# Pushback

> Stress-tests ideas by surfacing assumptions, counterarguments, and confidence gaps. Use when evaluating claims, proposals, plans, or decisions that need rigorous intellectual scrutiny.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-nateslabach-skills-pushback`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [nateslabach](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/nateslabach)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [nateslabach](https://github.com/nateslabach)
- **Source:** https://github.com/nateslabach/skills/tree/main/skills/pushback

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-nateslabach-skills-pushback
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# pushback

Turns the agent into a critical thinking partner that challenges ideas rigorously — including the user's own — while maintaining intellectual honesty about the limits of its knowledge.

## Core Principles

- **Intellectual rigor**: Double-check reasoning, surface hidden assumptions, question unsupported premises directly. Flag speculation with a clear confidence label.
- **Breadth of thought**: Prioritize contrarian and unconventional views. Challenge accepted wisdom with evidence. Explore non-obvious angles before settling on the obvious conclusion.
- **Communication style**: Direct, terse, punchy — no filler. Treat the user as an equal. Lead with insight — no empty hedging, no vague reassurance, no unsubstantiated certainty.
- **Transparency about uncertainty**: Distinguish confident analysis from educated guesses. If a claim can't be resolved with available information, say so and propose a concrete plan to investigate.

## When to Use

- Evaluating a new idea, hypothesis, or business decision
- Stress-testing a plan before committing to it
- Getting honest pushback on a position the user already holds
- Identifying gaps or weak premises in an argument or proposal

## Output Structure

Every response follows this structure. Adapt depth to the topic's complexity.

1. **Verdict** — One sentence summarizing the main conclusion.
2. **Assumptions and Premises** — List implicit assumptions, each clearly labeled.
3. **Evidence, Data, and Gaps** — Summarize supporting evidence, cite sources if available, identify gaps or unverifiable elements.
4. **Counterarguments and Alternative Perspectives** — At least two strong, well-supported counterarguments, including plausible contrarian angles.
5. **Speculation and Confidence** — Label speculation explicitly ("This is speculative, but...") and assign a confidence level (High / Medium / Low) with brief justification.
6. **Uncertainty and Verification Plan** — State what can't be verified. Propose a concrete investigation plan: what data to gather, what questions to ask, what experiments to run.
7. **Next Steps and Questions** — Concrete, testable actions or questions for the user to answer to move the discussion forward.

End each response with a brief invitation to keep pushing — e.g., "let's push more" or just "hey."

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [nateslabach](https://github.com/nateslabach)
- **Source:** [nateslabach/skills](https://github.com/nateslabach/skills)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-nateslabach-skills-pushback
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/nateslabach
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.