unstuck
When a solution seems impossible and the path forward is blocked — the antidote to any roadblock or wall. Refuses to take no for an answer: classifies what kind of \"no\" you actually hit, then runs targeted lateral-thinking techniques (assumption autopsy, inversion, first principles, constraint toggling, analogical transfer, and more from a 10-technique inventory) until the wall cracks or is proven load-bearing. Generates a minimum of 10 angles before evaluating any. AGENTS: use this on yourself mid-task — when an API doesn't support what you need, an approach has failed twice, or a \"that's not possible\" / \"the only option is\" sentence is forming in your response, run the fast path BEFORE reporting a dead end; every dead-end report should arrive with tried-angles receipts. Archives every wall to ~/.config/makerskills/unstuck/archive/ so you learn which techniques crack YOUR walls. Sits upstream of decide: turns \"impossible\" into 2–3 viable angles, then decide picks one. Triggers on \"/unstuck,\" \"I'm stuck,\" \"this seems impossible,\" \"we hit a wall,\" \"there's no way to,\" \"they said no,\" \"dead end,\" \"out of options,\" \"I've tried everything,\" \"work around this,\" \"think outside the box.\"
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/coreyhaines31/makerskills /tmp/unstuck && cp -r /tmp/unstuck/skills/unstuck ~/.claude/skills/unstuckSKILL.md
# /unstuck — The roadblock antidote
Turns "impossible" into angles. Classifies the wall, runs the right lateral-thinking techniques against it, and doesn't stop at the first mediocre workaround. Output is either a set of viable angles with next actions — or an honest "this wall is load-bearing, reroute the goal."
**Two modes:**
- **User-invoked** — someone is stuck and asks. Full 7-step workflow below.
- **Agent fast path** — YOU (the agent) hit the wall mid-task. See [Agent fast path](#agent-fast-path) — run it before telling the user something can't be done.
## The mental model: walls have types, and the type picks the crowbar
"Impossible" is a claim, not a fact. It almost always decompiles into something weaker: *expensive*, *against the rules*, *nobody's done it*, *I don't know how*. Only *actually impossible* (physics, math, arithmetic) ends the session — and it ends it honestly.
| Wall type | What "impossible" actually means | Lead techniques (see `references/techniques.md`) |
|---|---|---|
| **Assumption** | An inherited belief nobody re-verified | T1 assumption autopsy, T3 first principles |
| **Framing** | The goal is stated in a way that excludes the answer | T4 altitude shift, T2 inversion, T5 work backwards |
| **Gatekeeper** | A person/org said no | T10 interrogate the no, T6 analogical transfer |
| **Tool/tech** | "X doesn't support Y" | T9 SCAMPER (substitute the primitive), T6 analogical transfer |
| **Resource** | Not enough time/money/people | T7 constraint toggling, T8 provocation |
| **Physics/math** | Actually impossible (rare) | Honest exit — reroute the goal, the wall is load-bearing |
## Step 1 — Capture the wall
Get from the user (one structured message, don't round-trip):
- **The goal** — what are you ultimately trying to do? (Not the blocked step — the job it serves.)
- **The wall** — what exactly blocks it?
- **Attempts** — what have you already tried?
- **The source of the no** — who or what said no? Physics? A vendor's docs? A person? An error message? Your own assumption?
- **Stakes + deadline** — how much does breaking this wall matter, by when?
If the user says "I've tried everything," ask for the list. "Everything" is usually 2–3 things.
## Step 2 — Classify the wall
Use the taxonomy above. State the classification and why. Two rules:
1. **Decompile the word "impossible."** Restate the wall without it: "expensive," "undocumented," "they refused," "I don't know how." The restatement usually names the wall type.
2. **Restate the problem at two altitudes** before proceeding — one level more abstract (*what job is this serving?*) and one level more concrete (*what literally fails, at which exact step?*). Many walls dissolve at a different altitude; if one does, say so and skip to Step 6.
## Step 3 — Assumption autopsy (always runs)
Run T1 from `references/techniques.md` regardless of wall type: enumerate every assumption embedded in the problem statement, mark each **verified fact** vs **inherited belief**, and attack the beliefs. Most walls die here — the ones that don't are at least correctly framed for Step 4.
## Step 4 — Run the triaged techniques
Pick 2–3 more techniques by wall type (lead techniques in the table; full triage guidance in `references/techniques.md`). For each, generate 2–3 angles.
**Rules of generation:**
- **Quantity gate: minimum 10 angles total before evaluating any.** The first workaround is usually mediocre. No judging, no feasibility talk, no "but" during generation.
- Angles must be **different in kind**, not variations — three flavors of "ask again nicer" is one angle.
- Wild angles are welcome at this stage; they get filtered in Step 5, and they often seed the viable ones.
