a good meeting" or "how did it go" or "did that go well," says a meeting "went great" but nothing happened afterward, received enthusiastic feedback and wants to know if it is real, wonders whether someone is actually interested or just being polite, heard "I would definitely buy that" and wants to know if it means anything, wants to distinguish real leads from false-positive prospects (zombie leads), needs to score a pipeline of prospects for conversion likelihood, wants to detect polite rejections disguised as enthusiasm (compliment-stall pattern), or wants to identify early evangelists in their prospect pool — even if they don't explicitly mention "commitment signals" or "meetin
- ▌ Curse Of Knowledge Detector · bookforge-ai bundleDiagnose a draft for the Curse of Knowledge — the expert blind spot that makes insiders write copy full of unexplained jargon, buried assumptions, strategy-level abstractions, and tacit shared context that lose non-expert audiences. Use this skill whenever reviewing a pitch, announcement, explainer, landing page, onboarding doc, slide, internal memo, or technical write-up for clarity to a non-expert. Activate when the user says things like "why isn't my message landing", "make this clearer", "my audience doesn't get it", "I can't tell if this is too technical", "diagnose this draft", "is this too jargony", "expert blind spot", "tapper listener", "translate for non-experts", "audit this for jargon", "I'm too close to this", or provides a draft plus an audience description and asks for a clarity critique. Also triggers when a user complains that smart readers stare blankly at their copy, when an explainer is full of acronyms, when an announcement leads with context instead of news, or when a strategy deck reads
- ▌ Data Organization Refactoring · bookforge-aiApply the correct data organization refactoring when code smells in data structure design are diagnosed — Primitive Obsession, Data Clumps, Data Class, or raw structural anti-patterns like magic numbers, positional arrays, and naked public fields. Covers the full Chapter 8 catalog: Replace Data Value with Object (primitive → first-class object); Change Value to Reference / Change Reference to Value (value vs. reference object decision); Self Encapsulate Field (internal field access via accessors); Encapsulate Field (public → private with accessors); Encapsulate Collection (raw collection → controlled add/remove protocol); Replace Array with Object (positional array → named-field object); Replace Magic Number with Symbolic Constant; Replace Record with Data Class (legacy record → typed wrapper); Duplicate Observed Data (domain data trapped in GUI → domain class + observer sync); Change Unidirectional Association to Bidirectional (one-way link → two-way when both ends need navigation); Change Bidirectional Asso
- ▌ Source Incorporator · bookforge-ai bundleIncorporate quoted, paraphrased, and summarized sources into research writing by applying a 3-branch selection decision tree, 3 integration methods for quotations, and a 5-mechanism inadvertent plagiarism prevention checklist. Use this skill when drafting or revising a paper that uses sources and you need to decide whether to quote, paraphrase, or summarize a passage; when you need to weave quotations into your prose grammatically and meaningfully; when you need to make explicit to readers why evidence is relevant; when you must choose a citation style; or when you want to audit a draft for the five most common forms of inadvertent plagiarism before submitting.
- ▌ Conversation Format Selector · bookforge-aiChoose the right conversation format — casual chat, scheduled meeting, or phone/video call — for a customer discovery interaction. Use this skill whenever the user is deciding between a formal meeting and a casual conversation, wondering how long customer interviews should be, unsure whether to meet in person or do a phone or video call, preparing to talk to potential customers at a conference or event or meetup, asking how to approach someone at a networking event or industry gathering, spending too much time scheduling formal meetings and not getting enough conversations done (the meeting anti-pattern), defaulting to hour-long Zoom calls for every customer interaction, planning the logistics or setting or duration of a customer conversation, or wondering whether a conversation should be structured or informal — even if they don't explicitly mention "format" or "meeting type." This skill is about HOW to have the conversation (format, duration, setting, formality level), not about finding people to talk to (u
- ▌ SEO Channel Strategy · bookforge-ai bundleSelect and execute an SEO strategy using the fat-head vs long-tail binary decision framework. Use whenever a founder or marketer is planning SEO, comparing organic search strategies, choosing between targeting high-volume category keywords or many low-volume long-tail terms, evaluating keyword difficulty, planning content production for SEO, or avoiding black-hat tactics. Activates on phrases like 'SEO strategy', 'SEO', 'search engine optimization', 'organic search', 'ranking on Google', 'keyword research', 'fat-head', 'long-tail', 'content for SEO', 'Moz', 'keyword difficulty', 'link building', 'SERP', 'backlinks'.
- ▌ Stickiness Audit · bookforge-ai bundleRun the full SUCCESs stickiness audit on a draft message, pitch, announcement, slide, speech, landing page, or internal memo — the book's capstone diagnostic. Scores the draft across the six SUCCESs principles (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories) plus the Curse of Knowledge villain axis on a 0/1/2 per-dimension scale (it is a checklist, not an equation), quoting evidence from the draft for every score and producing a top-3 prioritized fix list ranked by impact times effort. Use this skill whenever the user says things like "audit this message", "score this draft", "is this sticky", "run the SUCCESs check", "run the checklist", "will people remember this", "how good is this pitch", "rate this against Made to Stick", "does this pass the kidney heist test", "will this land", "stickiness review", "why is nobody remembering our launch", "I need a communications review", or when any user pastes a draft and asks whether it will resonate, be remembered, or change behavior. Also triggers when a
- ▌ Code Smell Diagnosis · bookforge-aiScan a codebase or code fragment for the 22 named code smells from Fowler's refactoring catalog and produce a prioritized diagnosis report with the specific refactoring prescription for each smell. Use when: a developer wants to know what is wrong with existing code before touching it; a code review reveals structural problems but no clear fix; a class or method feels wrong but the exact smell is hard to name; a refactoring effort needs a starting point and a prioritized order of attack; a code author wants to justify a refactoring to a team by naming the specific smell and the prescribed remedy. Covers all 22 smells: Duplicated Code, Long Method, Large Class, Long Parameter List, Divergent Change, Shotgun Surgery, Feature Envy, Data Clumps, Primitive Obsession, Switch Statements, Parallel Inheritance Hierarchies, Lazy Class, Speculative Generality, Temporary Field, Message Chains, Middle Man, Inappropriate Intimacy, Alternative Classes with Different Interfaces, Incomplete Library Class, Data Class, Refused
- ▌ Bonus Stacking System · bookforge-aiBuild and present a bonus stack that makes your core offer feel irresistible by applying an 11-point bonus quality checklist, a before/after-objection deployment sequence for one-on-one sales, and a 3-step partner bonus system that sources free high-value bonuses from adjacent businesses. Use this skill when your grand slam offer is drafted and you need to increase perceived value without discounting the price; when prospects stall at close and you need a structured way to layer bonuses against their specific objections; when you want to source third-party bonuses at zero cost and turn them into affiliate revenue; or when you need a complete bonus stack document with named bonuses, assigned values, and a presentation sequence ready for use in sales conversations.
- ▌ Engineering As Marketing · bookforge-ai bundleDesign free tools and micro-sites that acquire customers through engineering effort rather than ad spend. Use whenever a founder or marketer wants to build a free calculator, tool, widget, grader, or educational resource as a customer acquisition channel. Activates on phrases like 'engineering as marketing', 'free tool', 'marketing tool', 'calculator', 'grader', 'micro-site', 'widget', 'free app', 'HubSpot Marketing Grader', 'Moz tools', 'lead generator tool', 'utility for marketing', 'free resource for customers'.
- ▌ Traction Channel Testing · bookforge-ai bundleDesign and run cheap validation tests for customer acquisition channels before committing budget. Use whenever a startup founder, growth marketer, or product leader needs to test a marketing channel, validate CAC and LTV assumptions, set up A/B testing, calculate whether a channel can hit growth targets, measure channel performance, detect a saturating channel (Law of Shitty Click-Throughs), decide whether to optimize or abandon a channel, or compare channels quantitatively. Activates on phrases like 'test a channel', 'cheap test', 'CAC', 'customer acquisition cost', 'LTV', 'lifetime value', 'A/B test', 'does this channel work', 'how do I know if this is working', 'conversion rate', 'channel metrics', 'measure marketing', 'channel saturation', 'Law of Shitty Click-Throughs'.
