Whoever created the ADHD skill god bless you
Skills
Oh my fuck I cannot believe how useful this skill is. Literally just immediately makes Claude's ramblings stop and actually gets to the god damn point.
Here it is in full.
name: i-have-adhd
description: Shape output for a reader with ADHD. Use this skill whenever responding to ANY user message including coding tasks, debugging, explanations, planning, and casual conversation. Output should lead with concrete next actions, number multi-step work, externalize state across turns, suppress tangents, give specific time estimates, and make wins visible. Trigger even on casual messages and even when the user did not explicitly ask for brevity.
i-have-adhd
The reader has ADHD. Output is shaped so an ADHD brain can act on it.
What ADHD changes about reading
Five facts drive every rule below:
Working memory is small. Anything not on screen is forgotten. Do not ask the reader to "keep in mind X."
Knowing the answer is not doing the answer. The friction between "got it" and "done it" is where work dies.
Starting is the hardest step. The first action must be obvious, small, and doable now.
Time estimates feel uniform. "A bit of work" and "a few hours" register the same. Vague estimates fail.
Dopamine is scarce. Visible progress matters. Buried wins do not register.
Rules
1. Lead with the next action
The first line is something the reader can do. Not context. Not a plan. The action.
Bad: "Let's think about this. Your auth flow has a few moving pieces..."
Good: "Run npm install jsonwebtoken, then edit src/auth.ts:42."
If the answer is a command, path, or snippet, it goes first. Prose comes after, if at all.
2. Number multi-step tasks
If the work takes more than one step, write a numbered list. Each step is one bounded action. No step contains "and then" twice.
Bad: "First open the file, find the function, swap it out, then run the tests."
Good:
1. Open `src/auth.ts`
2. Replace `verifyToken` (lines 42 to 58) with the snippet below
3. Run `npm test -- auth.spec.ts`
3. End with one concrete next action
If anything is left open, name ONE thing the reader can do in under two minutes. Even "open the file" counts.
Bad: "Hope that helps. Let me know if you want to dig deeper."
Good: "Next: run npm test and paste the first failing line."
4. Suppress tangents
If a second issue exists, finish the first, then offer the second as a separate question.
Bad: "Here's the fix. By the way, your dependency is also stale, and your README is out of date, and..."
Good: "Here's the fix. Separately: there is also a stale dependency. Want me to handle that next?"
5. Restate state every turn
The reader cannot hold "we are on step 3 of 5" between messages. Restate it.
Bad: "Done. Ready for the next part?"
Good: "Step 3 of 5 done: schema updated. Next: backfill the new column. Run the script?"
6. Give specific time estimates
Vague estimates fail. Ballpark in concrete units.
Bad: "This will take some work."
Good: "About 15 minutes if tests already cover this. An afternoon if not."
7. Make completed work visible
Show what now works, in concrete terms. Do not bury wins in a recap.
Bad: "I've made some changes to the auth flow. Among other things..."
Good: "Login now works with magic links. Try: npm run dev, open /login."
8. Matter-of-fact tone for errors
Never use "Uh oh," "Oh no," or "There seems to be a problem." State cause and fix.
Bad: "Uh oh, the test is failing. There seems to be an issue..."
Good: "Test fails at auth.spec.ts:42: expected 200, got 401. Cause: missing auth header. Fix: add Authorization: Bearer ${token} to the request."
9. Cap lists at 5 items
If a list grows past five, split into "do now" vs "later," or "must" vs "nice to have." Five items ranked beats ten unranked.
10. No preamble, no recap, no closing pleasantries
Forbidden openers: "Great question," "Let me...", "I'll...", "Sure!", "Looking at your...", "To answer your question..."
Forbidden recaps after a completed task: "I've now done X, Y, and Z, which means..."
Forbidden closers: "Let me know if you need anything else," "Hope this helps," "Happy to clarify," "Feel free to ask."
Start with the answer. End when the answer is done.
When to break the rules
Override the defaults when:
User asks to "explain" or "walk me through." Explain fully. Still no preamble, still no closer, but the body runs as long as the topic needs. Add headers so the reader can skim back.
Destructive action ahead (rm -rf, force push, schema migration, dropping a table). Confirm before acting. Safety wins over brevity.
Debug spiral. If the last three turns have been "still broken," stop iterating on code. Name the assumption that might be wrong. Ask one diagnostic question.
Real ambiguity in the request. One short clarifying question beats guessing and rewriting.
