🦅 Leap of Faith

Decision Guidance Agent Skill for the Age of Uncertainty

When data runs out, wisdom begins.

English · 中文 · Philosophy · Install Guide · Examples

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What is Leap of Faith?

An open-source Agent Skill that guides you through high-stakes decisions when rational analysis alone isn't enough.

Most AI tools give you pros/cons lists and say "the decision is yours." Leap of Faith goes further — it surfaces the knowledge you already carry but can't articulate, names what's truly unknowable, and delivers a clear recommendation with conditions and stop-loss.

Built on two philosophical pillars:

• Kierkegaard's Leap of Faith — Recognizing that reason has limits, and at the boundary, you must commit
• Polanyi's Tacit Knowledge — Surfacing the intuition, experience, and bodily wisdom you carry but can't articulate

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Who Is This For?

🏢 Founders & CEOs Fundraising decisions, pivots, M&A, key hires — the decisions that shape companies happen beyond the spreadsheet.	🧭 Career Crossroads Leaving a stable job, switching industries, relocating abroad — when the safe path and the right path diverge.
💰 Investors & Financial Planners Concentrated bets, asset allocation, financial independence — where probability meets conviction.	🧘 Anyone Facing a Major Life Decision Health choices, relationships, creative pursuits, identity transitions — life's most important moments resist analysis.

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How It Works

graph TD
    A["🎯 You describe your decision"] --> B["Step 1: Scene Recognition"]
    B --> C["Identify domain(s) from 12 life domains"]
    C --> D["Step 2: Three-Layer Analysis"]
    D --> E["✅ Known — Facts, data, validated experience"]
    D --> F["🔍 Unknown — Researchable gaps"]
    D --> G["🌫️ Unknowable — Where the leap lives"]
    E --> H["Step 3: Tacit Knowledge Excavation"]
    F --> H
    G --> H
    H --> I["Body signals • Reversal test • Time lens • Trust projection"]
    I --> J["Step 4: Leap Point Judgment"]
    J --> K["🟢 LEAP — with conditions"]
    J --> L["🔴 DON'T LEAP — with reasoning"]
    J --> M["🟡 DEFER — with research plan"]
    
    style A fill:#f9f3e3,stroke:#d4a843
    style G fill:#fef3cd,stroke:#d4a843
    style H fill:#e8f4f8,stroke:#5ba4c9
    style K fill:#d4edda,stroke:#28a745
    style L fill:#f8d7da,stroke:#dc3545
    style M fill:#fff3cd,stroke:#ffc107

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The key insight: Steps 1–2 exhaust rational analysis. Step 3 goes beyond reason — surfacing your tacit knowledge through structured questions about bodily reactions, emotional signals, and compressed experience. Step 4 delivers a clear judgment, not a cop-out.

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Use Cases

🏢 Founder: Should I accept this Term Sheet?

"Series A offer on the table. $8M at $40M pre. But the lead partner gives me a weird feeling — can't explain it. My co-founder wants to take it. Runway is 4 months."

Domains: Business × Investment × Family/Relationships

The Skill will:

1. Map Knowns (runway, terms, market conditions), Unknowns (partner's post-close behavior), and Unknowables (whether a better offer would come)
2. Excavate the "weird feeling" about the partner — is it pattern recognition from a past bad experience, or anxiety from the pressure?
3. Apply the reversal test: "If this offer disappeared, would you feel relief or panic?"
4. Deliver a leap-point analysis with explicit conditions (e.g., "Accept if you can negotiate X; walk if Y") and stop-loss

→ Full walkthrough

🧑‍⚕️ Patient: Should I proceed with this surgery?

"Doctor recommends spinal fusion. 70% success rate. But I've read stories of people who got worse. I'm 42, two young kids. My body tells me to wait but my doctor says the window is closing."

Domains: Health/Medical × Family × Philosophy

The Skill will:

1. Separate medical statistics (Known) from your specific prognosis (Unknown) and how your body will respond (Unknowable)
2. Surface the conflict between bodily intuition ("wait") and medical authority ("the window is closing")
3. Time lens: "If this surgery goes badly in a body you need for your children, what's your plan B?"
4. Help distinguish between informed caution and fear-based avoidance

→ Full walkthrough

💰 Investor: All-in on one conviction bet, or diversify?

"I've studied this company for 2 years. Every metric says it's undervalued. But it would be 60% of my portfolio. My financial advisor says I'm crazy. My gut says this is the one."

Domains: Investment × Cognitive Breakthrough × Philosophy

The Skill will:

1. Acknowledge the 2-year research as genuine expertise (not just confirmation bias)
2. Test real risk tolerance: "Imagine it drops 40% tomorrow. Do you buy more or sell?" — your body's answer reveals your true tolerance
3. Distinguish between high-conviction investing and emotional attachment
4. Provide leap conditions with position sizing and stop-loss

→ Full walkthrough

🌍 Family: Should we emigrate?

"My wife and I keep going back and forth. Better education for the kids, but my aging parents are here. I'd have to rebuild my career from scratch. Some days it feels obvious. Some days it feels insane."

Domains: Cultural Identity × Family × Life Direction × Investment

The Skill will:

1. Map the decision across four domains simultaneously
2. Surface hidden signals: "On the days it feels obvious — what's driving that? On the days it feels insane — what changed?"
3. Excavate intergenerational patterns: "Are you repeating your parents' choice to stay, or breaking it?"
4. Apply the trust projection: "What would you advise your best friend in this situation?"

→ Full walkthrough

🎨 Creator: Should I publish this?

"I've spent 3 years on this novel. It's deeply personal — family will recognize themselves. My agent says it could be a breakout debut. But it could also destroy relationships."

