i-have-adhd: readable responses, adapters and evidence
Try i-have-adhd in one reversible session
Use a small learning task to check activation, explanation quality and exit behavior before considering always-on configuration.
What you will learn
- Make the first experiment deliberately small
- Check explanations as well as action lists
- Exit is part of the feature test
Before you start
- Basic Git and command-line knowledge
- Ability to separate observed behavior from an untested claim
Explain the inspected mechanism, plan a reversible trial and interpret evidence without treating style as correctness.
Key takeaways
- Use clean, separate conversations for a baseline.
- Test a full explanation, not just a short task.
- Verify the next session as well as the stop message.
Make the first experiment deliberately small
Start in a disposable conversation after reviewing the installation route for your actual assistant. Leave always-on disabled. Ask for a harmless task, such as explaining a Git status result, and record the assistant version, model, project revision and whether the skill was explicitly invoked. Do not use production credentials or a destructive repair as the first demonstration.
For the baseline, use a separate clean conversation with no inherited output style. Reusing the same conversation after a supposed disable can leave prior rules in context. Give both conditions the same task and check whether the answer distinguishes observed output from assumptions. A difference between two answers is an observation, not yet a reliable effect estimate.
Check explanations as well as action lists
A good quick test has two requests: a small procedure and an explanation of why it works. The skill should make the procedure easy to resume without removing the explanation from the second answer. Include a task with more than five relevant items and explicitly ask for completeness; grouping should preserve the information rather than silently truncate the list.
Avoid copying the README demonstration as a production repair. Its authentication example illustrates presentation, not a diagnosis of your repository or permission to update a dependency. Useful evidence for your trial is whether commands match the environment, prerequisites are stated and unknown causes remain unknown until a diagnostic check supports them.
Exit is part of the feature test
The rule text recognizes stop phrases, but host adapters implement persistence differently. The inspected Pi extension has explicit state and input handlers, whereas the Node startup hook only checks a configuration marker. Saying normal mode is therefore not proof that an always-on marker was removed or that a future session will start without rules.
Record what happens after a stop request and after a fresh session. If a host still injects rules, inspect its own documented opt-in setting rather than deleting broad configuration directories. Our offline cases confirm marker-driven injection in two adapters; we did not run these conversational checks in Claude Code, Codex, Pi or OpenCode.
Decision guide
| Criterion | Option A | Option B |
|---|---|---|
| Best when | You need predictable behavior and easy auditing | You need adaptive optimization and have reliable telemetry |
| Main risk | May leave performance on the table | Can become difficult to explain or debug |
Implementation steps
- 1
Keep always-on disabled for the first trial.
- 2
Run the same harmless question in clean baseline and candidate sessions.
- 3
Request a complete explanation and inspect omissions.
- 4
Stop the mode and check a new session.
Copy-ready example
In this disposable conversation, use the reviewed i-have-adhd rules.
Explain what "working tree clean" means, then give one harmless check.
Keep the explanation complete and distinguish facts from assumptions.Frequently asked questions
Should I enable it globally first?
A reversible session gives a smaller test surface and makes the baseline easier to isolate.
Does a stop response prove permanent disable?
No. Configuration markers and future injection must be checked separately.
Sources
- i-have-adhd / INSTALL.mdSource checked 2026-09-12
- i-have-adhd / skills/i-have-adhd/SKILL.mdSource checked 2026-09-12
- i-have-adhd / hooks/always-on.mjsSource checked 2026-09-12
- i-have-adhd / extensions/i-have-adhd.tsSource checked 2026-09-12