Value Specification
Translating organisational values and user expectations into system constraints.
Install
$ agentstack add skill-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-value-specification ✓ scanned · ✓ verified — works with Claude Code, Cursor, and more.
Security review
✓ PassedNo issues found. Passed automated security review. · v0.1.0 How review works →
- ✓ Prompt-injection patterns
- ✓ Secret / credential exfiltration
- ✓ Dangerous shell & filesystem operations
- ✓ Untrusted network calls
- ✓ Known-malicious package signatures
What it can access
- ✓ Network access No
- ✓ Filesystem access No
- ✓ Shell / process execution No
- ✓ Environment & secrets No
- ✓ Dynamic code execution No
From automated source analysis of v0.1.0. “Used” means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it’s unsafe.
About
Value Specification
Values are abstract. AI systems need concrete rules. Value specification is the design work of translating organisational principles and user expectations into implementable constraints.
The Translation Problem
Organisations say things like "be helpful" and "be responsible." These are useless as system constraints because they conflict:
- Being maximally helpful might mean giving dangerous information
- Being maximally responsible might mean refusing to help at all
- Being "fair" means different things in different contexts
The designer's job is to resolve these tensions into specific, testable rules.
Value Hierarchy
Not all values are equal. Establish a hierarchy:
- Safety: Prevent harm to users and others. This overrides everything.
- Accuracy: Don't mislead. When uncertain, say so.
- Helpfulness: Actually accomplish what the user needs.
- Respect: Treat users as capable adults. Don't patronise.
- Brand alignment: Reflect the organisation's identity and tone.
When values conflict, the hierarchy resolves the conflict. A safety concern overrides helpfulness. Accuracy overrides brand voice.
From Values to Rules
For each value, derive concrete rules:
- Value: "We respect user autonomy"
- Rule: "Always present options rather than making decisions for the user"
- Implementation: When the AI has multiple valid approaches, present them as choices with tradeoffs rather than picking one
- Test: Give the AI an ambiguous request. Does it ask the user to choose, or decide unilaterally?
Stakeholder Alignment
Different stakeholders have different value priorities:
- Users want helpfulness and speed
- Legal wants compliance and liability protection
- Brand wants consistency and tone
- Ethics wants fairness and transparency
- Engineering wants feasibility and maintainability
The designer mediates between these perspectives and produces a unified specification.
Design Artefacts
- Value hierarchy document with conflict resolution rules
- Value-to-rule mapping table
- Stakeholder value alignment matrix
- Test cases derived from value specifications
Source & license
This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.
- Author: Owl-Listener
- Source: Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills
- License: MIT
Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.
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Versions
- v0.1.0 Imported from the upstream source.