steel-manning

Testing & Quality

Steel-Manning Campaign — adversarial verification of convergence decisions through resurrection advocacy, winner stress-testing, criteria interrogation, and multi-perspective attack using Devil's Advocacy, Pre-mortem, Red Teaming, Dialectical Inquiry methods.

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Steel-Manning

Adversarial verification of convergence decisions. This campaign subjects winners, criteria, and rejected alternatives to rigorous challenge — ensuring that final decisions survive the strongest possible counter-arguments rather than merely the weakest objections.

The campaign deploys four complementary attack vectors: resurrecting rejected candidates to test whether elimination was justified, stress-testing winners to find hidden weaknesses, interrogating the criteria framework itself, and simulating stakeholder objections for political feasibility.

Strategy Routing

Signal	Strategy
resurrect rejected candidates / give losers a fair hearing	resurrection-advocacy
stress-test the winner / find weaknesses in top pick	winner-stress-testing
challenge the criteria themselves / meta-level questioning	criteria-interrogation
simulate stakeholder objections / political feasibility	stakeholder-objection-simulation
construct strongest counter-argument / dialectical challenge	counter-thesis-construction

Manifest

Strategies

Strategy	Method Lineage
resurrection-advocacy	Devil's Advocacy, Dialectical Inquiry, Adversarial Collaboration (Kahneman)
winner-stress-testing	Pre-mortem (Klein), Red Teaming, Failure Mode Analysis
criteria-interrogation	Assumption-based Planning, Critical Systems Heuristics, Boundary Critique
stakeholder-objection-simulation	Role-play, Stakeholder Analysis, Political Feasibility
counter-thesis-construction	Dialectical Inquiry, Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis, Adversarial Debate

Tactics

Tactic	SOPs Used
adversarial-debate-protocol	advocate-construction, critic-attack, judge-verdict
assumption-excavation	assumption-extraction, assumption-challenge, conclusion-sensitivity
multi-perspective-attack	perspective-assignment, perspective-attack, steel-manning-synthesis

SOPs

SOP	Input	Output	Shareable
advocate-construction	rejected_candidate, context	strongest_case_for_resurrection	validation
critic-attack	winner, advocate_case	attack_arguments[], severity_ratings	validation
judge-verdict	advocate_case, critic_attacks	verdict, reasoning, conditions	validation
assumption-extraction	decision, evidence	assumptions[], confidence_levels	—
assumption-challenge	assumption	challenge_argument, alternative, impact_if_wrong	—
conclusion-sensitivity	assumptions[], challenges[]	sensitivity_map, critical_assumptions[]	—
perspective-assignment	decision, stakeholders	perspective_briefs[]	—
perspective-attack	decision, perspective_brief	attacks[], constructive_alternatives[]	—
steel-manning-synthesis	all_attacks, all_verdicts	final_verdict, surviving_concerns, modifications	—

Budget Table (M Tier)

Metric	Minimum
Attack perspectives	>= 3 distinct angles
Debate rounds	>= 2 per contested decision
Assumptions challenged	>= 5 per winner
Final verdict	Explicit ACCEPT / REJECT / REVISE with evidence

MCP Tools

mcp__wiki-vault__vault_search — retrieve prior decisions and context
mcp__wiki-vault__vault_query_graph — trace dependency chains for impact analysis
mcp__wiki-vault__vault_add_edge — record challenge relationships

Context Management

The campaign maintains a Challenge Ledger tracking:

Which decisions have been challenged
Attack vectors applied to each
Verdicts rendered and their conditions
Surviving concerns requiring monitoring

State is passed between strategies via the ledger. Each strategy updates it upon completion.

Available Strategies

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.

Strategy	When to use
counter-thesis-construction	Construct the strongest possible counter-argument to the convergence decision using Dialectical Inquiry and Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis methods.
criteria-interrogation	Challenge the evaluation criteria themselves using Assumption-based Planning, Critical Systems Heuristics, and Boundary Critique to ensure the framework is sound.
resurrection-advocacy	Argue for rejected candidates using Devil's Advocacy, Dialectical Inquiry, and Adversarial Collaboration to ensure elimination was justified.
stakeholder-objection-simulation	Simulate stakeholder objections through role-play and political feasibility analysis to test whether the decision survives real-world opposition.
winner-stress-testing	Stress-test the winning candidate using Pre-mortem, Red Teaming, and Failure Mode Analysis to expose hidden weaknesses before commitment.

Available SOPs

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.

SOP	When to use
context-checkpoint	Append research process and results to the current Phase's context file. Each append MUST contain >=500 lines of markdown covering both process and results. Use this skill at plan-designated checkpoint points — typically after each strategy completes or at key decision nodes within a research Phase.
context-init	Create a new context file for a research Phase. Called once at Phase start to initialize the file that subsequent context-checkpoint calls will append to. Use this skill whenever a new research Phase begins and a fresh context file is needed.
convergence-multi-stakeholder-simulation	Simulates diverse stakeholder perspectives and their strongest objections/support arguments. Shared across steel-manning and consensus campaigns.
convergence-saturation-detection	Determines when to stop iterating — coverage threshold met or marginal returns diminishing. Shared across all campaigns.
convergence-sensitivity-analysis	Tests conclusion robustness by perturbing parameters and observing rank changes. Shared across scoring, portfolio, and steel-manning campaigns.