irac-prompt-stephane-boghossian
Restructure any rough build, research, or legal-drafting request into an IRAC-shaped prompt — Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion — optimized for a frontier model. It's the bar-exam framework, repurposed as prompt engineering. The skill leads with the issue and ends with the conclusion (where models weight attention most), forces you to name your constraints and non-goals, and specifies what "good" looks like before a single token is generated. Use it before any non-trivial build, or whenever a vague ask deserves a precise brief.
npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill irac-prompt-builder-stephane-boghossian --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# IRAC Prompt A lawyer doesn't hand an associate "go look into the housing thing." They write a memo: here's the **issue**, here are the **rules** that govern it, here's the **analysis** of how they apply, here's the **conclusion** I want. That same structure is the single biggest lever on frontier-model output quality. This skill turns a vague ask into that brief. ## When to use - The user has a fuzzy build/research/drafting task and wants a good prompt, not a guess. - Before kicking off a non-trivial vibecode task (pairs naturally before `/grill-me` and `/yalla`). - Repackaging a task to hand to a sub-agent or to HAQQ's Justinian. ## The method Take the user's raw ask and rewrite it into four labelled blocks. **Lead with the issue, end with the conclusion** — models weight the top and bottom of a prompt most. ### I — Issue (top) One or two sentences: what exactly are we trying to do, and for whom. The single problem statement. If the user gave three problems, pick the one that matters or split into three prompts. *No problem, no solution, no value.* ### R — Rule (constraints) The governing facts the model must respect: - Hard constraints (stack, language, libraries, file paths, o
- When to use
- The method
- I — Issue (top)
- R — Rule (constraints)
- A — Analysis (the reasoning the model should do)
- C — Conclusion (the ask)
- Output contract
- Modifiers (the user can ask for any of these)
- Worked example
- Notes
What does the irac-prompt-stephane-boghossian skill do?
Restructure any rough build, research, or legal-drafting request into an IRAC-shaped prompt — Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion — optimized for a frontier model. It's the bar-exam framework, repurposed as prompt engineering. The skill leads with the issue and ends with the conclusion (where models weight attention most), forces you to name your constraints and non-goals, and specifies what "good" looks like before a single token is generated. Use it before any non-trivial build, or whenever a vague ask deserves a precise brief.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill irac-prompt-builder-stephane-boghossian --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills, a repository with 618 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.