- ▌ Viral Growth Loop Design · bookforge-ai bundleDesign and measure viral growth loops using the viral coefficient (K-factor), viral loop type taxonomy, and cycle time optimization. Use whenever a startup founder, growth marketer, or product lead is designing referral programs, measuring word-of-mouth, building viral features, calculating K-factor, trying to achieve exponential growth, optimizing invite flows, debugging a viral feature that isn't working, or evaluating whether viral is the right channel. Activates on phrases like 'viral marketing', 'viral coefficient', 'K-factor', 'referral program', 'invite flow', 'network effects', 'word of mouth', 'exponential growth', 'viral loop', 'Dropbox referral', 'Hotmail signature', 'inherent virality', 'cycle time', 'should we go viral'.
- ▌ Viral Loop Designer · bookforge-aiUse this skill to design a viral or referral loop for a post-PMF product by extracting the PATTERN (not the tactic) from canonical case studies — Dropbox bilateral-incentive referral, Hotmail email-signature instrumented virality, Airbnb Craigslist cross-posting, LinkedIn public-profile SEO virality — and adapting it to the user's product. Classifies the mechanism type (word-of-mouth amplification, instrumented virality, embedded referral), models K-factor (invitations × conversion rate) and cycle time, and produces a viral-loop-design.md with the loop diagram plus a referral-test-plan.md for experiment execution. Flags the viral spam trap (when sharing becomes annoying and hurts the brand). Triggers when a growth PM asks 'how do I build a referral program like Dropbox?', 'viral loop design', 'how do I make my product viral', 'referral program', 'word of mouth growth', 'K-factor', 'viral coefficient', 'invite mechanism', 'should I offer referral rewards', 'bilateral incentive', 'Hotmail email signature', 'Air
- ▌ Target Market Selection · bookforge-aiScore and select a target market before building any offer. Use this skill when starting a new business, evaluating a niche, choosing between customer segments, questioning why an existing offer is underperforming despite good execution, or deciding how narrowly to specialize. Activates on phrases like "who should I sell to," "is this a good market," "should I niche down," "I'm not getting traction," "which audience should I focus on," or any request to validate, score, or compare potential target markets.
- ▌ Big Refactoring Planner · bookforge-aiPlan and execute architectural-scale refactoring campaigns that take weeks to months — the four named patterns for large-scale structural restructuring from Fowler and Beck's Chapter 12. Use when: an inheritance hierarchy is doing two distinct jobs and subclass names share the same adjective prefix at every level (Tease Apart Inheritance); a codebase written in an object-oriented language uses a procedural style with long methods on behavior-less classes and dumb data objects (Convert Procedural Design to Objects); GUI or window classes contain SQL queries, business rules, or pricing logic instead of just display code (Separate Domain from Presentation); a single class has accumulated so many conditional statements that every new case requires editing the same class in multiple places (Extract Hierarchy). Applies when code-smell-diagnosis has surfaced Parallel Inheritance Hierarchies, Data Class, or Large Class with deep conditional branching and the fix is too large for a single refactoring session. Distingu
- ▌ Bullseye Channel Selection · bookforge-ai bundleGuide systematic customer acquisition channel selection using the Bullseye Framework. Use whenever a startup founder, growth marketer, or product leader is deciding which marketing channel to focus on, evaluating customer acquisition options, choosing between viral, SEO, SEM, content, sales, PR, or any other growth channel, struggling with where to invest marketing budget, trying to escape channel bias, asking 'how do we get customers', planning a go-to-market, or needs to narrow 19 possible channels down to one focused bet. Activates on phrases like 'channel selection', 'customer acquisition', 'marketing strategy', 'growth channel', 'traction channel', 'Bullseye Framework', 'which channel should we use', 'how do we grow', 'marketing plan', or any discussion of prioritizing acquisition investments.
- ▌ Existing Platform Leverage · bookforge-ai bundleLeverage existing platforms with large user bases (App Stores, browser extensions, social networks, super-platforms) for startup customer acquisition via parasitic growth patterns. Use whenever a founder is planning to distribute via app stores, building browser extensions, targeting Facebook or Twitter as a channel, launching on a new platform Day-1, exploiting an unsatisfied need on a larger platform, or mapping platform gap opportunities. Activates on phrases like 'App Store strategy', 'Chrome extension', 'browser extension', 'Facebook platform', 'Apple ecosystem', 'existing platforms', 'distribution platform', 'Product Hunt launch', 'Airbnb Craigslist', 'YouTube MySpace', 'Zynga Facebook', 'parasitic growth'.
- ▌ Premium Pricing Strategy · bookforge-aiUse when a business is pricing by copying competitors, losing deals on price, or struggling to grow margins — to diagnose commoditization, justify a premium price point with ROI evidence, and calculate the niche-specific multiplier that unlocks value-driven purchasing.
- ▌ Warrant Tester · bookforge-ai bundleTest the warrants in a research argument — the general principles that connect reasons to claims. Use this skill when a reader might accept a reason as true but still deny it is relevant to the claim, the argument contains a logical leap between a reason and a claim that no stated principle explains, the user needs to decide whether to state a warrant explicitly or leave it implicit, the argument needs to identify which type of warrant is being used (experience-based, authority-based, system/definitional, cultural, methodological) so it can be challenged or defended appropriately, the user is writing for an audience outside their field who will ask "but why does that reason matter to your claim?", a warrant appears to be too broad and needs qualification before it can survive challenge, competing warrants exist and the argument must show why its warrant should prevail, or the user suspects their argument is flawed but cannot identify where — surfacing the implicit warrant often reveals the problem. This skill
- ▌ Customer Segment Slicer · bookforge-ai bundleIteratively narrow broad customer segments into specific, findable sub-segments with who-where pairs. Use this skill whenever the user's target market is too broad, their customer definition is vague or generic ("small businesses," "students," "anyone who..."), they are getting mixed or inconsistent feedback from customer conversations that does not converge, they do not know who to talk to first, everyone seems like a potential customer, they need to decide which customer segment to pursue first, they are overwhelmed by too many potential customer types, they want to know who their ideal early customer is, they cannot figure out who to build for, they ask "who should I talk to" or "how do I narrow down my audience" — even if they don't explicitly say "segmentation" or "customer slicing." Do NOT use for finding or reaching customers (use conversation-sourcing-planner) or designing interview questions (use conversation-question-designer).
- ▌ Content And Email Marketing · bookforge-ai bundleDesign content marketing and email lifecycle programs that work together as an acquisition engine. Use whenever a founder or marketer is planning a blog, newsletter, content calendar, email sequences, lead magnets, drip campaigns, onboarding emails, activation emails, retention emails, or any combination of content creation and email marketing. Also covers the acquisition → activation → retention → revenue lifecycle. Activates on phrases like 'content marketing', 'blog strategy', 'newsletter', 'email marketing', 'drip campaign', 'onboarding emails', 'lifecycle emails', 'activation email', 'email list', 'lead magnet', 'nurture sequence', 'email automation'.
