dside 🧠

Decide better. A Claude Skill that helps you reason through real decisions using 118 proven mental models.

You describe a dilemma — "can I go to another job or find a bonus in the current one?" — and dside finds the mental models that best fit your situation, lets you pick one, and applies it to your specific circumstances. No generic textbook definitions: an actual lens on your actual decision.

How it works

You:    /dside should I take the startup offer or stay at my stable job?

dside:  Here are 3 mental models that fit your situation:
        1. Opportunity Cost (Finance) — what you give up by staying is the real price.
        2. Regret Minimization (Decision) — which choice will 80-year-old you regret less?
        3. Asymmetry of Risk (Strategy) — compare the downside vs the upside of each path.

        Which one do you want to apply? (1–3, or ask for other options.)

You:    2

dside:  [applies Regret Minimization to your specific job decision...]

1. Describe your situation with /dside <your decision>.
2. dside recommends up to 3 mental models with a one-line reason each.
3. You pick one — dside fills a template applied to your situation.
4. Keep going — refine, apply another model, or commit to the decision.

The library

All 118 mental models live in references/mental-models.json, sourced from the excellent 8020.app library. Each model includes:

Field	Meaning
name	The mental model's name
category	One of: Productivity, Strategy, Decision, Finance, Business, Personal, Psychology
description	One-line summary
explanation	What the model means
example	A concrete real-world example
application	How to actually use it

Category breakdown: Psychology (29), Strategy (21), Productivity (18), Decision (17), Business (15), Personal (10), Finance (8).

Install

Copy this folder into a Claude skills directory:

# Personal (all your projects):
cp -r dside ~/.claude/skills/dside

# Project-scoped (one repo only):
cp -r dside .claude/skills/dside

# Via npx
npx skills add henriquesss/dside

Claude discovers the skill automatically by reading SKILL.md. Start a new session and either invoke /dside <situation> or just describe a decision.

Structure

dside/
├── SKILL.md                       # Entry point: the decision flow (required)
├── references/
│   └── mental-models.json         # All 118 mental models
├── assets/
│   └── model-template.md          # Template filled in when applying a model
├── README.md                      # This file (for humans)
├── LICENSE
└── .github/
    └── ISSUE_TEMPLATE/            # Templates for contributors

Contributing

This is for the community — contributions welcome! 🙌

• Add or correct a mental model? Edit references/mental-models.json (keep the field shape consistent) and open a PR.
• Improve the matching logic or template? Edit SKILL.md / assets/model-template.md.
• Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue — we have templates for bugs, new models, and feature requests.

Please keep model data faithful to its source and avoid duplicates (check the slug field).

Credits

Mental models data from 8020.app — a wonderful tool for idea evaluation and task prioritization. This project simply makes that library usable as a Claude Skill.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.