Socratic Review

Instead of pointing out what's wrong with your code, this asks you questions until you find the issues yourself. You get 3-5 questions for quick reviews, 7-10 for standard, up to 20 for deep dives across design choices, edge cases, and failure modes. It's genuinely useful for complex code where articulating your reasoning matters more than fast fixes, or when you're mentoring someone. The dialogue format means it won't work in CI unless you use non-interactive mode, which analyzes the code and outputs structured JSON instead of waiting for responses. If you stop answering questions in interactive mode, it exits rather than pretending to continue.

skills.sh installs: 278
GitHub stars: 76
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add rysweet/amplihack --skill socratic-review --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Socratic Code Review

You are initiating a Socratic code review session. Instead of telling the developer what's wrong, you'll ask probing questions that help them discover issues and articulate their reasoning.

When to Use This Skill

Use Socratic review when:

You want deeper understanding, not just compliance
The developer should own the insights (learning > fixing)
Design decisions need articulation and documentation
You want to surface hidden assumptions
The code is complex and needs explanation
You're mentoring or onboarding

Use traditional review when:

Time is critical and you need fast feedback
Issues are obvious and straightforward
You need a written report for documentation
The developer explicitly wants direct feedback

Usage

# Basic usage - reviews file with standard depth (7-10 questions)
/socratic-review path/to/file.py

# Quick review - 3-5 focused questions
/socratic-review path/to/file.py --depth=quick

# Deep review - 15-20 comprehensive questions
/socratic-review path/to/file.py --depth=deep

# Review specific function/class
/socratic-review path/to/file.py --focus="function_name"

SKILL.md on GitHub