- ▌ Grand Slam Offer Creation · bookforge-aiBuild a complete, differentiated offer bundle from scratch using a 5-step process: define the target customer's dream outcome, map every obstacle they face, convert those obstacles into named solution components, select the highest-value delivery formats for each, then trim low-value items and stack the remainder into a final offer with assigned dollar values and a single price. Use this skill when starting a new offer, when an existing offer is being commoditized (competing on price), when conversion is poor despite genuine quality, or when a business needs to escape the "race to the bottom" pricing dynamic. Trigger phrases: "how do I create an offer", "build me a product", "what should I include in my offer", "how do I stop competing on price", "design a new service package", "make my offer irresistible", "what should my program include", "how do I package my services", "what should I charge for", "create an offer from scratch", "help me build a coaching program", "escape commoditization". Applies to: coach
- ▌ Startup Pr Outreach · bookforge-ai bundleGuide startup PR and unconventional PR outreach using the media chain, pitch templates, and amplification tactics. Use whenever a founder or marketer needs to pitch reporters, plan a PR campaign, land media coverage, run a publicity stunt, amplify a press story, use HARO, build reporter relationships, or avoid common PR mistakes. Also covers unconventional PR (stunts, customer appreciation) for startup launches. Activates on phrases like 'press release', 'PR campaign', 'media coverage', 'reporter outreach', 'pitch email', 'TechCrunch', 'HARO', 'product launch', 'PR strategy', 'publicity stunt', 'get coverage', 'press pitch', 'media pitch', 'journalist outreach'.
- ▌ Enterprise Architecture Pattern Stack Selector · bookforge-ai bundleSelect the right enterprise application architecture patterns for every layer of your system using Fowler's PEAA decision framework. Use this skill when designing or refactoring an enterprise app and asking: which domain-logic pattern should I use (Transaction Script, Domain Model, Table Module)? Which persistence pattern fits my stack (Active Record, Data Mapper, Table Data Gateway, Row Data Gateway)? Which web-presentation pattern applies (Front Controller, Page Controller, Template View)? How do I combine these into a coherent full-stack architecture? Triggers include: 'help me choose architecture patterns', 'which Fowler pattern for my app', 'enterprise application architecture', 'PEAA pattern selection', 'layer pattern selection', 'domain logic pattern vs persistence pattern', 'refactor enterprise app to patterns', 'how to structure a Spring/Django/Rails/ASP.NET app', 'what persistence pattern should I use', 'enterprise architecture decision', 'full-stack pattern stack', 'patterns of enterprise applicati
- ▌ Data Source Pattern Selector · bookforge-aiChoose the right data access pattern — Table Data Gateway, Row Data Gateway, Active Record, or Data Mapper — for a persistence layer. Use when asked "should I use Active Record or Data Mapper?", "which ORM pattern fits my app?", "when does Hibernate-style mapping make sense vs. Rails ActiveRecord?", "how do I structure my database access layer?", "data mapper or active record for my domain model?", "Row Data Gateway vs Active Record", "Table Data Gateway vs Data Mapper", "Fowler data source patterns", "persistence layer design", "ORM pattern selection", "choose ORM pattern", "database access layer architecture", "Hibernate vs Rails persistence style". Applies when designing a new persistence layer or refactoring an existing one. Routes each domain-logic pattern (Table Module, Transaction Script, Domain Model) to its natural data-source counterpart. Identifies the Active Record / Data Mapper mismatch anti-pattern (AR when schema is not isomorphic with objects; DM when AR would suffice). Maps each pattern to mo
- ▌ Inheritance Mapping Selector · bookforge-aiSelect the correct ORM inheritance strategy — Single Table Inheritance (STI), Class Table Inheritance (joined table / Multi-Table Inheritance), or Concrete Table Inheritance (table per class) — for any OO inheritance hierarchy that needs to be persisted in a relational database. Use when asked: "which inheritance mapping should I use?", "single table vs joined table inheritance", "STI vs CTI vs table per class", "Hibernate inheritance strategy SINGLE_TABLE vs JOINED vs TABLE_PER_CLASS", "@Inheritance JPA", "Rails STI vs multi-table inheritance", "Django model inheritance type", "how to map inheritance in database", "inheritance in database design", "discriminator column inheritance", "ORM polymorphic query performance", "polymorphic table design", "table per class inheritance trade-offs", "joined inheritance vs single table", "inheritance schema design". Applies at greenfield schema design, ORM configuration, or legacy schema refactoring. Routes to the right strategy on six trade-off dimensions: joins on poly
- ▌ Architecture Characteristics Identifier · bookforge-ai bundleSystematically identify, categorize, and prioritize architecture characteristics (quality attributes / -ilities) from requirements, domain concerns, and stakeholder input. Use this skill whenever the user is starting a new project, defining architecture requirements, translating business needs into technical characteristics, asking "what quality attributes matter?", figuring out nonfunctional requirements, or evaluating what -ilities to optimize for — even if they don't explicitly say "architecture characteristics."
- ▌ Domain Logic Pattern Selector · bookforge-aiChoose domain logic pattern for enterprise application subsystems: Transaction Script vs Domain Model vs Table Module, and decide Service Layer thickness. Use when organizing business logic, choosing between procedural service methods and rich domain models, selecting enterprise app architecture, routing domain logic to the right pattern, deciding anemic domain model vs rich domain model, applying Fowler's complexity-vs-effort curve, determining when to use Domain Model, when to use Transaction Script for simple CRUD, when Table Module fits .NET RecordSet environments, deciding Service Layer facade vs operation script vs controller-entity, avoiding transaction-script-sprawl, avoiding anemic-domain-model anti-pattern, preventing stored-procedure logic leakage, structuring enterprise app business logic, domain logic organization, choose domain pattern, enterprise app business logic design.
- ▌ Distribution Boundary Designer · bookforge-ai bundleDistribution design for enterprise systems: decide whether to distribute, where to draw the service boundary, and how to implement it with Remote Facade and Data Transfer Object (DTO). Use when deciding microservices vs monolith, evaluating process boundaries, extracting services, designing remote APIs, choosing coarse-grained API shape, preventing distribution-by-class anti-pattern, applying Fowler's First Law of Distributed Object Design, designing service extraction strategy, determining when distribution is warranted vs cargo-culting microservices, implementing Remote Facade pattern, designing DTOs independent from domain objects, choosing between gRPC vs REST vs message queue vs GraphQL for service boundary, monolith decomposition, service boundary design, remote API design, distribution strategy, when to distribute, process boundary decision, coarse-grained interface design.
- ▌ Lazy Load Strategy Implementer · bookforge-ai bundleImplement Lazy Load (deferred loading) correctly in a persistence layer to avoid N+1 queries, ripple loading, and proxy identity traps. Use when encountering slow object graph loads, N+1 query problems, out-of-memory on eager loading, ORM lazy loading misconfiguration, or deciding between eager vs lazy loading strategies. Applies to: Hibernate FetchType.LAZY / @BatchSize, SQLAlchemy lazy='select'/'selectin'/'subquery', Django select_related / prefetch_related, EF Core Include() vs Load(), TypeORM eager/lazy relations, Rails includes/preload/eager_load, hand-rolled Data Mapper with virtual proxy patterns. Covers all four implementation variants — lazy initialization, virtual proxy, value holder, ghost — with applicability rules and trade-off analysis. Identifies and fixes the ripple loading anti-pattern (N+1 on collections), the proxy identity trap (two proxies, same row, broken equality), and misuse of Lazy Load on small graphs that should just be eagerly loaded. Produces an implementation plan: chosen varian
- ▌ Enterprise Base Pattern Catalog · bookforge-ai bundleReference catalog for Fowler's 11 enterprise base patterns from Chapter 18 of PEAA. Use when another skill or user says 'we need a Gateway here', 'this should be a Value Object', 'replace nulls with a Special Case', 'use a Service Stub for testing', or 'separate this interface from its implementation'. Covers all 11 base patterns: Gateway pattern (wrapping external systems), Mapper pattern (decoupling subsystems), Layer Supertype (shared base class per layer), Separated Interface (dependency inversion packaging), Registry (service locator), Value Object (value-identity immutable objects), Money pattern (monetary arithmetic, no floats, allocate-by-ratio), Special Case / Null Object (replace null checks), Plugin pattern (runtime-bound implementation), Service Stub (test double for external services), Record Set (generic tabular data structure). Identifies which pattern fits a described problem, provides canonical definition and modern language parallels, distinguishes Gateway (generic external-access wrapper) f
- ▌ Session State Location Selector · bookforge-ai bundleRoute session state storage to the right location — Client Session State (cookies, JWT, hidden fields, URL parameters), Server Session State (in-memory or Redis session store), or Database Session State (SQL/NoSQL session table) — based on six dimensions: bandwidth cost, security sensitivity, clustering and failover needs, responsiveness, cancellation requirements, and development effort. Use when designing session management for a new web application, debugging sticky-session or node-pinning scaling problems, deciding between JWT vs server session vs database session, choosing a shared session store for a clustered or elastic deployment, handling shopping carts, multi-step forms, auth context, or edit-in-progress across HTTP requests, or auditing for session bloat or unsigned client session state. Applies to stateless session design, distributed session architecture, and HTTP session management in any language or framework. Relevant keywords: session state, session storage, session location, sticky sessions,
- ▌ Scratch Refactoring For Code Understanding · bookforge-aiGuide a developer through throwaway refactoring — restructure code freely without tests to understand it, then DISCARD. Use whenever a developer says 'I don't understand this code', 'this code is too complex to change safely', 'need to read legacy code', 'can't figure out what this does', 'overwhelmed by legacy', 'code archaeology', 'understand before change'. Also activates for 'scratch refactoring', 'throwaway refactoring', 'code comprehension', 'code reading technique', 'feature sketch', 'effect sketch', 'notes on legacy code'.
