the-thesis-defense
Simulate your thesis defense before the real one — a committee of examiner archetypes probing YOUR actual thesis, the questions you hoped nobody would ask, and a debrief with preparation priorities. Use when asked simulate my thesis defense, grill me on my dissertation, what will my committee ask, or prep me for my viva. Produces the defense transcript with your answers stress-tested, the committee's private deliberation, and a debrief ranking the exposed weaknesses by preparability.
npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill the-thesis-defense --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.
# The Thesis Defense Skill Every thesis has three or four questions its author prays nobody asks — and committees are selected for exactly the expertise that asks them. This skill runs the defense early: examiner archetypes with different agendas probing the actual thesis (methods, alternatives, scope, the gap between claims and evidence), pushing back on weak answers the way real committees do. Then it breaks character and turns every wobble into a preparation item. ## What This Skill Produces - **The transcript** — 12–18 exchanges: questions, the candidate's plausible answers (or the user's real answers if they play along), and the follow-ups weak answers earn - **The deliberation** — what the committee says after the candidate leaves the room - **The debrief** — every exposed weakness ranked by preparability, with the answer-shape that would have held ## Required Inputs Ask for these if not provided: - **The thesis substance** — abstract, chapter summaries, or the full argument; central claim, methods, key findings. The committee probes only what's supplied — thin input gets a thin defense, and says so. - **The known dread** — the question they hope nobody asks; it opens act two
- What This Skill Produces
- Required Inputs
- Framework: The Four Examiners
- Output Format
- Transcript
- The Deliberation
- Debrief — out of character
- Quality Checks
- Anti-Patterns
What does the the-thesis-defense skill do?
Simulate your thesis defense before the real one — a committee of examiner archetypes probing YOUR actual thesis, the questions you hoped nobody would ask, and a debrief with preparation priorities. Use when asked simulate my thesis defense, grill me on my dissertation, what will my committee ask, or prep me for my viva. Produces the defense transcript with your answers stress-tested, the committee's private deliberation, and a debrief ranking the exposed weaknesses by preparability.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill the-thesis-defense --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 mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills, a repository with 1,255 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.