Shatterpoint

Shatterpoint is an open-source Claude Code skill published under the MIT license by GitHub user sernoxxx. It was created to replace the typical AI response to a plan — a polite list of pros, cons, and encouragement — with a focused, single-question interrogation that targets the load-bearing assumption your idea depends on.

What It Is

Shatterpoint is a skill file for Claude Code, Anthropic's agentic coding assistant. When triggered, it runs a structured protocol across several phases: steel-manning your idea in its strongest form, identifying at most three load-bearing assumptions ranked by lethality and uncertainty, conducting a one-question-per-round interrogation, running a pre-mortem, and ending with the single cheapest disconfirming test you could run in under a week. It is invoked via slash commands directly inside Claude Code sessions.

How the Interrogation Protocol Works

The skill defines a precise run sequence rather than leaving Claude to improvise:

• Steel-man phase — Claude restates your idea in its strongest form and invites correction before any attack begins, avoiding the straw-man problem.
• Load-bearing assumptions — At most three assumptions are surfaced, ranked by the product of "if false → dead?" and "how uncertain?"
• One question per round — A vague answer means the same spot again, harder. Twenty questions at once lets you dodge the riskiest one.
• Verification, not just rhetoric — Claude uses its shell access, your files, and web search to recompute claimed numbers, read claimed code behavior, and search claimed markets.
• Verdict and test — The session ends with a Holds / Breaks / Unknown ruling and exactly one concrete action that could come back negative.

The skill also knows when to stop: if the decision is already made, if being wrong is cheap and reversible, if there is no alternative, or if the question is pure taste, it says so instead of staging a fake interrogation.

Intensity Levels

Three invocation modes are supported:

• /shatterpoint — default intensity
• /shatterpoint brutal — no praise, no partial credit
• /shatterpoint soft — Socratic mode for ideas still forming

Repository Layout and Architecture

The skill is structured as a small directory of Markdown files that Claude reads on demand:

• SKILL.md — the core protocol: phases, intensity levels, and prohibitions
• references/lenses.md — 14 attack lenses, each with a tell for when it is sharp
• references/tells.md — 15 evasion patterns and how to counter them
• references/domains.md — 7 domains with their typical causes of death

Claude reads SKILL.md when the skill triggers and pulls in a reference file only when the run actually needs it, keeping context usage lean.

Setup Path

Installation is a single git clone into either the global Claude skills directory (~/.claude/skills/shatterpoint) or a per-project .claude/skills/shatterpoint directory so the skill ships with the repo. After restarting Claude Code, the skill responds to natural-language triggers like "tear this apart", "red team this plan", or "stress-test this", as well as the direct /shatterpoint slash command.

Current Status

The repository was created and last pushed on August 11, 2026, making it a very recent release. It carries 1 star and 0 forks at the time of indexing. The project is MIT-licensed and free to use, modify, and distribute.