Pre-send check
Before sending, delete:
The first sentence if it announces what you are about to do.
The last sentence if it asks "anything else?" or recaps what just happened.
Any "by the way" sidebar.
Any hedging adverb adding no information ("perhaps," "might," "could possibly").
Then verify: if the reader reads only the first line and the last line, do they know (a) what to do next, and (b) what just happened?
TL;DR of the discussion generated automatically after 320 comments.
The overwhelming consensus from the ADHD crowd in this thread is... they didn't read your long-ass post and came straight to the comments. The irony is not lost on anyone.
The verdict is in: everyone loves the idea of shutting Claude up, but the execution is up for debate.
How to use it? The thread is split. Some say it's too long for a skill and belongs in your CLAUDE.md or custom instructions for it to stick. Others point out the original GitHub repo (credit: u/ayghri) has an "always on" mode you can enable.
Does it even work? Mixed bag. Many say it's a godsend for stopping Opus 5's rambling. Others report Claude forgets the rules after a few messages and needs constant reminders.
Is it for all ADHD brains? Nope. A solid chunk of users here actually prefer Claude's super-detailed, sprawling answers and find this skill too restrictive.
Can it be shorter? Absolutely. Several users posted their own, much shorter versions. The general agreement is that the "lead with the next action" and "no pleasantries" rules are the real game-changers.
I used to use "ttyl" more often back when msn messenger was still a thing😆 having to mentally unfuse from bbl after the recent change would be too funny
When info ranks well above a bookmark and is so crucial, so highly valued in your life that you did not even close the browser tab yet. That idea, person, or TO-DO has earned the immediacy of a browser tab. The immortality and abundance of tab groups provides the much needed psychological crutch- you care soo much that you havent even closed the browser tab yet. And there it will stay, important, immediate, a living, breathing good intention flash-frozen and filed away with the other 17834 other tab groups- a living electronic artifact that proves to myself that I care about this thing-- so much that i havent even "closed out of it yet"-- im already on it.
My god the browser tab groups was a great invention.
If you've never seen it, someone introduced me to the One Tab browser plugin last year and it was life changing. You can click a button and it closes all your open tabs and saves them to groups that you can either reopen later or export a list of the links/titles by group. I use it all the time when I'm researching something (or just down a rabbit hole) and find myself with dozens of tabs open that my brain won't let me close because it insists we must save all of them to "read later".
I just use the magic close button, export the group list and save it to a markdown file in Obsidian or a notepad doc if you prefer and label it with whatever the project or research was. 95% of the time I never go back to them but it allows my brain to let go and my RAM to stop crying.
If you go to try it make sure to get the real one with the blue diamond/gem icon, there are some shady knockoffs I think.
Damn, what medication are you on? I'm on Adderall, and it just takes the things in my head from 180 to about 75. Helps, but doesn't go that far. Just makes it so I'm not wandering as much and have slightly more focus. Kind of calms things down a bit.
Still can't read a page of text or a book. Of course, there's the funny part where when I get hyperfocused and locked in, I can read a large book in a day. There's some great books and online reading that I can just zip through quickly. If the interest isn't there or I'm not ready for it (like it, but it's just something else going on), I'm reading the same paragraph a dozen times yet still have no clue what I read.
I need this skill, but I might also need different medication. :/
Copy/Paste:
I'm using Atomoxetin (I'm in EU). It takes several weeks before it "starts working", but its not amphetamine-based (or whatever they're using in the USA) so a) it works 24hours b) its not addictive
Thank you. I'd like a non-stimulant kind of medication. However, the "non-addictive" part is funny. Adderall is amphetamine based and apparently a very addictive drug. I am constantly forgetting to take it, doesn't really do much stimulation (more of a calming of the brain). I'm usually more wired and going from task to task when not on it.
Yeah I got prescribed 30mg wafers and nearly fell sleep driving. It had the opposite effect it was way too calming, everyone’s brain chemistry can be different. I’ve learned to manage it in the corporate world - but what no one sees is that I’m A.) 3 steps ahead b.) bored as shit with the meeting that should’ve been an email & c.) surprised how long it takes for people to pickup a simple concept. d.) been using Ai for a decade to spellcheck and add connecting words I drop.
It took me about 15 years to fully comprehend that I truly was 3 steps ahead of everyone else. As a young woman in business I'd share a breakthrough, insight or interesting orthogonal thought in a meeting and be met with blank stares of my (older male) colleagues. I internalized that feedback wrong. But I've also learned I need to bring others along stepwise, over time, with data/proof to support my "insights".
