Engineering Design Thinking

This skill exists to stop: solution-shaped requests, familiar patterns, and elegant diagrams from replacing a verified problem and an evidence-backed engineering decision.

🤖 0. HOW TO USE

Choose one mode:

• Think (default): pass all five gates, then present a design brief for acceptance.
• Review: score an existing proposal against the gates; do not repair skipped gates silently.
• Scope: identify the smallest investigation that can settle the highest-risk gate.
• First principles: use when the system is unfamiliar, high-risk, novel, or a familiar pattern conflicts with evidence. Read first-principles.md.

Outputs: a Problem Frame, option comparison, architecture sketch, accepted-decision handoff, and a post-delivery model update. Do not implement before the design is accepted. Skip the full flow for a small, reversible question whose behavior and boundary are already clear.

1. Gate 1 — Frame the problem

Complete problem-frame.md. The gate fails unless the frame names: