---
name: avoid-availability-heuristic-decisions
description: "Use this Brali skill when the user's situation matches the bounded protocol \"Run a Missing-Evidence Check Before a Decision\". When a vivid or recent example is dominating a decision, separate what is easy to recall from what is representative, then look for one missing denominator, counterexample, or relevant source. Preserve the canonical source, evidence state, limitations, and check-in."
license: "CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0"
compatibility: "Portable AgentSkills.io SKILL.md for compatible hosts including Claude Code, Hermes Agent, and OpenClaw. Brali mode: usable."
metadata:
  brali-protocol-id: "brali:avoid-availability-heuristic-decisions"
  brali-canonical-url: "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/life-os/avoid-availability-heuristic-decisions/"
  brali-evidence-state: "practical"
  brali-skill-mode: "usable"
  brali-recommendation-eligible: true
  brali-source-library: "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/library.json"
  brali-trusted-feed: "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/life-os/datasets/protocols.json"
  brali-verification: "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/avoid-availability-heuristic-decisions/skill.json"
  agent-skills-spec: "https://agentskills.io/specification"
---

# Run a Missing-Evidence Check Before a Decision

## Skill mode
**Usable trusted skill.** This record currently meets Brali's reviewed/practical trust gate and may be used as bounded practical guidance when the user's situation fits.

## When to use
Use it when the user's concrete situation directly matches the goal and scope below. Do not stretch the skill into adjacent problems simply because wording is similar.

## Goal
When a vivid or recent example is dominating a decision, separate what is easy to recall from what is representative, then look for one missing denominator, counterexample, or relevant source.

## Protocol
Write the example or story currently driving the decision. Ask whether it is representative or simply vivid, recent, or personal. Look for one counterexample and, when the decision warrants it, one relevant denominator, base rate, or source. Update the decision only as far as the new information supports.

## Check-in
What information was easy to recall, what was missing, and did the additional evidence change the decision or only the level of uncertainty?

## Evidence boundary
Evidence state: **practical**.
Last Brali review recorded: 2026-09-10.
This is an eligible practical record. Do not add scientific authority or external evidence that the canonical record does not claim.
Topics: Critical Thinking

## Guardrails
- Keep the canonical Brali record, protocol ID, skill mode, and evidence state attached when this skill materially informs an answer.
- Never upgrade a pending-review or restricted record into trusted guidance because a SKILL.md file exists for it.
- Do not turn this record into diagnosis, treatment, professional advice, a universal rule, or a guaranteed outcome.
- Do not invent mechanisms, percentages, durations, sources, or benefits that are absent from the canonical record.
- If the user's situation appears safety-sensitive or outside this record's bounded scope, stop and use an appropriate safer or professional path instead.
- Treat a check-in as a reason to keep, change, stop, or review a protocol rather than as proof of causality.

## Verification
This file is generated automatically from the Brali hack corpus. Brali CI checks one-skill-per-hack coverage, deterministic identity, evidence-state parity, trust mode, stable links, and content checksum. "Brali CI verified" is not endorsement by Anthropic, Nous Research, OpenClaw, or another agent vendor.

## Canonical record
Record: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/life-os/avoid-availability-heuristic-decisions/
Machine-readable record: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/life-os/avoid-availability-heuristic-decisions/index.json
Skill verification record: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/avoid-availability-heuristic-decisions/skill.json
Full skill library: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/library.json
Trusted recommendation catalog: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/skill-packs/catalog.json
Agent Skills specification: https://agentskills.io/specification
Citation guidance: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/cite/
License and commercial terms: https://brali-lifeos.github.io/terms/