⏳ This skill is pending AI review.

Scores will appear once the review pipeline completes.

version unknown

whiteboard

@avestura⭐ 5 stars

Produces a "whiteboard defense" brief after substantial coding, design, or content work, so the user can explain and defend what was shipped. Lists the decisions made, who made each one (user, inferred, or the agent's default), the alternatives not taken, failure modes, and questions the user should be able to answer. Flags where the agent silently relied on a default (the usual logo, slide-deck format, UI style, library choice, architecture). Use at the end of any substantial task that is, or may become, customer-facing; when the user asks "what did you decide", "what should I know about this", "whiteboard", "defend this", or "quiz me"; or via /whiteboard (in Claude Code the skill name is whiteboard-defense:whiteboard, so invoke it with that full name). Skip for PoCs, demos, and throwaway experiments the user has said they do not need to understand.

Choose how to use this skill

You do not need every option. Choose the path your AI client supports. The stable page stays the same; versioned files are immutable.

Adopt or update this skill from https://proskills.md/skills/other/avestura-whiteboard-defense-plugins-whiteboard-defense-skills-whiteboard. First identify the installation path supported by this platform, detect whether it is already installed, compare the installed version with the latest stable release, show me what will change, and only then install or update it. If no native installer is available, use the complete package or source fallback described on the page.

1. Native installer

This listing has no registered native installer command. Use the complete package or source fallback below, depending on what your client supports.

Do not guess an installer command or replace an existing version without reviewing the diff.

2. Complete package recommended

Download the ZIP when available. It includes SKILL.md plus the references, security notes and version metadata.

No complete ProSkills package is published for this listing yet.

3. Prompt-only

Copy the prompt above when the agent can read the stable page or when you want to adopt the workflow without installing a skill.

Need only the instruction file?

Download SKILL.md only if your client requires a single file. The complete ZIP is safer for a full installation because it preserves the references and release context.

No path installs or executes anything by itself. Your agent still needs access to the project files. Before updating, compare the installed version and review the diff.

—/10

// RATINGS

⭐GitHub Stars

⭐ 5 on GitHubGitHub ↗

New / niche

🟢ProSkills Score

—

📍

Not yet listed on ClawHub or SkillsMP

// README

Whiteboard Defense

Know what your AI agent built, and where it just used its defaults.

A skill and plugin for Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode. After substantial work, it briefs you on how the thing works, which decisions were made, who made each one (you, the context, or the agent's habit), where it fails, and the questions you should be able to answer if someone pulled you aside at a whiteboard.

Site: https://github.avestura.dev/whiteboard-defense/

Why

Mitchell Hashimoto's whiteboard defense: you should be able to explain any customer-facing system you shipped and defend its decisions, even if you did not write the code. PoCs and demos are exempt. Anything customers touch is not.

Agents make dozens of decisions you never see. Many are not decisions at all, but defaults: the same logo idea, the same slide-deck mechanics, the same stack. Anthropic's own advice for Opus 5.5 is to name the styles you do not want, because a general "avoid generic" mostly swaps one default for another. This project extends that idea past design: it tells you where defaults were used, so you can steer next time.

Install

One command. It installs for every supported agent it finds on your PATH.

macOS / Linux / Git Bash:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/avestura/whiteboard-defense/main/install.sh | sh

Windows PowerShell:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/avestura/whiteboard-defense/main/install.ps1 | iex

Pick agents explicitly: ... | sh -s -- claude codex opencode. Remove with --uninstall.

Per agent, manually

Claude Code

claude plugin marketplace add avestura/whiteboard-defense
claude plugin install whiteboard-defense@whiteboard-defense

Run it with /whiteboard-defense:whiteboard.

Codex: copy the skill into your personal skills directory, then run $whiteboard.

git clone https://github.com/avestura/whiteboard-defense && cp -r whiteboard-defense/plugins/whiteboard-defense/skills/whiteboard ~/.agents/skills/

There is also a Codex plugin marketplace entry: codex plugin marketplace add avestura/whiteboard-defense, then install it from the plugins directory in the app.

OpenCode: same skill directory (~/.agents/skills is read by OpenCode too), plus the command file.

cp -r whiteboard-defense/plugins/whiteboard-defense/skills/whiteboard ~/.agents/skills/
cp whiteboard-defense/opencode/commands/whiteboard.md ~/.config/opencode/commands/

Run it with /whiteboard.