## Step 5 — Triage the angles
Sort every angle into:
- **Try now** — feasible with what's in hand; has a concrete first action
- **Needs research** — viable if an unknown checks out → route to `/deep-research`
- **Wild but worth 30 min** — low odds, trivial cost, asymmetric payoff
- **Dead** — violates a real constraint (say which)
## Step 6 — Commit
- Pick **1–3 angles** with a concrete next action each.
- If 2+ viable angles are mutually exclusive → hand the fork to `/decide`.
- If NOTHING survived triage and the wall is physics/math class: say so plainly. **"The wall is load-bearing — reroute the goal" is a legitimate, successful output.** Recommend what the rerouted goal looks like.
## Step 7 — Archive
Archives live in `${MAKERSKILLS_CONFIG:-$HOME/.config/makerskills}/unstuck/archive/` (create the directory if missing). Never write archives inside the skill's own folder — skill installs and upgrades re-sync from source and wipe anything saved there.
Write to `<archive dir>/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<slug>.md`:
```markdown
# Wall: <one-line>
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Invoked by:** user | agent
**Wall type:** assumption / framing / gatekeeper / tool / resource / physics
**Goal it blocked:** <one line>
## The wall as stated
<verbatim>
## The wall decompiled
<restated without "impossible">
## Assumptions attacked
- <belief> → <held / broke>
## Techniques run
T1, T4, T7 — <one line on what each surfaced>
## Angles (all of them)
1. <angle> — try now / research / wild / dead
2. …
## Committed
**<the angle(s) chosen>** — next action: <concrete step>
(or: "Wall is load-bearing — rerouted goal to <X>")
## Outcome (fill in later)
<did the angle work?>
```
Append to `<archive dir>/INDEX.md` (create if missing):
```markdown
- 2026-07-14 — [<wall>](./<filename>.md) — <type> — **<committed angle or "rerouted">**
```
Over time this becomes a pattern library: grep it to learn which techniques actually crack *your* walls, and which wall types recur (a recurring wall is usually one unexamined assumption upstream).
## Agent fast path
For when YOU (the agent) hit the wall mid-task. Trigger condition: an API/tool doesn't support what's needed, an approach has failed twice, or you notice a "that's not possible," "unfortunately," or "the only option is" seWhen you want to pressure-test a potential new business, product, or side project against the serial-founder filter. Not \"marketing ideas for a product\" (that's marketing-skills:marketing-ideas) — this is \"should this business exist + can you win it.\" Runs the idea through a structured framework (problem, audience, wedge, monetization, moat, portfolio fit, distribution, energy fit, opportunity cost), checks domain availability via /domain, optionally triggers /deep-research for market validation, and outputs a viability brief: build / sleep on it / pass. Archives every idea to ~/.config/makerskills/business-brainstorm/archive/ so past work is searchable. Triggers on \"/business-brainstorm,\" \"/brainstorm,\" \"new business idea,\" \"should I build X,\" \"pressure test this idea,\" \"validate this idea,\" \"is X a good business,\" \"what about a [type] for [audience].\"
Your team's shared, AI-ready knowledge base — people, companies, meetings, SOPs, and decisions structured so Claude can answer questions on your team's behalf. Team-scope sibling to second-brain (which is personal-scope). Seven modes — capture (drop something into the right structured dir), compile (process into wiki pages, update INDEX.md), query (answer from the corpus with trust weighting, save to outputs/), review (triage queue — verify / deprecate / supersede unreviewed and stale captures so wrong info never becomes context), lint (orphans / stale / contradictions / gaps), connect (suggest new wikilinks), search (quick lookup). Structured raw dirs (people/, companies/, meetings/, sops/, decisions/, customer-language/, recurring-questions/, sales-objections/) instead of second-brain's flat type-prefixed raw/. Multi-author aware — every capture stamps author + timestamp + trust status. Optional auto-sync from Fathom/Gong/Granola call transcripts, Slack/email exports, CRM. Defaults to a vault at ${COMPANY_BRAIN_VAULT:-$HOME/Documents/CompanyBrain}/. Triggers on "/company-brain," "/cb," "capture this into the team brain," "log this meeting," "add this person to the team brain," "save this SOP," "compile the company wiki," "query the team brain," "what does the team know about X," "review the company brain," "cull the team brain," "lint the company brain," "who's the internal expert on X.
