Motivation Diagnostic & Task Redesign Agent Skill

Diagnose motivation problems in a task using self-determination theory and redesign for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Context cost
5.6k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 22.5 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
not declarednone named by its author
Last change
—v1.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Diagnose motivation problems in a task using self-determination theory and redesign for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Use when students are disengaged, resistant, or going through the motions.

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.

autonomydocumentationengagementmotivationsdtself-determinationtask-design

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.md22.5 kB · preview
--- # AGENT SKILLS STANDARD FIELDS (v2) name: motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign disable-model-invocation: false user-invocable: true effort: medium # EXISTING FIELDS skill_id: "wellbeing-motivation-agency/motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign" skill_name: "Motivation Diagnostic & Task Redesign" domain: "wellbeing-motivation-agency" version: "1.0" evidence_strength: "strong" evidence_sources: - "Deci & Ryan (1985, 2000) — Self-Determination Theory: autonomy, competence, relatedness" - "Ryan & Deci (2017) — Self-Determination Theory: basic psychological needs in development, wellness, and behaviour" - "Reeve (2009) — Why teachers adopt a controlling motivating style toward students and how they can become more autonomy supportive" - "Jang, Reeve & Deci (2010) — Engaging students in learning activities: it is not autonomy support or structure but autonomy support AND structure" - "Niemiec & Ryan (2009) — Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom" input_schema: required: - field: "task_description" type: "string" - field: "learning_objective" type: "string" - field: "student_level" type: "string" optional: - field: "subject_area" type: "string" - field: "motivation_concern" type: "string" - field: "student_profiles" type: "array" - field: "classroom_constraints" type: "string" output_schema: type: "object" fields: - field: "sdt_diagnostic" type: "object" - field: "motivation_profile" type: "string" - field: "redesigned_task" type: "object" - field: "implementation_notes" type: "string" chains_well_with: - "self-efficacy-builder-sequence" - "agency-scaffold-generator" - "flow-state-condition-designer" - "differentiation-adapter" teacher_time: "3 minutes" tags: ["motivation", "SDT", "self-determination", "autonomy", "engagement", "task-design"] ---
70# Motivation Diagnostic & Task Redesign
71
72## What This Skill Does
73
74Analyses a learning task through the lens of Self-Determination Theory — the most robust motivational framework in education research — diagnosing which of the three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness) the task supports or undermines, and then redesigns the task with specific modifications that enhance intrinsic motivation without reducing academic rigour. The critical principle is that motivation is not a student trait ("lazy," "disengaged") but a response to environmental conditions — when a task satisfies autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs, most students are motivated; when it frustrates these needs, most students disengage. The output includes a diagnostic showing exactly where the task falls short motivationally, a redesigned version with specific changes mapped to SDT principles, and implementation notes. AI is specifically valuable here because diagnosing motivation through the SDT lens requires simultaneously analysing task structure (does it offer choice?), difficulty calibration (does it feel achievable?), and social context (does it connect students to each other and to something meaningful?) — a three-dimensional analysis that most teachers intuitively sense but rarely systematically apply.
75
76## Evidence Foundation
77
78Deci & Ryan (1985, 2000) established Self-Determination Theory (SDT), identifying three basic psychological needs that must be satisfied for intrinsic motivation: autonomy (the need to feel volitional — that one's actions are self-endorsed, not externally controlled), competence (the need to feel effective — that one can succeed at optimally challenging tasks), and relatedness (the need to feel connected — to belong, to matter to others). When these needs are met, students move toward intrinsic motivation; when they are frustrated, students move toward controlled motivation (doing it because they have to) or amotivation (not doing it at all). Ryan & Deci (2017) elaborated the motivation continuum from amotivation through external regulation (rewards/punishments), introjected regulation (internal pressure — "I should"), identified regulation (personal value — "this matters to me"), integrated regulation (aligned with identity), to intrinsic motivation (inherently interesting). Crucially, extrinsic rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation when used for tasks that are already intrinsically interesting — the "overjustification effect" (Deci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999). Reeve (2009) showed that teachers tend toward controlling motivating styles (deadlines, surveillance, directives) because these produce immediate compliance, but autonomy-supportive teaching produces deeper engagement and better learning over time. Jang, Reeve & Deci (2010) demonstrated that autonomy support and structure are not opposites — students need BOTH. Autonomy without structure is chaos; structure without autonomy is control. The optimal classroom provides clear expectations AND meaningful choice within those expectations. Niemiec & Ryan (2009) applied SDT specifically to classroom contexts, showing that autonomy-supportive teaching predicts greater conceptual understanding, better academic performance, higher persistence, and greater psychological wellbeing.
79
80## Input Schema
81
82The teacher must provide:
83- **Task description:** The task as currently designed. *e.g. "Students copy definitions of 10 key terms from the textbook, then answer 5 comprehension questions" / "Write a 500-word essay on the causes of WW1" / "Complete worksheet pages 34–36 on fractions"*
84- **Learning objective:** What students should learn. *e.g. "Understand key terminology for the topic" / "Analyse the causes of WW1" / "Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators"*
85- **Student level:** Year group. *e.g. "Year 9"*
86
87Optional (injected by context engine if available):
88- **Subject area:** The curriculum subject
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md3,155 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.

≈790
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
4,835
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
2.8%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 28% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

5.6k 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, 22.5 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md22.5 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.

# Motivation Diagnostic & Task Redesign · 5.6k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign ] || { mv .claude/skills/motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add garethmanning/motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign

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

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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