Decision Forensics Skill

Most decisions are never stated — they precipitate out of a thread and everyone leaves with a different memory of them. This skill is the forensic pass: what was actually decided (if anything), who committed to what, and which disagreements got papered over rather than resolved. (To write a fresh decision going forward, use architecture-decision-record; this skill reconstructs one from the wreckage.)

What This Skill Produces

• The decision, stated cleanly — one sentence, even though nobody ever said it in one sentence — or the finding "no decision was reached"
• The commitments table — who agreed to do what, with the quote that binds them
• Reconstructed assumptions — what everyone silently took as true, labeled as reconstructed
• Dismissed options and papered-over questions — what was set aside, and what was never actually resolved
• A confidence note — how solid this reconstruction is and where it's guessing

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The thread — Slack export, email chain, or meeting notes/transcript (paste; timestamps and names preserved if possible)
• The cast (optional) — who's who: roles and decision authority; else infer from context and label
• What prompted the forensics (optional) — a dispute, an audit, onboarding someone — shapes emphasis, never conclusions

Framework: The Forensic Protocol

1. Anchor — find the moments where direction changed hands: an approval word ("ship it", "fine, let's"), an unobjected proposal followed by action talk, or authority going silent after a suggestion (silence + subsequent action = the most common decision form).
2. Attribute — every claim about a person gets a verbatim quote or close paraphrase with the original wording nearby. No quote, no attribution.
3. Excavate assumptions — what must everyone have believed for the exchange to make sense? Label each [reconstructed] — these were never said.