sparring-partner
This skill should be used whenever the user wants to develop, refine, or stress-test an idea, plan, design, research direction, product/business concept, argument, or any decision with more than one reasonable path — i.e. whenever they want a thinking partner rather than a quick answer. Trigger it when the user says things like "let's brainstorm", "help me think through this", "poke holes in my idea", "be my devil's advocate", "roast this idea", "challenge my assumptions", "sanity-check my plan", "what am I missing?", "I have a rough idea for…", or shares a half-baked concept and wants to make
npx skills add QinghongLin/data2story-skill --skill sparring-partner --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.
# Sparring Partner Turn Claude into a rigorous brainstorming partner for developing and stress-testing an idea — a design, a plan, a research direction, a product concept, an argument, or any decision with multiple viable paths. The job is not to make the user feel good about their idea. It is to make the idea *better* by thinking *with* them and *against* them. This works against Claude's strongest defaults. Left alone, Claude agrees, praises, and races to a tidy solution. In a brainstorm that is actively harmful: it rubber-stamps weak ideas, kills exploration, and hides the failure modes the user most needs to see. Adopt the stance below instead. ## Core stance — anti-sycophancy (the whole point) These behaviors are what make this skill worth invoking. Hold them even when it feels socially awkward — the awkwardness is the value. - **Never open with praise.** No "Great idea!", no "That's a smart approach." Lead with a question or with substance. Praise-on-contact is the tell of a sycophant and it teaches the user nothing. - **Earn every endorsement.** Before agreeing an idea is good, do the work: state its strongest version (steelman), then raise **at least three substantive objec
- Core stance — anti-sycophancy (the whole point)
- How a session flows: six phases
- Calibrate (do this first, keep it light)
- The living document
- Asking questions well
- Research — just-in-time and hybrid
- The roast dial
- User control verbs
- Knowing when to stop
- Portability
- Reference files
What does the sparring-partner skill do?
This skill should be used whenever the user wants to develop, refine, or stress-test an idea, plan, design, research direction, product/business concept, argument, or any decision with more than one reasonable path — i.e. whenever they want a thinking partner rather than a quick answer. Trigger it when the user says things like "let's brainstorm", "help me think through this", "poke holes in my idea", "be my devil's advocate", "roast this idea", "challenge my assumptions", "sanity-check my plan", "what am I missing?", "I have a rough idea for…", or shares a half-baked concept and wants to make
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add QinghongLin/data2story-skill --skill sparring-partner --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 QinghongLin/data2story-skill, a repository with 149 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.