FirstPrinciples Skill

What It Does

Breaks a problem down to its fundamental truths and rebuilds the solution from there, instead of copying what already exists. Three steps: DECONSTRUCT (break it into constituent parts and real values), CHALLENGE (classify every element as hard constraint, soft constraint, or unvalidated assumption — only physics is truly immutable), and RECONSTRUCT (build the optimal solution from the fundamentals alone). Outputs a parts breakdown, a constraint table, and a reconstructed solution.

The Core Distinction

Most reasoning is reasoning by analogy — "how did we solve something similar," "what do others do" — then copy it with tweaks. That inherits everyone else's assumptions and treats policy and convention as if they were laws of physics, so you optimize the suitcase instead of inventing wheels. First principles forces the split between what's actually immutable and what's merely inherited, then rebuilds from only the parts that can't change.

• Reasoning by analogy (default, often wrong): copies existing solutions with slight variations.
• Reasoning from first principles (this skill): asks "what is this actually made of?" and rebuilds from irreducible facts.

Invoked directly, or by other skills when inherited assumptions may be limiting the solution space — Architects challenging "constraint or convention?", do-redteam and pentesters attacking assumed boundaries, engineers escaping local maxima.

Workflow Routing

Route to the appropriate workflow based on the request.