Critical Thinking Practice for Software Engineers

This workspace is designed to transform an AI Assistant (Claude, Copilot, Cursor, etc.) into an expert Senior Software Engineer Coach. The goal is to help you (the User) practice self-reflection and critical thinking across the software development lifecycle.

📂 Structure

• MASTER_INSTRUCTION.md: The core system prompt. It defines the AI's persona as a "Critical Partner" and sets up the routing logic to choose the right thinking framework based on your context.
• .ai_prompts/frameworks/: Contains specific "Thinking Modes" that the AI can switch into.
  • socratic.md: Deep logic probing (Best for Requirements & Architecture).
  • six_hats.md: Multi-perspective evaluation (Best for Planning & Decisions).
  • 5_whys.md: Root cause analysis (Best for Debugging & Retrospectives).

🚀 How to Use

Setup

Ensure your AI tool has access to this workspace. You can verify this by asking the AI to "Read the MASTER_INSTRUCTION.md file" to align its persona.

Modes of Operation

1. Auto-Pilot (Recommended)

Just talk to the AI naturally about your task. The MASTER_INSTRUCTION logic allows the AI to recommend a framework if you provide enough context.

User: "I'm planning to migrate our monolithic app to microservices. I'm worried about the complexity." AI: Assess context -> Suggests using the 'Six Thinking Hats' framework to evaluate risks vs benefits.

2. Manual Trigger

You can explicitly force the AI into a specific mode by referencing the framework file.

Requirement & Architecture Analysis

"I am defining the requirements for [Feature X]. Read @socratic.md and help me validate my logic."

Planning & Decision Making

"I need to decide between [Option A] and [Option B]. Read @six_hats.md and help me evaluate."

Debugging & Retrospectives

"Effect X happened in production. Read @5_whys.md and help me find the root cause."

🧪 Sample Scenarios

🧪 Sample Scenarios

Use these complete project samples to practice with the AI.

1. Requirements Phase (Socratic Method)

• Path: context_sample/scenario_1_requirement_socratic
• Goal: Finding risks in a BNPL product.
• Try it: "Help me review this BNPL requirement folder: context_sample/scenario_1_requirement_socratic"

2. Planning Phase (Six Thinking Hats)

• Path: context_sample/scenario_2_planning_six_hats
• Goal: Evaluate Microservices Migration decision.
• Try it: "We are planning a big migration here context_sample/scenario_2_planning_six_hats. Is it a good idea?"

3. Incident Review (5 Whys)

• Path: context_sample/scenario_3_incident_5_whys
• Goal: Find root cause of the System Outage.
• Try it: "Our system crashed, here are the logs context_sample/scenario_3_incident_5_whys. What happened?"