Skills Guide

Six Thinking Hats Analysis

VerifiedSafe

Explore a topic from all six perspectives: facts, feelings, caution, benefits, creativity, and process.

Download and use
Sby Skills Guide Bot
ProductivityBeginner
7/28/2026
Claude Code
#decision-making#six-thinking-hats#brainstorming#critical-thinking#facilitation

Recommended for

Claude CodeProduct managerBeginnerProductivitySolo / indie hacker

Automated summary

Walks a topic through the six thinking hats (facts, feelings, caution, benefits, creativity, process) and produces a structured six-section analysis ending in a recommendation.

Strengths

  • Fixed, complete output template with tables for risks (likelihood/severity) and benefits (stakeholder/magnitude)
  • Explicitly separates facts from feelings and forbids justification on the Red Hat and criticism on the Green Hat
  • Closes with a summary table of all six perspectives plus concrete next steps
  • The topic is passed directly through $ARGUMENTS, so it is reusable as-is

Limitations

  • Just a prompt template: White Hat 'facts' come from the model or supplied context, not from real data gathering
  • The mandated equal time per hat can produce padding on a simple decision
  • Simulates all perspectives on its own; there is no facilitation mechanic for a real group wearing the hats
When to use it

Use it to frame an ambiguous decision or team choice while making sure no angle (risks, feelings, alternatives) gets skipped.

When not to use it

Avoid it for a simple factual question or an urgent situation that needs a direct answer rather than a six-pass exploration.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score88/100

The skill is a pure structured-thinking template with no declared tools, no executable code, no network access, and no file or system operations. It only provides prompt structure for exploring a topic via the Six Hats method, so it presents no execution or exfiltration risk.

No concerns found

How this analysis is made

Examples

Go/no-go on a migration
/sixhats Should we migrate our monolith to microservices next quarter?
Team decision under pressure
/sixhats We need to decide whether to ship the beta to all users on Friday or delay two weeks.
Personal career choice
/sixhats I'm considering leaving my job to freelance full-time — run the six hats on it.

name: sixhats description: Six Thinking Hats parallel thinking—explore from six perspectives (facts, feelings, caution, benefits, creativity, process). Use for group decisions or ensuring all angles are considered. user-invocable: true

Six Thinking Hats Analysis

Explore a topic from all six perspectives—facts, feelings, caution, benefits, creativity, and process.

Instructions

Work through each hat sequentially, giving full attention to one perspective before moving to the next. This is parallel thinking, not debate.

Output Format

Topic: [What we're exploring]

White Hat: Facts and Information

What do we know? What data do we have?

Known Facts

  • [Fact 1]
  • [Fact 2]

Information Gaps

  • What don't we know? [Gap]
  • How could we find out? [Method]

Red Hat: Feelings and Intuition

How do we feel about this? What does gut instinct say?

Emotional Reactions

  • [Feeling 1]
  • [Feeling 2]

Intuitions

  • My gut says [intuition]

No justification needed—this hat is about feelings, not reasons.

Black Hat: Caution and Critical Thinking

What could go wrong? What are the risks and problems?

Risks | Risk | Likelihood | Severity | |------|------------|----------| | [risk] | High/Med/Low | High/Med/Low |

Why It Might Fail

  • [Reason 1]
  • [Reason 2]

Yellow Hat: Benefits and Optimism

What's good about this? What value does it offer?

Benefits | Benefit | Who Benefits | Magnitude | |---------|--------------|-----------| | [benefit] | [stakeholder] | High/Med/Low |

Best Case Scenario If everything goes well: [description]

Green Hat: Creativity and Alternatives

What else is possible? What new ideas emerge?

Alternative Approaches

  • [Alternative 1]
  • [Alternative 2]

Wild Ideas (don't filter)

  • [Crazy idea 1]
  • [Crazy idea 2]

Blue Hat: Process and Meta-Thinking

What have we learned? What should we do next?

