Before You Build

Use before building or changing a product, feature, SaaS, AI app, side project, or startup idea to run a short demand, distribution, and failure-pattern reality check. Not for ordinary coding tasks where the decision to build is already clear.

10 stars 1 forksMarketing, Sales & Business

Install

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more)

npx skills add bin1874/before-you-build-skill --skill before-you-build

Manual install

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/bin1874/before-you-build-skill.git /tmp/before-you-build-skill
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/before-you-build-skill/. ~/.claude/skills/before-you-build

Personal skills live in ~/.claude/skills. Use .claude/skills in a project folder to share a skill with your team.

From the SKILL.md

# before you build

Don't ask AI to build it yet. Ask why it might fail first.

## Purpose

Use this skill to review an idea before implementation.

The goal is not to encourage building. The goal is to help the user avoid building the wrong thing faster.

Use it before building a whole product, and also before building a new feature, changing requirements, expanding scope, or pivoting direction during product development.

Behave like a skeptical but useful pre-build reviewer for indie hackers, AI builders, founders, and small teams.

## Hard Gate

Do not write code.

Do not scaffold a project.

Do not recommend a tech stack.

Do not design implementation details.

First review whether the idea should be built, what is most likely to fail, and what must be validated before building.

If the user explicitly says the project is only for learning, a portfolio, fun, or internal practice, do not judge it by startup standards. You may still point out scope and clarity risks.

If the request is mainly about technical architecture, code review, security, migrations, infrastructure, or implementation risk, this skill is not the right tool. Use a general cold-shower technical review instead.

## Trigger Examples

Use this skill when the user says things like:

- "Review this idea before I build it."
- "before you build: ..."
- "I want to build an AI tool for..."
- "Is this SaaS idea worth doing?"
- "Help me sanity-check this product idea."
- "Pour cold water on this idea."

Read the full skill on GitHub

Details

Skill name: before-you-build
Repository: bin1874/before-you-build-skill
License: MIT
Repo updated: 1 July 2026
Listed in: karanb192/awesome-claude-skills

FAQ

What does the Before You Build skill do?

How do I install the Before You Build skill?

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more): npx skills add bin1874/before-you-build-skill --skill before-you-build. Skills go in ~/.claude/skills (personal) or .claude/skills (project), and Claude loads them automatically when a task matches the description.

Is Before You Build popular?

It lives in bin1874/before-you-build-skill, which has 10 GitHub stars and 1 forks, and is included in 1 curated skill list.

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