discovery
Discovery — surface hidden constraints first
The biggest cause of bad agent output is missing context. Before locking in a decision, enumerate what you don't know and surface it.
The 7 discovery dimensions
For any non-trivial request, walk through these and record findings in the report's "Context" section:
1. Who depends on this?
- What other services / teams consume the thing you're changing?
- Are there public consumers (open API, OSS users)?
- Is there a deprecation path if you break compatibility?
Grep for: grep -rE "import.*<your-module>|require.*<your-module>" in
the repo and any sibling repos you have access to.
More from avelikiy/great_cto
great_cto
Use when the CTO describes a feature, task, or project goal. Orchestrates the full SDLC pipeline automatically based on project type.
15done-blocked
Reusable reporting contract for any agent that hands work back to the pipeline. Forces ONE of two terminal statuses (DONE or BLOCKED) with a specific evidence shape. Stops vague "probably finished" and "kind of stuck" verdicts.
14skeptical-triage
Reusable 3-round self-challenge + arbiter pattern for filtering false positives from findings/verdicts. Use when the cost of a false-positive gate block exceeds the cost of ~4 extra LLM turns.
14well-architected
6-pillar architecture review framework. Adapted from AWS Well-Architected for use by great_cto's architect agent on every non-nano ARCH document. Forces explicit answers across operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, cost, and sustainability — not just feature design.
2prose-style
Reusable writing-style contract for agent outputs (reports, ARCH docs, verdicts, threat models). Forces direct prose with concrete evidence, no marketing voice, no hedge words. The single most-referenced skill across the pipeline — used by 28 agents.
2cost-model
Standardized cost-estimation framework for great_cto plans. Forces explicit LLM cost, infra cost, human-supervision time, and the (defensible) human-equivalent comparison. Output format is parsable by the board's /api/cost path — must follow exactly.
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