Summary of Perspectives | Hat | Key Insight | |-----|-------------| | White | [main data point] | | Red | [main feeling] | | Black | [main concern] | | Yellow | [main benefit] | | Green | [best alternative] |

Recommended Next Steps

  1. [Action 1]
  2. [Action 2]

Decision/Direction Based on all six perspectives:

[Recommendation or decision]

Guidelines

  • Spend equal time on each hat (resist over-using Black)
  • Red Hat requires NO justification—feelings are valid input
  • Green Hat means no criticism—all ideas welcome
  • Everyone wears the same hat at the same time

$ARGUMENTS

From the file to a first result

The download contains exactly the content displayed on this page. This copy may differ from the latest version in the source repository.

View the source and supporting files

This download contains SKILL.md only. Any scripts, references, templates and dependencies are not included. Get the required files from the source, preserving their directory structure, before continuing.

1. Download the file

Download SKILL.md

From the root of a test project, save the file as .skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84/SKILL.md, or use the command below. This folder is for inspecting the skill before installation.

Command for macOS/Linux or WSL: requires a POSIX shell and curl. On Windows without WSL, use the download button and create the folder manually.

mkdir -p '.skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84' && curl --fail --show-error --location 'https://skills-guides.com/api/skills/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84/download' --output '.skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84/SKILL.md.part' && mv '.skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84/SKILL.md.part' '.skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84/SKILL.md'

2. Check prerequisites

Read SKILL.md before using it. If it references scripts or external services, inspect them and prepare the required access in your test environment.

No recognized prerequisites section in this file. This does not mean it is self-contained: libraries, tools and access requirements may be mentioned elsewhere in the content or source repository.

The platforms on this page are catalog indications. The paths below follow tool documentation; they do not prove this skill has been run in those tools. No minimum tool version is confirmed for this listing.

3. Load the skill

After inspection, copy the complete folder into your project using one of the commands below, then open a new tool session. The command stops if a folder with the same name already exists: compare the files before replacing it.

Claude Code
test -f '.skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.claude/skills' && test ! -e '.claude/skills/sixhats' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84' '.claude/skills/sixhats'

OpenSkills

OpenSkills must already be installed. The local install/read procedure is checked with OpenSkills 1.5.0, which requires Node.js ≥ 20.6.0. Catalog slugs are not resolved automatically.

Official OpenSkills installation
openskills install './.skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84'

openskills read 'six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84'

Reading should display the installed file content and its base directory. It does not run the skill or install its dependencies.

For an agent that reads AGENTS.md, then sync the index. This command changes AGENTS.md: review the diff before using it.

openskills sync

Manual method or another tool: attach SKILL.md to a conversation, or open it in an agent that can read files. Include any required supporting resources. No universal folder is recognized by every tool.

4. Try a first task

Use a short, synthetic input: an API endpoint, a small document or an interface brief. In a new conversation, attach the file or give the agent its path, then adapt this request:

Read .skill-downloads/six-thinking-hats-analysis-ms47vp84/SKILL.md and apply its instructions to this example: [describe a test input]. Identify any missing files, dependencies or access. Produce the result requested by the skill without inventing data or running unreviewed scripts.

Expected result: output matching the skill instructions, or a precise list of missing prerequisites. A read confirmation alone does not validate a first use. If an external resource is unavailable, that path remains untested.

Related skills

PDF Reader

Productivity

Read and extract text from PDF files, including documents, reports, contracts, and spreadsheets. Works with local files, URLs, and WhatsApp attachments. Use whenever PDF content is needed, even if not explicitly requested.

Claude CodeCursorCodexbeginnerSafe 20,122
Skills Guide Bot

Discord Messaging Workflows

Productivity

Use the message tool to send, edit, and moderate Discord messages with interactive components.

Claude CodeintermediateSafe 388,021
Skills Guide Bot

Interactive Verdict Preview

Productivity

Generate an interactive HTML preview of keep/drop verdicts for maintainer review, then process the pasted feedback JSON.

Claude CodeintermediateSafe 316,798
Skills Guide Bot