Use

Command	What you get
(automatic)	A short digest after each substantial task. Chat-only digest, full brief saved to `.whiteboard/`.
`/whiteboard`	Full brief for the current work.
`/whiteboard full <PR, branch, or path>`	Full brief for something that already exists.
`/whiteboard defaults`	Only the "defaults I relied on" section, with paste-ready `Avoid:` lines.
`/whiteboard quiz`	One question at a time, graded against the real code.
`/whiteboard config`	Show or change preferences.

(Claude Code prefixes the plugin name: /whiteboard-defense:whiteboard. Codex uses $whiteboard.)

A brief tags every decision:

[USER]: you asked for it.
[INFERRED]: context forced it (evidence named).
[DEFAULT]: you did not specify it and the agent went with its habit.
[GUESS]: the agent was unsure.

See examples/sample-brief.md.

Preferences

Create .whiteboard/config.json in a project, or ~/.config/whiteboard-defense/config.json globally. Or just tell the agent "turn off automatic whiteboard briefs".

{
  "auto": "short",
  "output": "both",
  "directory": ".whiteboard",
  "minimumSize": "substantial"
}

auto: short (default, a cheap chat-only digest), full, suggest (Claude Code: a "Brief me" button, no extra turn), or off
output: both (default), chat, or file
tier: set "poc" to skip automatic briefs in a project that is a demo

Claude Code: rich UI

In Claude Code the plugin also draws in the interface. This is on by default:

A band above the prompt: N files changed since last brief [Brief me], then after a brief, 8 decisions · 2 DEFAULT · 1 GUESS [Open] [Quiz me] [Hide].
A brief pane (Open): every decision with its colored tag, each default with its catalogue ID and a copy button for its Avoid: line, the weakest point, and the question to be ready for.
A status line entry: wb: 2 default, 1 guess.
Reliable automatic briefs: the plugin counts the lines changed by edits, and when a turn ends past the threshold (30 lines by default) it asks for a short brief. Edits to .whiteboard/ are not counted, and auto: "off" or tier: "poc" in .whiteboard/config.json turn it off; auto: "suggest" keeps the button but spends no tokens until you press it.

Switch back to the plain skill at any time:

/whiteboard-ui prompt     # skill only: no band, pane, status or automatic trigger
/whiteboard-ui rich       # back to the UI

The same settings (ui, auto, autoThreshold) are rows in /config.

Codex and OpenCode use the skill alone. OpenCode's v2 plugin API has UI slots and panels too; a port is possible but not built yet.

What this can and cannot do

Honest limits, because a tool about honesty should have them:

The agent cannot see its own weights. [DEFAULT] means "you did not specify it, nothing forced it, and it matches a habitual pattern" and not "proven model bias".
The "why" is reconstructed from the conversation and the diff. It is usually right and can still be wrong. Shaky reconstructions are tagged [GUESS].
The defaults catalogue is the strongest piece and also the least complete. It is community-extendable. See CONTRIBUTING.md.
It does not replace reading the parts that matter. It tells you where to look.
In Codex, OpenCode, and Claude Code's prompt mode, automatic briefs depend on the agent honoring the skill description, which is probabilistic. If one is skipped, run /whiteboard. Claude Code's rich UI triggers them from the plugin instead.

Repository layout

.claude-plugin/marketplace.json        Claude Code marketplace
.agents/plugins/marketplace.json       Codex marketplace
plugins/whiteboard-defense/
  .claude-plugin/plugin.json           Claude Code manifest
  plugin.json                          Codex / portable manifest
  hooks/register.tsx                   Claude Code UI: band, pane, status, auto-trigger
  types/index.d.ts                     its state contract
  tests/register.test.ts               run with: claude plugin test plugins/whiteboard-defense
  skills/whiteboard/
    SKILL.md                           the skill (shared by all three agents)
    references/defaults-catalogue.md   known default patterns
    references/brief-template.md
opencode/commands/whiteboard.md        OpenCode slash command
evals/                                 catalogue-matching regression evals (real sessions)
scripts/catalogue-index.mjs            regenerates the catalogue index inside SKILL.md
install.sh, install.ps1                one-command installers
docs/                                  GitHub Pages site

License

MIT

// HOW IT'S BUILT

KEY FILES

plugins/whiteboard-defense/skills/whiteboard/SKILL.mdREADME.md

// REPO STATS

5 stars

// SHARE

Share on X Share on LinkedIn