MIT Reasoning Lite

Provides a 3-step reasoning scaffold prompting agents to clarify objectives, check constraints, and articulate reasoning before significant decisions.

MIT Reasoning Lite — Free Agent Decision Framework

Your AI agents are making decisions right now. Do you know how?

MIT Reasoning Lite gives your agents a 3-step reasoning scaffold that stops them from taking shortcuts you'll regret.

What This Skill Does

Forces structured thinking before action. Three steps, drop-in install, no configuration required.

The 3-Step Scaffold

Step 1 — Clarify the Objective What is actually being asked? Not the surface request — the real intent. What outcome are we optimizing for?

Step 2 — Check Constraints What rules, limits, history, or context applies to this decision? What's out of bounds?

Step 3 — Reason Before Acting Articulate the reasoning before taking action. Show the work. If the reasoning doesn't hold up, the action doesn't happen.

When to Use

Add this to your agent's SKILL.md or AGENTS.md to activate for any significant decision:

• Actions that affect external parties (sending emails, posting content, client communications)
• Actions that are difficult to reverse (file changes, purchases, delegations)
• Situations with ambiguous instructions
• Any time an agent has had a "why did it do that?" moment before

Install

npx clawhub@latest install mit-reasoning-lite

Or manually: copy SKILL.md to your agent workspace.

Usage

Reference in AGENTS.md:

Before any significant decision or action, apply MIT Reasoning Lite:
1. Clarify the real objective (not just the surface request)
2. Check all constraints and rules that apply
3. State your reasoning before acting

Part of Trust AI Suite

MIT Reasoning Lite is the entry point to the Trust AI framework:

Free skills (ClawHub):

• Accountable AI — governance & accountability
• Proof of Work — verify agents completed what they claimed
• MIT Reasoning Lite (this) — structured decision-making

Full version — MIT Reasoning ($19 on ClawMart):

• 9-step full reasoning framework with branching logic
• Decision logging with timestamped rationale
• Uncertainty escalation (agent flags low-confidence decisions)
• Cross-agent consistency checks
• 6 pre-built decision templates

→ Full suite: Trust AI Stack on ClawMart