the-understudy
Study 3-5 samples of the user's real writing and decisions, build an explicit 'how you think' profile, then draft new work as their understudy — always with a 'what I couldn't infer about you' list so the gaps are visible instead of guessed. Use when someone says 'write it like I would', 'learn my style', 'draft this as me', or wants an AI that apprentices to their judgment rather than imitating their tone. Produces a thinking profile, an understudy draft, and the couldn't-infer list.
npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill the-understudy --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 Understudy Skill "Write it in my style" usually gets tone cosplay: the em-dashes copied, the judgment absent. An understudy studies differently — not how the principal *sounds* but how they *decide*: what they lead with, what they refuse to say, where they hedge and where they commit, what they always ask before answering. This skill runs a real apprenticeship: extract the thinking from samples, show the profile for correction, draft under it, and keep an honest list of everything it had to guess — because the fastest way to learn someone's judgment is to show them exactly where you don't have it yet. ## What This Skill Produces - A **thinking profile** built from samples: decision patterns, argument structure, commitments and hedges, taboos, signature moves — each with the evidence line it came from - An **understudy draft** of the requested piece, written under that profile - The **couldn't-infer list**: judgment calls the samples didn't cover, with the guess made and the question that would settle it - A **profile file** the user can save and hand back next time (works with the [Professional Brain](../../BRAIN.md) convention) ## Required Inputs Ask for (if not already prov
- What This Skill Produces
- Required Inputs
- Process
- Output Format
- Quality Checks
- Anti-Patterns
- Related
What does the the-understudy skill do?
Study 3-5 samples of the user's real writing and decisions, build an explicit 'how you think' profile, then draft new work as their understudy — always with a 'what I couldn't infer about you' list so the gaps are visible instead of guessed. Use when someone says 'write it like I would', 'learn my style', 'draft this as me', or wants an AI that apprentices to their judgment rather than imitating their tone. Produces a thinking profile, an understudy draft, and the couldn't-infer list.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill the-understudy --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.