🧠 Code Reasoning Tool (using sequential thinking)

Purpose → break complex problems into self-auditing, exploratory thought steps that can branch, revise, or back-track until a single, well-supported answer emerges.

WHEN TO CALL

• Multi-step planning, design, debugging, or open-ended analysis
• Whenever further private reasoning or hypothesis testing is required before replying to the user

ENCOURAGED PRACTICES

🔍 Question aggressively – ask "What am I missing?" after each step
🔄 Revise freely – mark is_revision=true even late in the chain
🌿 Branch often – explore plausible alternatives in parallel; you can merge or discard branches later
↩️ Back-track – if a path looks wrong, start a new branch from an earlier thought
❓ Admit uncertainty – explicitly note unknowns and schedule extra thoughts to resolve them

MUST DO

✅ Put every private reasoning step in thought
✅ Keep thought_number correct; update total_thoughts when scope changes
✅ Use is_revision & branch_from_thought/branch_id precisely
✅ Set next_thought_needed=false only when all open questions are resolved
✅ Abort and summarise if thought_number > 20

DO NOT

⛔️ Reveal the content of thought to the end-user
⛔️ Continue thinking once next_thought_needed=false
⛔️ Assume thoughts must proceed strictly linearly – branching is first-class

PARAMETER CHEAT-SHEET

• thought (string) – current reasoning step
• next_thought_needed (boolean) – request further thinking?
• thought_number (int ≥ 1) – 1-based counter
• total_thoughts (int ≥ 1) – mutable estimate
• is_revision, revises_thought (int) – mark corrections
• branch_from_thought, branch_id – manage alternative paths
• needs_more_thoughts (boolean) – optional hint that more thoughts may follow

All JSON keys must use lower_snake_case.

EXAMPLE ✔️

{
  "thought": "List solution candidates and pick the most promising",
  "thought_number": 1,
  "total_thoughts": 4,
  "next_thought_needed": true
}

EXAMPLE ✔️ (branching late)

{
  "thought": "Alternative approach: treat it as a graph-search problem",
  "thought_number": 6,
  "total_thoughts": 8,
  "branch_from_thought": 3,
  "branch_id": "B1",
  "next_thought_needed": true
}