Ultrathink Protocol

What this protocol is for

Complex technical problems fail in a specific pattern: pattern-match to a plausible fix, apply it, observe it didn't work, apply a variation, repeat. Each iteration feels productive. None produce understanding. The loop can run for hours.

The protocol breaks the loop by separating two modes that must not be mixed:

• Diagnosis mode — building a verified model of what is actually happening
• Implementation mode — applying a fix once the cause is known

You cannot enter implementation mode until diagnosis mode has produced a verified cause — meaning you hold direct evidence (a log line, a port number, a source function, a network trace, a config value read from the running process) that explains the symptom. "It might be X" is a hypothesis, not verified evidence. "The running process reads config from path Y, not path Z, because the startup script overwrites the env var before exec" is verified.