Honest Agent Agent Skill

Detect installed AI coding agents and append honest-feedback rules to their instruction files. Scans for config files (CLAUDE.md, copilot-instructions.md, .cursorrules, etc.), adapts output format per agent, and appends directives that disable sycophancy and enable constructive pushback. Use when setting up honest feedback, disabling people-pleasing, or enabling objective criticism. Triggers on honest agent, objective feedback, no sycophancy, honest criticism, contradict me, challenge assumptions, honest mode, brutal honesty.

1k tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

262

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/hoodini/ai-agents-skills --skill honest-agent

The instruction itself

10 sections, as written by the author

Honest Agent Configuration

One-time setup skill: detects your AI coding agents and appends honesty directives to their instruction files.

Safety Rule: Append Only

Never overwrite existing instruction files. Always read the file first (if it exists), then append the new configuration to the end. If the file does not exist, create it. This rule applies to every step below.

Supported Agents

| Agent | Project File | Global File |

|-------|-------------|-------------|

| Claude Code | .claude/CLAUDE.md | ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md |

| GitHub Copilot | .github/copilot-instructions.md | - |

| Cursor | .cursorrules | ~/.cursor/rules/ |

| Windsurf | .windsurfrules | - |

| Cline | .clinerules | - |

| Aider | CONVENTIONS.md | ~/.aider.conf.yml |

| Continue.dev | .continuerules | ~/.continue/config.json |

Workflow

Step 1: Detect Agents

Scan the project root for each file in the table above. Record which files exist and which agents are present.

Step 2: Ask Scope

Prompt the user to choose:

Project-level -- current project only
Global-level -- all projects (where the agent supports it)
Both

Step 3: Append Configuration

For each detected agent, read the existing file, then append the appropriate block below.

Markdown agents (Claude Code, Copilot, Cline, Continue.dev):

## Communication & Feedback Style

- **Never tell me what I want to hear** -- prioritize truth over comfort
- **Contradict me when you disagree** -- your informed opinions are valuable
- **Challenge my assumptions** -- point out flaws in my reasoning
- **Be direct and concise** -- skip unnecessary validation or praise
- If my approach has problems, say so directly
- If there's a better solution, recommend it even if I didn't ask
- If my code has issues, don't sugarcoat the feedback
- If I'm wrong about something technical, correct me
- Avoid phrases like "Great idea!" unless genuinely warranted

Plain-text agents (Cursor .cursorrules, Windsurf .windsurfrules):

Be honest, objective, and willing to disagree. Never be sycophantic.
- Contradict me when I'm wrong
- Challenge assumptions directly
- Recommend better approaches proactively
- Skip unnecessary praise or validation
- Provide direct, unfiltered technical feedback

Aider (CONVENTIONS.md):

# Communication Style
Be honest and direct. Contradict me when you disagree. Challenge flawed assumptions. Skip unnecessary praise.

Step 4: Report Results

Summarize what was done:

Which files were created vs. appended to
Which agents are now configured
Remind the user to restart their IDE or agent session for changes to take effect

Example

User: "Set up honest agent"

Agent scans project -- finds .claude/CLAUDE.md (50 lines) and .github/copilot-instructions.md (20 lines).
Asks scope. User picks "Both".
Reads each file, appends the markdown config block to the end.
Reports: "Appended honesty directives to 2 existing files (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot). Existing content preserved. Restart your IDE for changes to take effect."

References

Other skills for the same job

different authors, same section of the catalogue

Skill Creator

by anthropics

vendor ×10

Create new skills, modify and improve existing skills, and measure skill performance. Use when users want to create a skill from scratch, edit, or optimize an existing skill, run evals to test a skill, benchmark skill performance with variance analysis, or optimize a skill's description for better triggering accuracy.

Guide for creating effective skills. This skill should be used when users want to create a new skill (or update an existing skill) that extends Claude's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations.

Replace with description of the skill and when Claude should use it.

35 tokens

Dispatching Parallel Agents

by ZhanlinCui

×5

Use when facing 2+ independent tasks that can be worked on without shared state or sequential dependencies

This skill should be used when the user wants to "create a skill", "add a skill to plugin", "write a new skill", "improve skill description", "organize skill content", or needs guidance on skill structure, progressive disclosure, or skill development best practices for Claude Code plugins.

Helps users discover and install agent skills when they ask questions like "how do I do X", "find a skill for X", "is there a skill that can...", or express interest in extending capabilities. This skill should be used when the user is looking for functionality that might exist as an installable skill.

Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment

26k tokens scripts

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take hoodini/honest-agent from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.