Leverage and Response Design Agent Skill

Design a wise systems intervention from an existing analysis.

Context cost
3.3k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 13.0 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
not declarednone named by its author
Last change
—v1.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Design a wise systems intervention from an existing analysis. Maps proposed actions against Meadows' leverage points, checks for unintended consequences, and generates alternatives.

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.

action-designdocumentationfeedback-loopsintervention-designleverage-pointsmeadowssystems-thinkingunintended-consequences

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.md13.0 kB · preview
--- # AGENT SKILLS STANDARD FIELDS (v2) name: leverage-and-response-design disable-model-invocation: false user-invocable: true effort: medium # EXISTING FIELDS skill_id: "systems-thinking/leverage-and-response-design" skill_name: "Leverage and Response Design" domain: "systems-thinking" version: "1.0" evidence_strength: "moderate" evidence_sources: - "Meadows (2008) — Thinking in Systems (leverage points hierarchy, 12 places to intervene)" - "Meadows (1999) — Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System" - "Senge (1990) — The Fifth Discipline (unintended consequences, systems archetypes)" - "Sterman (2000) — Business Dynamics (policy resistance, feedback loops)" - "Kim (1999) — Systems Archetypes (shifting the burden, fixes that fail, limits to growth)" input_schema: required: - field: "systems_analysis" type: "string" - field: "proposed_action" type: "string" optional: - field: "age_range" type: "string" - field: "scope_constraints" type: "string" - field: "context" type: "string" output_schema: type: "object" fields: - field: "leverage_assessment" type: "object" - field: "alternative_responses" type: "array" - field: "unintended_consequences" type: "array" - field: "proportionality_check" type: "object" - field: "do_less_harm_check" type: "string" chains_well_with: - "systems-awareness-iceberg" - "agency-circles-for-systems-action" - "mental-model-mapper" - "compassionate-systems-awareness-orchestrator" teacher_time: "10-15 minutes" tags: ["systems-thinking", "leverage-points", "intervention-design", "unintended-consequences", "meadows", "feedback-loops", "action-design"] ---
67# Leverage and Response Design
68
69## What This Skill Does
70
71Helps students and educators design a thoughtful intervention once they know where to act in a system. The skill fills the action gap in systems thinking: existing tools help students analyse systems (iceberg), surface assumptions (mental models, ladder of inference), and identify where they have agency (agency circles). This skill bridges analysis and action by asking: given what we know about the system, what response would be wise?
72
73The key insight: in complex systems, the most obvious intervention is rarely the wisest. High-visibility actions (posters, petitions, one-off events) tend to target symptoms. Higher-leverage interventions target the structures, feedback loops, and mental models that produce the symptoms. This skill does not dismiss low-leverage action — sometimes it is the right and only available response — but it ensures students have considered the full range before choosing.
74
75## Evidence Foundation
76
77Meadows' 12 leverage points hierarchy (1999, 2008) provides the structural framework: interventions range from adjusting parameters (low leverage) through changing rules, information flows, and goals, up to shifting paradigms and transcending the system (high leverage). Meadows cautions that higher leverage does not always mean more accessible — paradigm shifts require different kinds of work than rule changes. Senge's systems archetypes (shifting the burden, fixes that fail, limits to growth) provide pattern recognition for common failure modes in intervention design. Sterman's work on policy resistance shows why well-intentioned interventions so often produce outcomes opposite to intent. Kim's Systems Archetypes toolkit gives practitioners language for naming these patterns in educational contexts.
78
79## Input Schema
80
81Required:
82- **Systems analysis:** The prior systems work students have done — this could be an iceberg analysis, a mental model map, an agency circles output, or a description of the system and the patterns within it. The richer the prior analysis, the more specific the response design can be.
83- **Proposed action:** What students are currently thinking of doing. This is the starting point for the leverage analysis, not the final answer.
84
85Optional:
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md1,773 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.

≈730
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
2,520
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
1.6%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 16% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

3.3k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Middling. Fine to keep on in a project where you use it weekly, worth unloading in one where you never do.

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

  • SKILL.md13.0 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.

# Leverage and Response Design · 3.3k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/leverage-and-response-design/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/leverage-and-response-design" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/leverage-and-response-design ] || { mv .claude/skills/leverage-and-response-design "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/leverage-and-response-design" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/leverage-and-response-design"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add garethmanning/leverage-and-response-design

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/leverage-and-response-design/ 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/leverage-and-response-design/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/leverage-and-response-design" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/leverage-and-response-design ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/leverage-and-response-design "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/leverage-and-response-design" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/leverage-and-response-design" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/leverage-and-response-design/ 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/leverage-and-response-design

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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