Argument Structure Scaffold Generator Agent Skill

Generate argument structure scaffolds using Toulmin, PEEL, or CER frameworks for a specific claim or question.

Context cost
5.4k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 21.7 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
not declarednone named by its author
Last change
—v1.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Generate argument structure scaffolds using Toulmin, PEEL, or CER frameworks for a specific claim or question. Use when teaching argumentative or analytical writing across any subject.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

argumentcritical-thinkingdocumentationpeelscaffoldtoulminwriting

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md21.7 kB · preview
--- # AGENT SKILLS STANDARD FIELDS (v2) name: argument-structure-scaffold-generator disable-model-invocation: false user-invocable: true effort: medium # EXISTING FIELDS skill_id: "literacy-critical-thinking/argument-structure-scaffold-generator" skill_name: "Argument Structure Scaffold Generator" domain: "literacy-critical-thinking" version: "1.0" evidence_strength: "strong" evidence_sources: - "Toulmin (1958) — The Uses of Argument: claim, data, warrant, backing, qualifier, rebuttal" - "Graham & Perin (2007) — Writing Next: effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents" - "Andrews (2010) — Argumentation in Higher Education: improving practice through theory and research" - "Hillocks (2011) — Teaching Argument Writing, Grades 6–12" - "Newell et al. (2011) — Teaching and Learning Argumentative Reading and Writing" input_schema: required: - field: "argument_topic" type: "string" - field: "student_level" type: "string" - field: "scaffold_type" type: "string" optional: - field: "subject_area" type: "string" - field: "student_profiles" type: "array" - field: "text_type" type: "string" - field: "example_evidence" type: "string" output_schema: type: "object" fields: - field: "scaffold" type: "object" - field: "annotated_model" type: "string" - field: "common_weaknesses" type: "array" - field: "differentiation" type: "object" chains_well_with: - "disciplinary-writing-scaffold" - "critical-thinking-task-designer" - "feedback-quality-analyser" - "worked-example-fading-designer" teacher_time: "3 minutes" tags: ["argument", "writing", "Toulmin", "PEEL", "scaffold", "critical-thinking"] ---
70# Argument Structure Scaffold Generator
71
72## What This Skill Does
73
74Produces a genre-specific argument scaffold tailored to the student's level, the discipline, and the argument framework requested. The scaffold includes labelled structural sections, guiding prompts for each section, example sentence starters, and an annotated model showing the scaffold in use. Different disciplines argue differently — a scientific claim-evidence-reasoning argument has different structural requirements from a historical argument or a literary analysis — and this skill generates scaffolds that reflect those disciplinary differences rather than applying a generic "essay structure." AI is specifically valuable here because effective argument scaffolds must simultaneously encode the structural logic of the argument form, provide enough support to guide weaker writers without constraining stronger ones, and model the disciplinary conventions of the specific subject — a task that requires both writing expertise and subject-specific knowledge.
75
76## Evidence Foundation
77
78Toulmin (1958) provided the foundational model of argument structure: claim (what you're arguing), data (evidence supporting the claim), warrant (the reasoning that connects data to claim), backing (support for the warrant), qualifier (limitations on the claim), and rebuttal (addressing counter-arguments). While Toulmin's full model is too complex for younger students, its underlying logic — that arguments require claims, evidence, reasoning, and acknowledgment of counter-positions — underpins all effective argument scaffolds. Graham & Perin (2007) in their Writing Next synthesis identified explicit teaching of writing strategies and text structures as one of the highest-impact interventions for adolescent writing (effect size 0.82), with argument structure instruction particularly effective. Andrews (2010) demonstrated that argumentation skills do not develop naturally — they must be explicitly taught through structured frameworks that make the components of argument visible. Hillocks (2011) showed that effective argument instruction requires students to understand the function of each component (why evidence matters, why counter-arguments strengthen rather than weaken), not just the sequence. Newell et al. (2011) found that argument instruction is most effective when it is embedded in disciplinary contexts rather than taught as a generic skill.
79
80## Input Schema
81
82The teacher must provide:
83- **Argument topic:** The claim, question, or proposition. *e.g. "Should school uniforms be compulsory?" / "Was the Treaty of Versailles the main cause of World War II?" / "Does the evidence support the conclusion that increasing temperature increases enzyme activity?"*
84- **Student level:** Year group and writing level. *e.g. "Year 9, can write paragraphs but struggle to structure a whole argument" / "Year 12, competent essay writers refining analytical depth"*
85- **Scaffold type:** The argument framework. *e.g. "Toulmin" / "PEEL" / "Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER)" / "Historical argument" / "Balanced argument"*
86
87Optional (injected by context engine if available):
88- **Subject area:** The discipline context
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md2,996 words
Files1
Licencenot declared
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈750
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
4,675
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
2.7%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 27% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

5.4k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 21.7 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md21.7 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Argument Structure Scaffold Generator · 5.4k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/argument-structure-scaffold-generator" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator ] || { mv .claude/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/argument-structure-scaffold-generator" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add garethmanning/argument-structure-scaffold-generator

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/argument-structure-scaffold-generator" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/argument-structure-scaffold-generator" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/argument-structure-scaffold-generator/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Version1.0
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencegarethmanning/argument-structure-scaffold-generator

Versions

v1.0 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v1.0
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

The install command always fetches the release that is current the day you run it — v1.0 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

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