- ▌ Data Access Anti Pattern Auditor · bookforge-ai bundleAudit a persistence layer and schema for data access anti-patterns: N+1 query (SELECT N+1), ripple loading, lazy loading anti-pattern, ghost/proxy identity trap (missing Identity Map), Active Record anti-pattern on non-isomorphic schema, Active Record / Data Mapper mismatch, Serialized LOB overuse (queryable data stored in BLOB/JSONB/TEXT), meaningful primary key leakage, business logic in Gateway classes. Given a codebase and schema, produces a prioritized anti-pattern inventory with code location, evidence snippet, consequence, and remediation that cross-references pattern-selector skills. Use this for ORM performance audit, ORM anti-pattern detection, persistence anti-pattern inventory, database access anti-pattern review, persistence layer review, data access review, audit persistence layer.
- ▌ Web Application Penetration Testing Methodology · bookforge-aiOrchestrate a complete, structured web application penetration test through 13 testing areas during authorized security assessments. Use this skill when you are conducting a full web application security engagement and need a top-level methodology that sequences and delegates all testing phases — from initial reconnaissance through exploitation. Invoke it to plan and coordinate an engagement end-to-end: mapping application content, analyzing the attack surface, testing client-side controls, assessing authentication and session management, verifying access controls, probing all parameters for injection vulnerabilities, testing function-specific input flaws (SMTP, SOAP, LDAP, XPath, XXE), identifying logic flaws, checking shared hosting and server configuration, and conducting miscellaneous browser-security checks. Also invoke it as the master checklist for ensuring no test area has been missed, when delegating specific areas to domain-specific skills, or when producing a complete security assessment report. Th
- ▌ Web Presentation Pattern Selector · bookforge-ai bundleSelect the right web presentation pattern combination for any server-side web layer under design or refactor. Covers MVC (Model View Controller) decomposition, all three view patterns (Template View, Transform View, Two Step View), all three controller patterns (Page Controller, Front Controller, Application Controller), and when to layer Application Controller above the others for wizard or state-machine flows. Use when designing a new web layer, refactoring a tangled web controller, diagnosing fat controller or Template View scriptlet anti-patterns, mapping legacy JSP/ERB/ASP patterns to modern equivalents (Spring DispatcherServlet = Front Controller, Rails Router = Front Controller, JSP/ERB/Jinja = Template View), or deciding whether a wizard flow needs an Application Controller above a Front Controller. Applies to any language/framework: Java Spring MVC, Ruby on Rails, Python Django/Flask, ASP.NET Core, Node.js Express, PHP Laravel. Produces a web presentation design record with pattern selections, anti-p
- ▌ Optimistic Offline Lock Implementer · bookforge-ai bundleUse when offline-concurrency-strategy-selector (or your team) has chosen Optimistic Offline Lock and you need to implement it correctly end-to-end. Handles: adding a version column (integer, not timestamp), version-conditioned UPDATE and DELETE SQL (WHERE id=? AND version=?), row-count-zero collision detection, ConcurrencyException with modifiedBy+modified context, stale-version prevention, version round-tripping from server to client and back, Unit of Work commit integration (checkConsistentReads → insertNew → deleteRemoved → updateDirty with rollback on exception), ORM-native version support (@Version annotation JPA/Hibernate, [ConcurrencyCheck] or [Timestamp] EF Core, version_id_col SQLAlchemy, lock_version Rails, django-concurrency), and collision UX design (merge / force-save / abandon — not just a 409 error). Also handles: optimistic locking, optimistic offline lock, concurrent edit collision detection, lost update prevention, conditional update, concurrency version check, OptimisticLockException, DbUpd
- ▌ Pessimistic Offline Lock Implementer · bookforge-aiUse when offline-concurrency-strategy-selector (or your team) has chosen Pessimistic Offline Lock and you need to implement it correctly end-to-end. Handles: pessimistic locking, pessimistic offline lock, record locking, exclusive lock, lock manager design, lock timeout policy, acquire and release lock, stale lock cleanup, force release of abandoned locks, editing session lock, concurrent edit lock, edit lock implementation, record check-out pattern, lock table schema, durable lock storage (database-backed vs Redis vs in-memory), lock owner identity (user+session), coarse-grained lock at aggregate root (shared-version token vs root lock), implicit lock via base-class mapper / LockingMapper decorator / ORM interceptor / AOP aspect. Three-phase implementation: (1) choose lock type (exclusive-write vs exclusive-read vs read-write), (2) build durable lock manager (acquire/release/releaseAll/timeout), (3) define lock protocol (when to acquire, scope, release triggers, force-release, deadlock avoidance). Anti-patte
- ▌ Offline Concurrency Strategy Selector · bookforge-ai bundleUse when designing concurrency control for long-running edits where a business transaction spans multiple system transactions — user opens a record, edits for minutes or hours, then saves. Selects between optimistic locking (version column, collision detection at commit) vs pessimistic locking (record check-out, conflict prevention at load time) and decides whether to add Coarse-Grained Lock (aggregate-root lock for multi-object edits) and Implicit Lock (framework-enforced locking to prevent gaps). Handles: lost update prevention, concurrent edit collision detection, offline lock strategy, long-running transaction concurrency, version column design, lock table design, lock timeout policy, aggregate lock, editing concurrency, lock type selection (exclusive-read vs exclusive-write vs read-write). Diagnoses mis-configurations: DB-level locks held across user think-time, implicit-lock gaps, optimistic/pessimistic mixing on overlapping data, timestamp-based versioning pitfalls.
- ▌ Object Relational Structural Mapping Guide · bookforge-ai bundleObject-relational mapping structural patterns guide. Use when designing or auditing how domain objects map to relational tables — identity fields, foreign key mapping, association table mapping for many-to-many relationships, dependent mapping for child objects with cascade delete, embedded value for value object mapping, and serialized LOB for JSON column or blob storage. Applies when choosing ORM associations (Hibernate, SQLAlchemy, EF Core, ActiveRecord, Django ORM), deciding between a join table and nested foreign keys, mapping address or money value objects as inline columns, or detecting serialized LOB overuse on queryable data. Covers the six PEAA structural patterns: Identity Field (surrogate key vs meaningful key), Foreign Key Mapping (single-valued reference), Association Table Mapping (many-to-many via join table), Dependent Mapping (child lifecycle owned by parent), Embedded Value (value object as columns), Serialized LOB (graph serialized to JSON/BLOB column).
