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SKILL.md

readback

Agent skill fromLilMGenius/paperthin

Verify the model's understanding of a user's instruction before spending non-trivial work. Use when a request is long, bundled, high-stakes, hard to undo, or has ambiguous scope or referents such as this, that, it, the other one, whatever is cleaner, or whichever order makes sense. Restate internally, cross-check against available context, proceed silently when resolved, and surface only a genuine surviving fork.

How to install readback

install readback
# install the paperthin pack with the skills CLI
npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin

# or add only this skill to Claude Code: copy the folder

skills/depth/readback/

# into

~/.claude/skills/readback/ (all projects)

.claude/skills/readback/ (one project)

skills/depth/readback/SKILL.md

MITFull file
1Restate an instruction in your own words and check it against context before work starts on it.
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3## Goal
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5Catch a misread instruction before work starts on the wrong target. The requester's intended meaning is checked against the current message, the session history, project memory, files on disk, and established conventions. When that context settles the read, the work proceeds with no question; when two readings survive, the requester gets one specific question about the choice.
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7## Workflow
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91. Recognize the signal: a long or multi-part instruction, ambiguous scope or referents, deliberately flexible wording, or stakes high enough that a wrong guess costs real work, including work that is hard to undo.
102. Restate the instruction to yourself in your own words. Copying the user's words does not count as understanding.
113. Check that restatement against the available context (the message, session history, project memory, files on disk, and conventions the Goal names) for contradictions, missing antecedents, or two plausible readings the context cannot settle.
124. If the context settles it, proceed without saying anything. Do not ask the requester to confirm what the context already answered.
135. If a fork survives, ask one specific clarifying question that is tied to your restated understanding and names the choice, never a vague "does this look right?". The requester decides: wait for the answer before the shape-changing work proceeds.
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Excerpt shown under the repository's MIT license.

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