ai-and-reasoning

Decide which model (Haiku/Sonnet/Opus) and effort level each subagent gets, when to cascade cheap-first behind a verifier, and how to run improvement loops safely (evaluator-as-selector, stop on regression). Covers the Managed Agents effort mechanics (per-agent effort levels, cost lever) and how to watch a subagent fan-out stream live so loop and escalation gates have something to observe. Use when spawning subagents via the Agent or Workflow tools, when fanning out more than a handful of agents, or when the user asks which model or effort a task should route to. Routing heuristics grounded in measured calibration data (references/calibration-2026-07-15.md), not vibes; the Managed Agents API specifics are operational, not calibrated.

Cross-context adversarial review for deliverables before shipping. Use when producing blog posts, technical recommendations, analysis briefs, code, or any artifact where accuracy matters more than speed. Triggers on "challenge this", "review before shipping", "adversarial pass", "stress test this".

Convenes expert panels for problem-solving. Use when user mentions panel, experts, multiple perspectives, MECE, DMAIC, RAPID, Six Sigma, root cause analysis, strategic decisions, process improvement, or asks for philosophers/ancients (Socratic, Aristotelian, Stoic method experts).

Distill Opus-level reasoning into optimized instructions for Haiku 4.5 (and Sonnet). Generates explicit, procedural prompts with n-shot examples that maximize smaller model performance on a given task. Use when user says "down-skill", "distill for Haiku", "optimize for Haiku", "make this work on Haiku", "generate Haiku instructions", or needs to delegate a task to a smaller model with high reliability.

Break out of a locked problem frame by picking one disciplined move — reframe, provocation (Po), random stimulus, SCAMPER, inversion, perspective shift, constraint play, or family traversal — and committing to it before evaluating. Use when stuck, when options feel narrow or obvious, when iterations produce variations of the same idea, or when the user says "widen this", "break out of", "think differently", "I'm stuck", "feels too obvious", "stress-test the framing", "what am I missing", or holds two related examples and asks what lies between or beyond them. Complements challenging (which evaluates) and convening-experts (which synthesizes viewpoints); this skill generates distance, not judgment.