- ▌ Product Vision Strategy Assessment · bookforge-aiAssess or create a product vision and product strategy. Use when someone asks 'is our product vision strong enough?', 'does our strategy make sense?', 'we keep pivoting — is that a vision problem or a strategy problem?', or 'how do I write a compelling product vision?' Also use when diagnosing why teams lack direction or feel like mercenaries, stress-testing a strategy for focus and market sequencing, checking whether product principles are resolving design debates, or auditing an existing vision statement for ambition and inspiration gaps. Scores vision against 10 principles and strategy against 5 principles, identifies top gaps with specific rewrite guidance, and evaluates whether product principles exist and are functioning as guardrails. Works on vision documents, strategy decks, product plans, or verbal descriptions. Not for OKR setting — use product-okr-implementation. Not for team health or process issues — use product-team-health-diagnostic or product-process-dysfunction-diagnosis.
- ▌ Session Management Security Assessment · bookforge-aiSystematically assess web application session management for security vulnerabilities. Use when testing session token generation quality, cookie security configuration, session fixation susceptibility, cross-site request forgery (CSRF) exposure, or session token handling across a session's full lifecycle. Covers the complete taxonomy of generation weaknesses (meaningful tokens with user data embedded, predictable tokens from concealed sequences or time-dependent algorithms or weak pseudorandom number generators, encrypted tokens vulnerable to ECB block rearrangement or CBC bit-flipping) and handling weaknesses (cleartext transmission, token disclosure in server logs or URLs, vulnerable token-to-session mapping, ineffective logout and expiration, client-side hijacking exposure, overly liberal cookie domain or path scope). Use when someone says 'test our session tokens', 'analyze cookie security', 'check for session fixation', 'verify CSRF protection', 'assess token predictability', 'evaluate our session manage
- ▌ Web Application Attack Surface Mapping · bookforge-aiSystematically map a web application's content, entry points, technologies, and attack surface during authorized security testing or security-focused code review. Use this skill whenever you are performing reconnaissance on a web application, need to enumerate application functionality and hidden content, want to identify all user-input entry points (URLs, query parameters, POST fields, cookies, HTTP headers), need to fingerprint server-side technologies from HTTP responses, or are building an attack surface inventory before vulnerability testing. Also invoke it when analyzing application behavior to infer server-side structure, looking for undiscovered directories and files through brute-force enumeration, using search engines or web archives to find historical content, probing for hidden debug parameters, mapping functional paths in parameter-driven applications, or producing a behavior-to-vulnerability mapping that prioritizes which areas to probe first. Produces a structured attack surface map: enumerated
- ▌ Duplication Removal Via Extraction · bookforge-aiRemove duplicated code across methods and classes by extracting small shared utilities first and letting larger structure (superclass, Template Method) emerge. Use whenever a developer says 'I'm changing the same code in multiple places', 'I'm fixing the same bug in 3 files', 'copy-pasted code everywhere', 'duplicate logic', 'DRY violation', 'same code in multiple classes', 'repeated patterns', 'shotgun surgery'. Activates for 'extract method', 'extract class', 'pull up method', 'Template Method pattern', 'superclass for duplication', 'deduplicate', 'shared utility', 'parallel classes'.
- ▌ Microservice Granularity Optimizer · bookforge-ai bundleRight-size microservice boundaries using granularity disintegrators (forces to split: service scope, code volatility, scalability, fault tolerance, security, extensibility) and integrators (forces to combine: database transactions, workflow/choreography coupling, shared code, data relationships). Includes choreography vs orchestration selection and the saga pattern for distributed transactions. Use this skill whenever the user is splitting a monolith into microservices, deciding how fine-grained services should be, experiencing too many inter-service calls or latency from over-splitting, dealing with distributed transaction problems across microservices, choosing between choreography and orchestration for service communication, implementing the saga pattern, debugging a distributed monolith, or evaluating whether services should be merged or split further -- even if they don't use the exact phrase "microservice granularity."
- ▌ Unit Of Work Implementer · bookforge-ai bundleImplement Unit of Work (UoW) — the object that tracks new, dirty, clean, and removed entities during a business operation and commits all database changes together in the correct order. Use when asked: "how do I implement Unit of Work?", "how does Hibernate Session work under the hood?", "how do I avoid N+1 writes?", "how should I structure DbContext scoping?", "SQLAlchemy session management best practices", "EntityManager lifecycle", "ORM session management", "how to track entity changes in a Data Mapper layer?", "first-level cache", "identity map implementation", "object change tracking", "persistence coordination", "commit ordering with foreign keys", "how does EF Core SaveChanges work?", "dirty tracking", "how to batch database writes?", "UoW pattern implementation", "Hibernate Session vs EntityManager", "SQLAlchemy Session scope", "DbContext per-request", "entity state tracking". Applies when a Data Mapper pattern is in place (or being introduced) and the team needs disciplined change tracking, ordered c
- ▌ Big Class Responsibility Extraction · bookforge-aiIdentify and extract responsibilities from an oversized class using Feathers' 7 heuristics + feature sketches. Use whenever a developer faces 'this class is too big', 'god class', 'monster class', '500-line class', 'class with 50+ methods', 'class with too many responsibilities', 'SRP violation', 'hard to test because class does too much', 'team keeps editing same class', 'merge conflicts on one class'. Activates for 'single responsibility', 'extract class', 'class decomposition', 'responsibility split', 'interface segregation', 'class bloat', 'swamp class', 'god object', 'feature sketch', 'class too big'.
- ▌ Service Based Architecture Designer · bookforge-ai bundleDesign a service-based architecture with 4-12 coarse-grained domain services, including service decomposition, database partitioning strategy (shared vs domain-partitioned vs per-service), API layer design, and ACID vs BASE transaction decisions. Use this skill whenever the user is designing a service-based system, decomposing a monolith into coarse-grained services, deciding how many services to create, choosing a database topology for distributed services, deciding between shared database and per-service databases, evaluating whether to add an API layer, determining ACID vs eventual consistency needs, or comparing service-based architecture against microservices — even if they don't use the exact phrase "service-based architecture."
- ▌ SQL Injection Detection And Exploitation · bookforge-ai bundlePerform a complete SQL injection assessment chain — from initial detection through full data extraction — against web applications. Use this skill whenever: testing any URL parameter, POST body field, cookie, or HTTP header for SQL injection susceptibility; auditing source code for unsafe query construction; reviewing whether parameterized queries or stored procedures are correctly applied; walking through the full UNION-based data extraction procedure against a vulnerable endpoint; applying blind SQL injection (boolean-based or time-based) when query results are not reflected; determining which database platform (MS-SQL, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL) is running and adapting payloads accordingly; bypassing input filters using case variation, comment injection, encoding, or nested-expression techniques; identifying second-order SQL injection where stored data is later used unsafely in a query; assessing whether SQL injection can escalate to OS command execution via xp_cmdshell, UTL_HTTP, or SELECT INTO OUTFILE; t
- ▌ Architecture Decision Record Creator · bookforge-ai bundleCreate structured Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) with 7 sections to document architecture decisions with full justification. Use this skill whenever the user has made or needs to make an architecture decision, wants to document why a technical choice was made, is choosing between technologies or patterns, needs to create an ADR, or is experiencing repeated debates about past decisions — even if they don't explicitly mention "ADR" or "architecture decision record."
- ▌ Discovery Framing Technique Selection · bookforge-ai bundleSelect and execute the right discovery framing technique before building. Use when value risk is High and the underlying problem is not yet clearly defined, when a team is about to start discovery without a shared problem statement, when someone asks 'how should we frame this discovery effort?', or when starting any non-trivial feature, redesign, or new product effort. Also use for: writing an opportunity assessment, writing a customer letter (press release alternative), completing a startup canvas for a new business, or constructing a story map to scope discovery. Determines effort size (typical/large/new-product), selects the matching technique, and produces the framing document. Best triggered after product-discovery-risk-assessment. For specific testing techniques, use value-testing-technique-selection. For prototype selection, use discovery-prototype-selection.
