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premortem

premortem

github.com/neurofooProductivity123127 installsUpdated 41w ago
Repository

About premortem

premortem is a skill for examining a plan by imagining that it has failed and tracing possible causes backward. It helps teams prioritize risks, identify warning signs, and define prevention and mitigation steps with owners.

Key features

  1. 01Imagine a failed future outcome
  2. 02Generate failure scenarios by category
  3. 03Prioritize likelihood and impact
  4. 04Define warnings and mitigations
  5. 05Assign risk owners

Use cases

  1. 01Reviewing a project plan
  2. 02Identifying launch risks
  3. 03Preparing contingency measures

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/neurofoo/agent-skills --skill premortem

After installing, type/premortemin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Details

From the project README

Pre-Mortem Analysis

Imagine the plan has completely failed, then work backward to identify what went wrong and how to prevent it.

Instructions

Set the scene: "It's [timeframe] in the future. This initiative was a complete disaster. Looking back, what happened?"

Generate failure scenarios without filtering for likelihood—get everything on the table first, then prioritize.

Output Format

The Plan Summarize what's being attempted and the success criteria.

Time Jump "It's [X months] later. This has failed completely. The outcome: [describe the disaster vividly]."

What Went Wrong

Generate 8-12 plausible failure causes across categories:

CategoryFailure ModeHow It Played Out
Execution[What failed][The story of how]
External[What failed][The story of how]
People[What failed][The story of how]
Technical[What failed][The story of how]
Assumptions[What failed][The story of how]

Risk Prioritization

Failure ModeLikelihoodImpactPriority
...High/Med/LowHigh/Med/Low1-5

Top 3 Risks & Mitigations

For each top risk:

  • Risk: [Description]
  • Early Warning Signs: What would indicate this is happening?
  • Prevention: How to reduce likelihood
  • Mitigation: How to reduce impact if it occurs
  • Owner: Who's responsible for watching this?

Pre-Mortem Insights What did this exercise reveal that wasn't obvious before?

Revised Confidence After this analysis, how confident are you in success? What would increase confidence?

Guidelines

  • Be vivid and specific—"the database corrupted" not "something went wrong"
  • Include uncomfortable possibilities (key person leaves, competitor moves, we were wrong)
  • Don't filter for "that won't happen"—the point is to surface hidden concerns
  • Assign real owners to mitigations
  • Look for single points of failure

$ARGUMENTS

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