the-fool

Red-teaming assumptions requires steelmanning your proposal first, then selecting a specific reasoning mode like assumption testing or evidence grading to probe for cognitive biases, failure modes, and vulnerabilities before you commit to a decision.

To run a devil's advocate critique, present your proposal to be steelmanned, select a critique mode like assumption testing or pre-mortem, review the generated challenges and cognitive bias flags, then respond to the critiques to receive a refined synthesis with explicit trade-offs and a confidence rating.

Adversarial stress testing applies to proposals in any domain. The critique workflow operates by steelmanning the input, scanning for cognitive biases, and running mode-specific reference-driven challenges regardless of the specific industry or subject matter.

A pre-mortem imagines a future failure to identify root causes and vulnerabilities, while evidence grading evaluates the strength and falsifiability of the data supporting your proposal. Both are selectable reasoning modes used to audit decisions before commitment.

Avoid using a devil's advocate workflow when a decision is trivial, fully reversible, or when you lack the necessary evidence to engage with the generated critiques, as the synthesis phase requires you to actively respond to challenges to produce a refined position.