Credit: Based on the original concept by @typememetics
Overview
Credit: Based on the original concept by @typememetics Decomposed reasoning with explicit confidence scoring for AI coding assistants. Standard prompting gives you an answer. Balls Mode gives you: - Multiple reasoning paths - Explicit uncertainty - Clear points of failure Copy the skill file to your Codex skills directory: Copy plugins/balls-mode/skills/balls/SKILL.md to your tool's skills directory. 1. - Is this trivial or complex? 2. - Break into verifiable units (balls) 3. - Answer each independently 4. - Assign confidence (0.0-1.0) 5. - Combine with uncertainty tracking - Architectural decisions - Debugging complex issues - Code review concerns - Technology choices - Any question where you want to see the reasoning, not just the answer - "What's 2 + 2?" - "How do I install npm?" - Simple factual questions
README
Balls Mode
Credit: Based on the original concept by @typememetics
Decomposed reasoning with explicit confidence scoring for AI coding assistants.
What is this?
Standard prompting gives you an answer. Balls Mode gives you:
- Multiple reasoning paths
- Explicit uncertainty
- Clear points of failure
Installation
Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add gbasin/balls-mode
/plugin install balls-mode
Codex
Copy the skill file to your Codex skills directory:
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills/balls-mode
cp plugins/balls-mode/skills/balls/SKILL.md ~/.codex/skills/balls-mode/
Manual
Copy plugins/balls-mode/skills/balls/SKILL.md to your tool’s skills directory.
Usage
/balls Should I rewrite this service in Go?
The Protocol
- CLASSIFY - Is this trivial or complex?
- DECOMPOSE - Break into verifiable units (balls)
- SOLVE & VERIFY - Answer each independently
- SCORE - Assign confidence (0.0-1.0)
- SYNTHESIZE - Combine with uncertainty tracking
Example Output
## Decomposition
| # | Ball | Why it matters |
|---|------|----------------|
| 1 | What's the current pain point? | Determines if rewrite addresses real issue |
| 2 | Team's Go experience? | Affects timeline and quality |
| 3 | Service complexity? | Rewrite effort estimation |
## Analysis
| Ball | Answer | Confidence | Notes |
|------|--------|------------|-------|
| Current pain point | Memory usage in Python | 0.7 | Based on user context |
| Team Go experience | Unknown | 0.2 | Need to ask |
| Service complexity | ~5k LOC, moderate | 0.8 | Reviewed codebase |
## Synthesis
**Answer**: Possibly worth it if the team has Go experience. Memory improvements would be significant.
**Overall Confidence**: 0.45
**Weakest Link**: Team experience unknown - this determines feasibility.
**To increase confidence**: Clarify team's Go background.
When to Use
- Architectural decisions
- Debugging complex issues
- Code review concerns
- Technology choices
- Any question where you want to see the reasoning, not just the answer
When NOT to Use
- “What’s 2 + 2?”
- “How do I install npm?”
- Simple factual questions
Confidence Score Guide
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0.9-1.0 | Verifiable fact or logical certainty |
| 0.7-0.89 | Strong evidence, established patterns |
| 0.5-0.69 | Reasonable inference, some uncertainty |
| 0.3-0.49 | Educated guess, significant unknowns |
| 0.0-0.29 | Speculation, insufficient information |
Philosophy
“What if a system could check its own work from multiple angles before giving you an answer? Not just ‘think step by step.’ Actually decompose. Actually verify. Actually flag uncertainty.”
License
MIT
Recommended Tools
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Install
npx skillfish add gbasin/balls-mode