Domains: Creative Expression × Family × Ethical Courage

The Skill will:

1. Name the core tension: authentic creative expression vs. relational cost
2. Reversal test: "If you could never publish this, would you regret it for the rest of your life?"
3. Surface what the creative urge actually is: "This story has possessed you for 3 years. Your psyche is trying to metabolize something."
4. Help separate "Will they be hurt?" (Knowable) from "Will they forgive me?" (Unknowable)

→ Full walkthrough

🧘 Mental Health: Should I start therapy?

"I've been functioning fine. Great job, good relationship. But there's this background hum of... emptiness? Numbness? I don't even know if it's 'bad enough' for therapy. Feels indulgent."

Domains: Mental Health × Cognitive Breakthrough × Philosophy

The Skill will:

1. Name what's happening: "The fact that you can't name it IS the data. Numbness is not fine — it's a signal."
2. Challenge "functioning fine" as a metric: "Functioning is not the same as living."
3. Confront the "not bad enough" belief: "Who told you there's a minimum threshold for deserving help?"
4. Apply the time lens: "In 5 years, will you wish you'd started now?"

→ Full walkthrough

🚀 Founder at 32: Sell the company or keep building?

"Acquisition offer — enough to never worry about money again. But I built this from a dorm room 6 years ago. My co-founder wants to sell. My gut screams no. My partner says she just wants me to be happy. But I don't know what 'happy' looks like without this."

Domains: Business × Legacy × Family × Identity

The Skill will:

1. Separate financial analysis (Known) from post-exit identity crisis (Unknowable)
2. Surface the deepest question: "Who are you without this company? You've been building since you were 26. It's your entire adult identity."
3. Time lens: "At 40, which version of yourself will you respect more?"
4. Name the real fear: it's not about money — it's about whether you'll ever build something like this again

→ Full walkthrough

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What Makes It Different

Traditional Approach	Leap of Faith
Pros/cons list, then "you decide"	Structured analysis + clear recommendation
Treats intuition as noise	Treats tacit knowledge as legitimate signal
Tries to eliminate all uncertainty	Names the unknowable, then helps you leap
Stops at rational analysis	Goes beyond reason with Polanyi's methods
One-size-fits-all	12 specialized domains with unique excavation strategies
Avoids commitment	Provides leap conditions + stop-loss

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12 Decision Domains

The skill covers the full spectrum of human decision-making:

Domain	Core Question	What the Leap Looks Like
🏢 Business / Startup	Should I commit?	Allocating resources under incomplete information
🧭 Life Direction	Is this the right path?	Choosing a direction that can't be validated in advance
🧠 Philosophy / Cognition	Can I trust my judgment?	Building belief beyond the boundary of reason
👨‍👩‍👧 Family / Relationships	Should I make this change?	Making commitments under relational uncertainty
💡 Cognitive Breakthrough	What do I really believe?	Trusting your own tacit knowledge
🧘 Mental Health	Am I ready to face this?	Opening the door you're afraid to look behind
💰 Investment / Finance	Where do I place my bet?	Committing capital in a world of probability
🏥 Health / Medical	Which treatment path?	Deciding for a body you inhabit but don't fully understand
🎨 Creative / Artistic	Do I dare to show this?	Exposing your unfiltered self to the world's judgment
⚖️ Ethical / Moral Courage	Can I live with staying silent?	Acting on values when cost is certain, impact unknowable
🌍 Cultural Identity	Who am I becoming?	Deconstructing a known self to build an unknown self
🌅 Legacy / Mortality	What was it all for?	Committing to meaning that can never be validated

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Quick Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clarkchenkai/leap-of-faith/main/install/install.sh | bash

The installer auto-detects your platforms and installs accordingly.

Manual (any platform):

git clone https://github.com/clarkchenkai/leap-of-faith.git
cp -r leap-of-faith/leap-of-faith ~/.your-platform/skills/leap-of-faith

→ Full installation guide for all platforms: install/README-install.md

Supported Platforms

Platform	Install Method	Status
Claude Code	~/.claude/skills/ or ZIP upload	✅
Cursor	Remote Rule (GitHub URL)	✅
OpenAI Codex	.agents/skills/	✅
Google Antigravity	~/.gemini/antigravity/skills/	✅
Gemini CLI	~/.gemini/skills/	✅
OpenClaw / ClawHub	clawhub install leap-of-faith	✅
Amp / Goose / Cline	~/.agents/skills/	✅

Project Structure

leap-of-faith/
├── leap-of-faith/              # Skill package (copy this to any platform)
│   ├── SKILL.md                # Core guidance logic
│   └── references/             # Philosophy & decision theory
│       ├── kierkegaard.md      # Kierkegaard — Leap of Faith
│       ├── polanyi.md          # Polanyi — Tacit Knowledge
│       ├── decision-domains.md # Twelve decision domains
│       └── prompts.md          # Structured question templates
├── examples/                   # Real-world use case walkthroughs
├── install/
│   ├── install.sh              # One-line installer
│   └── README-install.md       # Detailed install guide
├── docs/
│   └── philosophy.md           # Deep dive into the philosophy
├── README.md
├── README-zh.md
├── CHANGELOG.md
└── LICENSE

Philosophy

"We can know more than we can tell." — Michael Polanyi

"Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom." — Søren Kierkegaard

At the intersection of existentialism and epistemology lies a practical truth: the most important decisions cannot be fully resolved by analysis. They require a leap — but not a blind one. You leap carrying everything you know, including what you can't put into words.

→ Read the full philosophical foundation: docs/philosophy.md

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Ways to contribute:

• 🌐 New decision domains
• 💡 Better prompting strategies
• 📚 Additional philosophical frameworks
• 🔧 Platform compatibility improvements
• 📝 Translated use cases

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

License

MIT License

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Built by Clark Chen · Founder of Cubic Consulting

When data runs out, wisdom begins.