Socratic

This skill should be used when the user asks to "build", "design", "scaffold", "architect", or "plan" any system, feature, service, app, agent, pipeline, connector, or tool — especially when the request is short, vague, or underspecified. It should also be used when the user asks to "review this architecture", "what am I missing", "ask me the right questions", "poke holes in this", or requests a design review before implementation. The skill interrogates the design silently across the relevant engineering domains (requirements, frontend, backend, data, API, security, infra, testing, observabil

131 stars 19 forksSoftware Development

Install

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

npx skills add m4vic/socratic --skill socratic

Manual install

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/m4vic/socratic.git /tmp/socratic
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/socratic/. ~/.claude/skills/socratic

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

From the SKILL.md

# Socratic

Question yourself till you're left with only answers.

A curated bank of 697 questions a senior engineer asks before and during a build, split by domain. **The default mode is self-interrogation, not interviewing the user.** Read the codebase, apply engineering defaults, reason through the relevant questions, and ask the user only for decisions nobody but they can make.

## Two modes

**Mode A — Self-interrogation (default).** Ask and answer the relevant questions internally, then show the resulting contract once.

**Mode B — Interactive interview (opt-in).** Ask the user one yes/no question at a time. Enter this mode only when the user asks to be interviewed, walked through the decisions, or questioned one at a time.

If unsure, use Mode A. Silence is not a request to be interviewed.

## Mode A — Self-interrogation

### 1. Build the working domain set dynamically

For every build, include Requirements and Testing. Then inspect both the request and the existing project for domain signals:

| Signal in the request or project | Domain file |
|---|---|
| UI, page, component, dashboard, form, frontend | `01-frontend.md` |
| service, endpoint, job, queue, backend, business logic | `02-backend.md` |
| database, schema, storage, persistence, migration, cache | `03-data.md` |
| API, SDK, webhook, connector, integration, OAuth | `04-api.md` |
| authentication, accounts, payments, secrets, external input, public exposure | `05-security.md` |

Read the full skill on GitHub

Details

Skill name: socratic
Repository: m4vic/socratic
License: MIT
Repo updated: 13 August 2026

FAQ

What does the Socratic skill do?

How do I install the Socratic skill?

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more): npx skills add m4vic/socratic --skill socratic. Skills go in ~/.claude/skills (personal) or .claude/skills (project), and Claude loads them automatically when a task matches the description.

Is Socratic popular?

It lives in m4vic/socratic, which has 131 GitHub stars and 19 forks.

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