- ▌ Product Manager Competency Assessment · bookforge-ai bundleEvaluate product manager competency for hiring, coaching, or self-assessment. Use when interviewing a VP of Product or head of product candidate, assessing an existing product leader, evaluating an individual contributor PM, conducting a PM self-assessment to find development gaps, or debriefing an interview panel. Also use when someone asks 'is this PM candidate strong?', 'am I a good product manager?', 'what does a strong VP of Product look like?', or 'how do I evaluate PM interview performance?' Covers VP assessment (team development, vision and strategy, execution, culture) and IC PM assessment (customer, data, business, market knowledge plus smart/creative/persistent traits). Diagnoses which of 3 PM working modes the person operates in: backlog administrator, roadmap administrator, or empowered PM. Not for team or organizational assessment — use product-team-health-diagnostic or product-culture-assessment for those.
- ▌ Product Process Dysfunction Diagnosis · bookforge-ai bundleDiagnose why product efforts fail despite using Scrum, Agile, or roadmaps. Use when a team ships on time but customers don't adopt features, when leadership asks why there's no innovation despite an Agile process, when a new product leader needs to identify root causes quickly, or when someone asks 'are we doing waterfall disguised as Agile?' Also use when someone says 'we follow the process but nothing lands', 'sales keeps driving our roadmap', 'design is always scrambling to catch up', 'our engineers just build what they're told', or 'customers never adopt what we build.' Scores 10 root causes of product failure across startup, growth, and enterprise stages and produces a prioritized dysfunction report. For culture-wide assessment (innovation vs. execution), use product-culture-assessment. For team-level behaviors and velocity, use product-team-health-diagnostic.
- ▌ Business Viability Stakeholder Testing · bookforge-ai bundleTest whether a product solution is viable for the business before building. Use when business viability risk is Medium or High, when multiple internal functions (legal, sales, finance, marketing) may have constraints on a proposed solution, when someone asks 'will this work for our business?', 'do we have stakeholder buy-in?', or 'does legal/finance/sales need to review this?' Also use when a proposed solution would change pricing, go-to-market motion, or support model, or when you need documented cross-functional sign-off before committing engineering resources. Identifies all stakeholders who can veto launch across 8 domains, conducts 1:1 preview sessions with high-fidelity prototypes, and resolves disagreements with evidence rather than opinions. Produces a structured viability sign-off document. Not for customer value testing — use value-testing-technique-selection. Not for product-market fit — use customer-discovery-program.
- ▌ Dependency Breaking Technique Executor · bookforge-ai bundleSelect and execute the right dependency-breaking technique from Michael Feathers' catalog of 24 named techniques (Part III of Working Effectively with Legacy Code) for a specific testability obstacle. Use when a class or method cannot be placed under test due to a hard-coded dependency, and you need concrete step-by-step mechanics for breaking it safely — without existing tests protecting you. Activates for 'can't test this class', 'constructor dependency', 'global variable blocking tests', 'static call in method', 'inject a fake', 'break dependency for testing', 'extract interface legacy', 'subclass and override', 'parameterize constructor', 'encapsulate global', 'dependency injection without framework', 'extract and override', 'how to fake this in test', 'legacy code testability refactoring'.
- ▌ Adversary Profiling And Threat Modeling · bookforge-aiProfile the likely adversaries targeting a system and produce a structured threat model with prioritized threat scenarios. Use when: designing a new system or service and need to identify who might attack it and how; evaluating whether existing security controls address the right threats; preparing a threat model document for a security review, compliance audit, or architecture decision record; assessing insider risk for a system that handles sensitive data or privileged operations; or mapping attack lifecycle stages to defensive controls. Applies the three adversary frameworks — attacker motivations, attacker profiles, and attack lifecycle stages — alongside a four-dimension actor-motive-action-target threat scenario matrix to produce ranked threat scenarios. Distinct from vulnerability assessment (which audits specific technical flaws) and penetration testing (which actively exploits weaknesses). Produces: adversary profile summary, insider risk matrix, threat scenario list ranked by likelihood and impact,
- ▌ Safe Legacy Editing Discipline · bookforge-aiApply 4 editing disciplines when modifying legacy code: Hyperaware Editing, Single-Goal Editing, Preserve Signatures, Lean on the Compiler. Use whenever a developer is about to edit untested code, refactor without a safety net, or is caught in avoidance anti-patterns (Edit-and-Pray, Minimization Freeze, Legacy Code Dilemma paralysis). Activates for 'how do I refactor safely', 'edit legacy code without breaking it', 'preserve behavior during refactor', 'lean on the compiler', 'preserve signatures', 'single-goal editing', 'make safe changes', 'edit and pray', 'cover and modify', 'careful editing', 'refactor without tests', 'break dependencies safely', 'avoid regressions in legacy code'.
- ▌ Test Harness Entry Diagnostics · bookforge-aiDiagnose exactly why a class or method cannot be placed under test and route to the right dependency-breaking technique. Use whenever a developer says 'I can't instantiate this class in tests', 'the test harness won't compile', 'this class has too many constructor dependencies', 'the constructor connects to the database', 'can't test this private method', 'I need to sense what this method does', 'hidden singleton dependency'. Activates for 'test harness', 'class under test', 'constructor dependencies', 'irritating parameter', 'hidden dependency', 'construction blob', 'pass null', 'construction test', 'method not accessible', 'method side effects', 'can't get this class in a test harness', 'can't run this method in a test harness', 'singleton in constructor', 'include dependencies', 'onion parameter', 'aliased parameter'.
- ▌ Transaction Isolation Selector · bookforge-ai bundleChoose the correct transaction isolation level and serializability implementation for an application's concurrency patterns. Use when: selecting an isolation level for a new system; evaluating whether read committed or snapshot isolation is safe for your access patterns; deciding whether to upgrade to serializable and choosing between two-phase locking (2PL) vs. serializable snapshot isolation (SSI); producing an architecture decision record for isolation level choice; or explaining to a team why the database default is insufficient. Distinct from concurrency-anomaly-detector (which scans code for exposed anomalies) — this skill selects the level, not the bugs. Covers PostgreSQL, MySQL InnoDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and distributed databases. Applies a 6-anomaly × 4-isolation-level mapping matrix (dirty read, dirty write, read skew, lost update, write skew, phantom read vs. read uncommitted, read committed, snapshot isolation, serializable) to produce a concrete recommendation with implementation trade-off analy
- ▌ Architecture Tradeoff Analyzer · bookforge-ai bundleSystematically analyze trade-offs across quality attribute dimensions for architecture decisions. Use this skill whenever the user is comparing architecture options, weighing competing quality attributes (performance vs scalability, simplicity vs flexibility), making any structural technology decision, evaluating monolith vs distributed, choosing communication patterns, or asking "what are the trade-offs?" — even if they don't explicitly say "trade-off analysis."
- ▌ Event Driven Topology Selector · bookforge-ai bundleChoose between broker and mediator event-driven topologies based on workflow control needs, error handling requirements, and performance trade-offs. Use this skill whenever the user is designing an event-driven system, choosing between choreography and orchestration, deciding how events should flow between processors, debating broker vs mediator, building async workflows, evaluating event-driven error handling strategies, or comparing request-based vs event-based communication models — even if they don't use the terms "broker" or "mediator."
- ▌ Legacy Code Addition Techniques · bookforge-ai bundleAdd new functionality to untested legacy code using Sprout Method, Sprout Class, Wrap Method, or Wrap Class — whichever best fits the dependency profile. Use whenever a developer needs to add a feature, log statement, validation, or any new behavior to legacy code that they can't easily test — 'I have to add this feature fast', 'no time for a big refactor', 'just need to log this', 'add a check to existing method', 'need to add behavior without breaking legacy', 'sprout method', 'sprout class', 'wrap method', 'wrap class', 'decorator for legacy'. Activates for 'quick change to legacy', 'under time pressure', 'can't test this class but need to add a feature', 'extend without editing'.
