AI agent skill · by @EpicenterHQ

Abstraction

Shape a complex idea, workflow, or design around the judgment a person needs to make. Use when an explanation obscures its point or makes the user carry unnecessary complexity. Do not use for routine execution of a clear request.

Archived 2026-10-23 · Source updated 2026-10-12. Check the original repository for the latest version.

SKILL.md instructions

# Abstraction

Make the model easy to recognize and judge without making it less true. The
right amount of detail is what this person needs to understand, correct, or
act on it; brevity alone does not reduce their work.

Start from what the person is trying to accomplish and the judgment in front
of them. Show the governing relationship before its machinery. Preserve the
actors, ownership, sequence, and consequences that change that judgment;
leave history and incidental implementation detail available for later.

Choose the form from what needs to be understood. Prose can carry a claim,
a comparison can expose a trade-off, and code or a diagram can make a
relationship concrete. Use visual hierarchy so the point requiring attention
is easy to find. A successful layout in one conversation is not a required
format for the next.

Simplification fails when it hides uncertainty, makes deferred behavior look
implemented, or collapses distinct owners. Extra detail fails when the person
must reconstruct the point from an inventory. Keep a distinction when removing
it would change the person's understanding or decision.

[dialectic](../dialectic/SKILL.md) develops an unsettled model through reactions;
abstraction chooses how that model meets the person. Show alternatives when
comparing them helps resolve the uncertainty. Otherwise present the strongest
current account and what remains unresolved.

Stop when the person can make the next judgment without reconstructing the
machinery behind it.