holmes

🔍 Holmes

An agent skill that reads a photo the way Sherlock Holmes reads a stranger, and shows its work.

A real desk photo. It wrote 16 observations and sealed the list before reasoning. Six conclusions followed, each citing its evidence. The desk's owner graded them: 5 hits, 1 miss, 0 made-up observations.

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Quick start

npx skills add Oldcircle/holmes-skill

Pick your agents when prompted. Then give your agent a photo of your desk, your room or yourself and say:

Read this like Sherlock Holmes.

The agent lists what it can see, seals that list, and only then starts to reason. Every conclusion names the observations it stands on and offers another explanation for the same marks. You mark each one hit, half or miss. Prefer to copy the folder yourself? See Installation.

Why Holmes

• It looks first and thinks second. Everything it can see goes on a numbered list, and the list is sealed before the trace library is opened. A model that already knows it is looking for a runner will find running shoes that are not there.
• Every conclusion shows its evidence. Each one cites observation numbers, gives a chain of at most three steps, a calibrated confidence, and an alternative explanation. A conclusion that needs something off the list is dropped.
• You grade it. Hit, half or miss for each conclusion, and a flag for any observation that is not in the photo. It reports two numbers: the hit rate, and the false-observation rate, which matters more.
• It commits. At least one conclusion has to combine two or more unrelated observations, and one or two have to be bold bets stated without hedging.
• Marks, never looks. Reading a person, it records what their habits left behind: pressure marks, tan lines, wear, calluses, which wrist the watch is on. Faces, bodies, age, ethnicity and health stay off the list.
• No API key, no server. The skill is one Markdown file and a trace library. The model your agent already uses does the looking.
• One skill, every agent. A standard Agent Skill, so the same folder works in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and GitHub Copilot.

Two real photos

Both photos were read with this skill and graded line by line by the person they belong to.

The desk

Before any reasoning it wrote 16 observations. Two of them look like filler: a red can standing on the mouse pad, and the desk edge is unusually thick, with a metal frame and a hanging cable underneath.

The second one became a conclusion: "This is an electric standing desk." An ordinary desk has no reason to be plugged in. The owner confirmed it.

The first one went into the only miss. D3 said the desktop on the right had not been turned on today. Its three reasons were all true: the screen was dark, the keyboard was pushed at an angle onto the mouse pad, and a can was standing on the pad. The owner's answer was "It's off now, but I used it at noon." The marks supported "not in use right now", and the claim said "not used today". That miss is now a rule in SKILL.md: a claim may not reach further in time than its marks support.

The selfie

The face is in the middle of the frame. Of the 13 observations, 4 are about the person (glasses, an ear cuff, a waffle-knit shirt, stubble) and 9 are about the room behind them. None of them describes facial features.

The conclusion the owner did not expect: "You didn't furnish this room. You just use it as a workspace." The bookcase and the door frame are one matched rosewood set, fitted when the flat was decorated. The shelves hold boxed book sets, framed calligraphy and photo frames, which is a display. The one piece of furniture that does not match is the pale teal office chair behind the owner, and that chair is the thing they brought in.

Two of the five conclusions come from the room alone, and none is drawn from facial features.

Case No. 0910-1720 · Scene: desk · 16 observations

── Observations ──
O1  [high] Two screens side by side on the left: a dark terminal, a light beige web page
           · back of the desk
O2  [high] A large screen on the right, completely dark, on a white arm · back right
O3  [high] A dark laptop open in the middle, plugged in · center
O4  [high] White-and-blue mechanical keyboard with a pink-and-white wrist rest, angled
           across the mouse pad, facing none of the screens · right
O5  [high] Black mouse pad printed with "LPL", a trophy and an alien head · right
O6  [high] A red can standing on the mouse pad, right next to the keyboard
           · right of the keyboard
O7  [high] White gaming mouse at the far right of the pad · right end of the pad
O8  [high] Black tower glowing blue, white over-ear headphones hanging beside it · far right
O9  [high] Pale teal ceramic mug next to the right monitor arm, away from the keyboard
           · back right
O10 [med]  An empty black phone stand · front left
O11 [med]  A metal bead chain and a key on the left of the desk · left
O12 [high] A white cable coiled on the left, a black cable coiled in front of the right
           screen · left, center right
O13 [med]  A flat white oblong device in front of the laptop · front left of the laptop
O14 [med]  The desk edge is unu