- ▌ Security Change Rollout Planning · bookforge-aiPlan and execute a security change rollout across a service or fleet: classify the change into a time horizon (short / medium / long-term), triage affected systems by risk tier, select the appropriate rollout strategy with canarying and staged deployment, define communication strategy (internal and external), set rollback and success criteria, and produce a written rollout plan. Use when you need to respond to a zero-day vulnerability, roll out a security posture improvement, or drive an ecosystem or regulatory compliance change. Handles timeline disruption scenarios: accelerate when an exploit goes public, slow down when patch instability is detected, delay when embargo, external dependency, or limited blast radius dictates caution. Produces a rollout plan with timeline, per-tier risk triage, communication strategy, and explicit rollback criteria. Examples covered: Shellshock emergency patch, hardware security key (FIDO/WebAuthn) company-wide deployment, and Chrome HTTPS migration.
- ▌ Development Checklist Generator · bookforge-ai bundleCreate effective development checklists (code completion, unit/functional testing, software release) that teams will actually follow. Use this skill whenever the user needs to create a checklist for code review, testing, deployment, or release processes, wants to improve team quality by catching recurring mistakes, has a team that ignores existing checklists because they're too long, needs to define "definition of done" for development tasks, wants to reduce production incidents caused by human error, or asks about checklist best practices for software teams — even if they don't explicitly say "checklist."
- ▌ Distributed Feasibility Checker · bookforge-aiEvaluate whether a system should adopt distributed architecture by systematically checking against the 8 Fallacies of Distributed Computing and assessing team/operational readiness. Use this skill whenever the user is considering microservices, debating monolith vs distributed, hearing "let's use microservices," evaluating operational readiness for distribution, or experiencing growing pains with a monolith — even if they don't mention "distributed computing fallacies."
- ▌ Stakeholder Negotiation Planner · bookforge-ai bundlePrepare architecture negotiation strategies for conversations with business stakeholders, other architects, and developers using proven techniques. Use this skill whenever the user needs to push back on unrealistic requirements, defend an architecture decision to management, convince a skeptical developer or senior engineer, navigate disagreements about technology choices, negotiate trade-offs between features and technical debt, deal with stakeholders who demand conflicting quality attributes, handle situations where someone with more authority or experience disagrees with their technical recommendation, or any situation requiring persuasion around architecture decisions — even if they don't explicitly say "negotiation."
- ▌ Access Control Vulnerability Testing · bookforge-aiSystematically test web application access controls for broken authorization vulnerabilities. Use this skill whenever: performing a penetration test or security assessment of a web application's authorization model; testing for vertical privilege escalation (low-privilege user accessing high-privilege functions); testing for horizontal privilege escalation (user accessing another user's data); auditing multistage workflows for mid-flow authorization bypasses; checking whether protected static files are directly accessible without authorization; testing whether HTTP method substitution (HEAD, arbitrary verbs) bypasses platform-level access rules; probing for insecure access control models based on client-submitted parameters (admin=true), HTTP Referer headers, or IP geolocation; enumerating hidden or unlisted application functionality; reviewing source code or HTTP traffic for missing server-side authorization checks; using Burp Suite's site map comparison feature to compare high-privilege and low-privilege us
- ▌ Web Application Hardening Assessment · bookforge-aiSystematically assess a web application's defensive security posture across input validation, information disclosure, application architecture, and server configuration. Use this skill whenever: evaluating the quality of an application's input handling strategy and whether it correctly applies whitelist vs blacklist vs sanitization approaches; assessing whether boundary validation is implemented at each trust boundary (not only the perimeter); checking whether multistep validation and canonicalization ordering are implemented safely; auditing error handling to determine whether verbose error messages, stack traces, debug output, or database banners are exposed to clients; assessing whether server and service banners are suppressed and whether HTML source comments have been removed; evaluating tiered application architecture for trust-boundary segregation weaknesses, dangerous inter-tier trust relationships, and least-privilege violations; assessing shared hosting or cloud environments for customer isolation d
- ▌ Product Discovery Risk Assessment · bookforge-aiAssess product risks and decide whether to build. Use when starting product discovery, evaluating a new feature or product idea, deciding which risks to validate first, choosing between prototyping and testing approaches, or when someone asks 'should we build this?' Maps any idea to the 4-risk taxonomy (value risk, usability risk, feasibility risk, business viability risk) plus ethics risk, sequences discovery by priority, and selects the right technique category for each risk. Also use when a team is unsure what to validate next, when structuring a discovery sprint, or when planning pre-build validation activities. Hub skill for all downstream discovery technique selection — for specific techniques, use discovery-framing-technique-selection, discovery-prototype-selection, value-testing-technique-selection, customer-discovery-program, or business-viability-stakeholder-testing instead.
- ▌ Value Testing Technique Selection · bookforge-ai bundleSelect and execute the right value testing technique for product discovery. Use when you have a prototype and need to know if customers will actually choose or buy the product, when deciding between a fake door test, usability test, A/B test, or invite-only program, when someone asks 'how do we test if users want this?' or 'should we run an A/B test?', or when setting up analytics instrumentation before launch. Also use when validating demand before building anything, when choosing between qualitative vs. quantitative value testing, or when the team is unsure whether 'people said they liked it' is enough evidence. Covers the 3-level value testing hierarchy (demand / qualitative / quantitative), the usability-then-value session protocol, and the analytics instrumentation checklist. For prototype selection, use discovery-prototype-selection. For finding product-market fit with reference customers, use customer-discovery-program. For stakeholder viability sign-off, use business-viability-stakeholder-testing.
- ▌ Tdd And Programming By Difference · bookforge-aiAdd features to tested code using TDD or Programming by Difference. Use whenever a developer is adding a feature to a class that already has tests (or can be brought under test) — 'how do I add this feature', 'test-driven development for legacy', 'red green refactor', 'TDD cycle', 'add behavior with tests', 'inheritance to add feature', 'programming by difference', 'subclass to add behavior', 'Liskov substitution', 'LSP violation'. Triggers for 'I just got this class under test, now I need to add X'.
- ▌ Resilience And Blast Radius Design · bookforge-aiDesign or audit a system's resilience posture using a layered framework — defense in depth, controlled degradation (load shedding vs. throttling), blast radius compartmentalization (role/location/time), failure domains, 3-tier component reliability hierarchy, and continuous validation. Use this skill when designing a new system for failure, reviewing an existing architecture for single points of failure, limiting blast radius of a potential attack or outage, deciding fail-open vs. fail-closed behavior for a component, or building an incident-response-ready compartmentalization strategy.
- ▌ Security Reliability Design Review · bookforge-aiReview a system design for security and reliability tradeoffs before implementation begins. Use when: evaluating an architecture proposal or design document and need to identify where security and reliability requirements conflict with feature or cost requirements; auditing a proposed design to determine whether security and reliability are designed in from the start or likely to require expensive retrofitting later; deciding whether to build payment processing or sensitive data handling in-house versus delegating to a third-party provider; assessing whether a microservices framework or platform incorporates security and reliability by construction rather than by convention; or producing a design review report for a security review, production readiness review, or architecture decision record. Applies the emergent property test (security and reliability cannot be bolted on — they must arise from the whole design), the initial-versus-sustained-velocity model (early neglect accelerates to later slowdown), and t
- ▌ Architecture Style Selector · bookforge-ai bundleGuide the systematic selection of an architecture style by evaluating domain needs, architecture characteristics, quantum count, data constraints, and organizational factors against all major architecture styles (layered, pipeline, microkernel, service-based, event-driven, space-based, microservices). Use this skill whenever the user is choosing an architecture pattern, deciding between monolith and distributed, comparing architecture styles (e.g., "event-driven vs microservices"), asking "which architecture should we use?", starting a new system and considering options, or reconsidering their current architecture — even if they don't use the phrase "architecture style."
