Idea Refiner Agent Skill
Refine the user's existing plan, decision, or draft through relentless refinement. Use when the user wants to sharpen or stress-test their thinking.
Install
one command, takes just this skill from the repositorynpx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/cat-agent-skills --skill idea-refinerWhat comes with it
635 bytes besides the instructionThe instruction itself
as written by the authorAssume a plan, decision, or draft already exists. The job is to sharpen it with questions, not draft one from scratch, and ensure that I have fully thought through the entire plan.
Walk down each branch of the decision tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one-by-one. For each question, give your recommended answer.
Group each turn's questions by branch: 2–5 related questions per turn, sized to what that branch needs. For each question, provide your recommended answer. Wait for my feedback on the whole batch before moving to the next branch.
If Work IQ is available, look through Work IQ for any facts before asking me. Put every decision to me directly and wait for my answer.
Do not act on it until I confirm we have reached a shared understanding.
Other skills for the same job
different authors, same section of the catalogue
Guide users through a structured workflow for co-authoring documentation. Use when user wants to write documentation, proposals, technical specs, decision docs, or similar structured content. This workflow helps users efficiently transfer context, refine content through iteration, and verify the doc works for readers. Trigger when user mentions writing docs, creating proposals, drafting specs, or similar documentation tasks.
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Implements Manus-style file-based planning for complex tasks. Creates task_plan.md, findings.md, and progress.md. Use when starting complex multi-step tasks, research projects, or any task requiring >5 tool calls.
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Comprehensive GitHub project management with swarm-coordinated issue tracking, project board automation, and sprint planning
Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until reaching shared understanding, resolving each branch of the decision tree. Use when user wants to stress-test a plan, get grilled on their design, or mentions "grill me".
How to use it
Take microsoft/idea-refiner from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
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.