Individual skill
explore-unknowns
Guide the user through a quadrant walk that maps the unknowns of a task — open by listing the known knowns, then work through known unknowns, unknown knowns, and unknown unknowns one stage at a time, ending with a complete four-quadrant map in the user's hands. Use when a request is ambiguous or underspecified, the codebase or domain is unfamiliar, the user will "know it when they see it", a reference implementation must be understood before porting, mid-build deviations from the plan need capturing, or a finished change needs buy-in or verified understanding before merge. Pairs with [write-spec](../write-spec/SKILL.md) — walk the quadrants to burn off fog before slicing, and feed the finished map into the spec.
skills/engineering/explore-unknowns/SKILL.md
Source commit 0867285d3f2612104afa6bb774779943854d4c15
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- Observed behavior
- Instructions only
- Last checked
- Nov 9, 2026
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- Repository last updated
- Nov 8, 2026
- License
- MIT
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- agent-skills Repository topic
- ai-agents Repository topic
- autonomous-agents Repository topic
- autoresearch Repository topic
- claude-code Repository topic
- code-review Repository topic
- codex Repository topic
- developer-tools Repository topic
- software-engineering Repository topic
- spec-driven-development Repository topic
- engineering Derived category
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SKILL.mdcore · 6,845 bytesreferences/after-the-walk.mddoc · 1,007 bytesreferences/stage-1-known-knowns.mddoc · 1,513 bytesreferences/stage-2-known-unknowns.mddoc · 2,194 bytesreferences/stage-3-unknown-knowns.mddoc · 2,001 bytesreferences/stage-4-unknown-unknowns.mddoc · 1,846 bytesreferences/stage-5-hand-over-the-map.mddoc · 1,635 bytes
Read excerpt
# Explore Unknowns
The map is not the territory. The prompt, the plan, and the context window are
the map; the codebase, the domain, and the user's actual intent are the
territory. The gap between them is the unknowns — and an unknown found before
code is written costs minutes, while the same unknown found three PRs later
costs the three PRs.
This skill is a guided conversation: the **quadrant walk**. Together with the
user you fill in a four-quadrant map of the task, one quadrant per stage, and
the user walks away holding the completed map. The map is the deliverable;
implementation is a different task that starts only after the map is handed
over.