- ▌ Modularity Health Evaluator · bookforge-ai bundleAssess code modularity health using quantitative metrics — cohesion (LCOM), coupling (afferent/efferent), abstractness, instability, distance from main sequence, and connascence taxonomy. Use this skill whenever the user asks about module quality, code coupling analysis, cohesion measurement, class decomposition, package dependency analysis, LCOM scores, afferent/efferent coupling, connascence, zone of pain, zone of uselessness, extracting microservices from a monolith, evaluating module boundaries, dependency analysis, or wants to know if a class or package is well-structured — even if they don't use the term "modularity."
- ▌ Legacy Code Change Algorithm · bookforge-aiGuide safe modification of legacy code (untested production code) using Feathers' 5-step Legacy Code Change Algorithm. Use this skill whenever a developer needs to change code that lacks test coverage — adding a feature, fixing a bug, refactoring, or optimizing — and wants to avoid regressions. Activates for 'I need to change this code but there are no tests', 'how do I safely modify legacy code', 'inherited codebase', 'untested code', 'legacy system change', 'code without tests', 'refactor without regressions', 'make this code testable', 'cover and modify', 'don't break anything', 'risky change to old code', 'no test coverage', 'adding feature to old code', 'fixing bug in untested code', 'legacy codebase change safely'.
- ▌ Monster Method Decomposition · bookforge-aiDecompose a very large method (100+ lines, deeply nested) safely using automated refactoring and Feathers' Bulleted/Snarled classification. Use whenever a developer faces 'a huge method', 'I have a 500-line function', 'deeply nested conditionals', 'monster method', 'god method', 'need to break up this giant method', 'can't test this method it's too big', 'where do I even start with this method'. Activates for 'method extraction', 'IDE refactoring', 'automated extract method', 'introduce sensing variable', 'find sequences', 'skeletonize', 'coupling count', 'bulleted method', 'snarled method', 'break out method object'.
- ▌ Least Privilege Access Design · bookforge-aiAnalyze a system's access patterns and design least-privilege controls: classify data and APIs by risk, select the narrowest API surface for each operation, define authorization policies with multi-party approval for sensitive actions, establish emergency access override procedures, and optionally introduce a controlled-access production proxy. Use when reviewing access controls for an existing system, designing authorization for a new service, auditing whether engineers have more permissions than their roles require, deciding whether to use a bastion or proxy for privileged operations, or hardening administrative API surfaces against insider mistakes and external compromise. Produces an access classification report, API surface recommendations, authorization policy decisions, and emergency override guidelines.
- ▌ Concurrency Anomaly Detector · bookforge-ai bundleScan application code, SQL queries, or ORM code for exposure to the 6 database concurrency anomalies and produce a findings report with severity, affected locations, and fix recommendations. Use when: debugging a nondeterministic data corruption or race condition bug under concurrent load; auditing transaction code before deployment or after switching databases (isolation defaults differ across engines); a read-modify-write cycle or check-then-act pattern may be exposed to lost updates or write skew; an aggregate query (COUNT, SUM) guards an INSERT or UPDATE (phantom read exposure); or multiple tables are updated in one transaction without serializable isolation. Distinct from transaction-isolation-selector (which chooses the isolation level) — this skill scans code to find which anomalies existing code is already exposed to. Covers Python, Java, Go, JavaScript, Ruby; raw SQL; ORM code (SQLAlchemy, Hibernate, ActiveRecord, GORM); PostgreSQL, MySQL InnoDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and distributed databases. Maps co
- ▌ Distributed Failure Analyzer · bookforge-ai bundleDiagnose distributed system failures caused by network faults, unreliable clocks, or process pauses — and map each to its correct mitigation. Use when: a node is intermittently timing out with no clear network outage; a lock-holder or leader keeps acting after being declared dead (zombie leader / split brain via distributed locking, not replication topology — use replication-failure-analyzer for replica split brain); stale reads persist beyond expected replication lag; wall-clock-based lease checks or last-write-wins conflict resolution is producing data loss under clock skew; or cascading node-death declarations are occurring under load. Also use proactively to audit timing assumptions in new system designs (absence of fencing tokens, NTP drift exposure, GC pause risk). Distinct from replication-failure-analyzer (replication lag anomalies, failover pitfalls, quorum edge cases). Produces a structured failure report: symptom → fault category → mechanism → mitigation. Covers: asynchronous network behavior, time
- ▌ Replication Failure Analyzer · bookforge-ai bundleDiagnose active replication failures by mapping symptoms to leader failover pitfalls, replication lag anomalies, or quorum edge cases — and produce a structured remediation plan. Use when: data just written disappears or shows stale on re-read (read-after-write violation); records appear and vanish on refresh (monotonic reads violation); causally related events appear in impossible order (consistent prefix reads violation); a failover produces duplicate primary keys, write rejections, or incorrect routing; two replica nodes are both accepting writes (split brain in replication topology — for split brain via distributed locking, use distributed-failure-analyzer); quorum reads return stale values despite w + r > n; or a sloppy quorum with incomplete hinted handoff is serving old data. Applies to PostgreSQL, MySQL (single-leader), Cassandra, Riak, Voldemort, DynamoDB (leaderless). Use replication-strategy-selector first if the topology has not yet been chosen. Produces: symptom → failure class → mechanism → miti
- ▌ Architect Control Calibrator · bookforge-ai bundleDetermine the appropriate level of architect control over a development team using a quantitative 5-factor scoring model (-100 to +100 scale). Use this skill whenever the user asks how much they should be involved in a team's decisions, how hands-on or hands-off to be as an architect, how to calibrate their leadership style, whether they are micromanaging developers, whether they should give the team more autonomy, or any question about architect involvement level, team oversight, or technical leadership balance — even if they don't explicitly say "control." Also triggers when the user describes team dysfunction symptoms like merge conflicts increasing, nobody speaking up in meetings, or tasks falling through cracks.
- ▌ Architecture Diagram Creator · bookforge-ai bundleCreate effective architecture diagrams following established diagramming standards (UML, C4, ArchiMate) with proper visual elements and presentation techniques. Use this skill whenever the user needs to create, review, or improve architecture diagrams, wants guidance on which diagramming standard to use, needs help with diagram elements (titles, lines, shapes, labels, color, keys), is preparing architecture presentations with slides, wants to use incremental builds for presenting complex diagrams, is struggling with inconsistent notation across diagrams, or needs to maintain representational consistency across different zoom levels of their architecture — even if they don't explicitly say "diagram."
- ▌ Commitment Escalation Architect · bookforge-ai bundleDesign commitment escalation sequences and detect when consistency pressure is being used against you. Use this skill when planning onboarding sequences, activation flows, user engagement funnels, conversion funnels, habit formation programs, behavioral change campaigns, sales sequences, negotiation strategies, written commitment campaigns, foot-in-the-door campaigns, progressive commitment ladders, lowball tactics, escalation ladders, self-image engineering, inner choice cultivation, consistency-based persuasion, commitment amplification, or defending against manufactured consistency pressure and commitment traps.
- ▌ Discovery Prototype Selection · bookforge-ai bundleSelect the right prototype type and fidelity level for any discovery risk. Use when deciding what kind of prototype to build, when choosing between a feasibility spike, user prototype, live-data prototype, or Wizard of Oz prototype, or when someone asks 'what prototype should we build?' Also use when prototyping for usability testing, when validating a technical approach before building, when building a simulation for stakeholder alignment, or when an AI/ML feature needs pre-model validation. Maps the active risk (feasibility/usability/value/viability) to one of four prototype types and determines fidelity. Includes anti-pattern warnings for ambush estimation and prototype-as-value-proof confusion. Best triggered after product-discovery-risk-assessment. For executing usability or value tests after the prototype, use value-testing-technique-selection.