Monthly CFO workflow for a company or agency — pull raw data from bank + payment processor + payroll + expense management, categorize and reconcile, compute end-of-month cash via transaction-sum method, update a scenario projector for forward forecasting, write the monthly snapshot report, surface decisions to leadership. Modes — monthly (default; the standing report), weekly (thin cash pulse), scenario (ad-hoc modeling in the projector), pickup (resume where the prior run left off). Anonymized team-scope sibling to personal-cfo (which handles personal household finances). Composes with company-brain (report gets stored + wiki-indexed there), toolify (wire company-specific data sources), loopify (schedule the monthly + weekly runs). Triggers on "/company-cfo," "/cfo," "monthly cash report," "do the CFO snapshot," "CFO monthly," "let's run CFO," "cash projection," "runway forecast," "monthly financials," "cash pulse.
When you have a decision to make and want a structured workflow that picks the load-bearing questions, walks through them, reaches a call (or "wait"), and archives the rationale for future reference. Based on the 37signals Guide to Making Decisions (38 questions) plus house additions like Q39 opportunity cost ("what does saying yes displace?"). Triages to 6–8 relevant questions per decision instead of forcing the full set. Archives every decision to ~/.config/makerskills/decide/archive/ with a revisit date so you can check later whether the call was right. Triggers on "/decide," "help me decide," "should I [X]," "I need to make a decision about," "stuck on a decision," "deciding between," "go/no-go on," "what should I do about." This is both the decision-making workflow AND the decision log — making the decision is the act of logging it.
When you want multi-source, multi-step research on a topic — competitor research before a sales call, market research for a new business idea, positioning angles, due diligence on a partnership or podcast guest, tech decision research (which DB, which auth), or any \"I need to actually understand X.\" Combines WebSearch, WebFetch, agent-browser, /last30days (Reddit/X/YouTube/HN/web recency), memory, and Notion. Outputs a structured brief with citations, contradictions, gaps, and recommended next steps. Archives every research run to ~/.config/makerskills/deep-research/archive/ so past work is searchable. Triggers on \"/deep-research,\" \"research X,\" \"investigate X,\" \"do a deep dive on X,\" \"look into X,\" \"what's actually happening with X,\" \"due diligence on X,\" \"validate this market.\" Differs from a one-shot WebSearch: this is multi-pass with verification.
When you want to brainstorm and check available .com domains for a new project — brand naming, aftermarket pricing (HugeDomains / Afternic / Sedo / Dan), USPTO trademark screening, and social handle availability. Built on Laura Roeder's \"work backwards from availability, not from a name you fell in love with\" methodology. Uses Vercel CLI + whois + Domainr API + Namecheap API + agent-browser for the pieces each tool actually reliably supports (multi-tool ensemble because no single tool covers everything cleanly). 11-step workflow: budget → brainstorm → primary availability check → whois cross-check → Domainr aggregation → Namecheap price → aftermarket sweep (+ liveness probe for parked/dead domains, drop-watch for expiring ones) → bucket → negotiate → NAME research (trademark + socials) → buy. Triggers on \"/domain,\" \"find a domain,\" \"check domain availability,\" \"brainstorm a domain,\" \"what .com is available for X,\" \"domain hunt,\" \"name my project,\" \"is X.com available,\" \"aftermarket price on X.com,\" \"trademark check for X.\"
Gary Vaynerchuk's jab-jab-jab-right-hook framework applied to a personal portfolio rotation on X and LinkedIn. Jabs = build-in-public + educational (value). Hooks = promo (the ask). Each property in the user's configured portfolio (see `~/.config/makerskills/jab-hook/properties.yaml`) gets a hook at least once every ~3 weeks; jabs fill the rest. Drafts go into the user's Typefully workspace via MCP. Modes — plan (7-day plan), pick-next (single post), audit (coverage report), draft (specific post). Triggers on "/jab-hook," "what should I post," "plan my socials," "next promo," "next jab," "next hook," "social rotation," "promote [property]," "BIP post," "audit my socials," "what haven't I posted about.
When you want to set up an agent loop, cron-scheduled task, or recurring workflow that runs autonomously in Claude Code. Judgment layer on top of ScheduleWakeup, CronCreate, and the /loop skill — decides whether to use dynamic pacing (self-scheduling wake-ups), cron scheduling (fixed intervals), or a one-shot loop; tunes delay to avoid the 5-minute cache-miss cliff; designs idempotent loop bodies; sets bail-out conditions so loops don't run forever. Examples of loops to loopify — weekly review pulse, daily brief generation, hourly monitoring of a metric, periodic vault compilation, upstream-check for an adapted skill, sponsorship-pipeline refresh, YouTube-transcript-batch-download, morning startup routine. Triggers on "/loopify," "set up a loop," "schedule this task," "run this daily," "run this weekly," "cron this," "make this recurring," "automate this on a schedule," "keep this running until X." Part of the -ify trifecta (skillify / toolify / loopify) for extending Claude Code. NOT for authoring a new skill — that's skillify. NOT for adding a tool/integration — that's toolify.