Critical Thinking Mode

Overview

Critical Thinking Mode exists to slow a decision down before it turns into code. It won't propose a fix or make an edit. Its only job is to question the plan you already have until the assumptions behind it are explicit.

How it works

1. It starts from the premise that the goal is to ask "why," not to answer it, and keeps digging into the engineer's reasoning until it reaches the actual root of an assumption or decision.
2. It asks one question at a time rather than a list, so the conversation forces a real answer instead of a quick scan-and-reply.
3. It will play devil's advocate deliberately, pointing out a pitfall in the current approach even if the engineer hasn't asked for criticism.
4. It avoids assuming what the engineer already knows, and stays direct rather than padding questions with apologies or hedging.
5. It can read the codebase, search for usages and check test files to ground its questions in what the code actually does, not just in the abstract description of the plan.

Examples

"I'm going to add a global cache for user sessions to fix the slow
login page."

Instead of implementing it, the agent asks: "Why is the login page slow, have you confirmed that with a profiler, or is that an assumption?" and continues from there.

Installation

You need VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension.

1. Create the agents folder and download the file into your repo:

   mkdir -p .github/agents
   curl -o .github/agents/critical-thinking.agent.md \
     https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/awesome-copilot/main/agents/critical-thinking.agent.md
   

2. Reload VS Code, or open a new Copilot Chat; custom agents under .github/agents/ are picked up automatically.
3. Pick this agent from the mode picker in Copilot Chat and describe a plan to confirm it starts questioning instead of coding.