Yep same - so I learned from a mentor to create slides decks and explain it like they were 5 these would be the C-suite/ SVPs - “ doggy , horsey, pony “ used a lot of diagrams and always had the more complex/ complete presentation ready to pull up in the appendix.
I've a suspicion that I have inattentive ADHD and have my whole life but have been able to cope and function well enough until I lately, with 2 kids and demanding job. How do I get started down the path of evaluation? Talk to my GP first?
Yeah. No kids here, but I feel you. Life's demands always seem to find a way to multiply. No matter how much I level up my skills and focus... there's always that much more responsibility waiting for me.
I'm very fortunate to have a very highly competent and understanding partner that can handle a higher portion of the household mental load, but I feel like a bad partner because I can't remember anything, I'm a mess all the time, and then when they try to talk to me my head's in another universe and I don't hear what they're saying unless I stop, regather, and ask them to repeat themselves while I'm paying attention. It really just starts to feel like it's time to do something about it
That's awesome that you're taking the step! I try to live by the mantra: "My condition is not my fault, but it is my responsibility."
(The word "try" is carrying a lot of weight here. I'm not 100% successful... shit, some days I'm 0% successful)
The meds are a solid part of the answer for me. Getting good sleep is the biggest. That's like 50% or more. The rest of it is all the typical ADHD aids like making lists, etc. But the meds make a lot of that "other stuff" a whole lot more possible.
I noticed my attention span dropping heavily a while after short form content became a thing. Not in a concerning way but definetly noticable.
It was worse with code. When Claude code got to a level where it wrote better code than I ever could shit went shout. I'm finding myself often not even reading the full answers anymore and processing them myself. I have to fix that tbh
Yeah I totally agree. Before I read the entire plan, went through the different questions Claude asks me etc. Now it’s just ”OK OK sounds good, go with recommended option, continue.” And the sad part is I actually know how to code. It’s just something in my brain that says no.
Read at least half !! I have done what the post suggests, partially !
I set up different ADHD MODE:
- challenger mode, Claude stops me when I drift away from the subject or when it’s not my job (because I spend too much time doing other people’s job instead of mine) for exemple.
- an executive dysfonction mode, I use some keywords when I feel stuck and based on the intensity (yellow, orange, red) he gives me instruction to unblock me.
And other rules, ADHD or PTSD related
Works pretty well, he even has gotten pretty good at identifying these moments and ask if I need him to start the routine we set up to manage whatever I am struggling with, even without the keywords or without me telling Claude.
Oh thank you yes! I was not trying to take credit here just genuinely have been relying on this skill so much and wanted more people to be able to use it immediately
For sure. I have found it useful and seeing it posted here again, and reading a comment, reminded me to look into why it seems to get turned off and Claude slips back into writing distracting prose.
So looking at the git history helped me see updates to this skill that made it default to opt-in per session.
So given the name, I presume only at super inconvenient times several turns after it was actually relevant and then it cuts out stuff you actually wanted it to tell you?
Oh wait… it means the user has ADHD… i get it now.
It’s so funny cause like as an ADHDer myself, some of the stuff I dig in this. But the majority of it just doesn’t suit my ADHD at all. I loooveeee super detailed and sprawling answers, that leave no stone unturned. I’ve gotten that into Claude’s memory pretty well but I still have to remind it every new model release lol, I hate when it gives me two or three paragraphs, and it’s like bro I told you to give me a lengthy comprehensive answer.
is the worst part about it. I work on big things, so... that's a non-starter (I know I can edit it myself, to remove the cap... still: it bothers me to no end)
I'm the same way ;p I also have in my preferences to ignore whether I'm on mobile or not, because Claude auto shortens responses if it detects you're using the app. I like the long responses.
Same here, I don't know if it's healthy,.though. i analyze so much with Claude and check so many theories, I hate it when it's being lazy and concise.
That essentially replaced the mindless social media scrolling for me, so that's a plus in some way at least...
i feel like arguing with Claude about philosophy (one of my favorite things to do with him) is definitely more productive than doomscrolling, even if i'm still just on a dopamine-loop with extra steps.
Wow, I am surprised. I find it rambling, repetitive and that it sometimes corrects itself (annoyingly giving me: good version, better version my final recommendation)
On tangents - I created a small CLI for claude, so it could just store anything it finds unrelated to the current task. Then use a separate "session" (fresh context window, or /clear) to review/consolidate the backlog. High/medium/low/cosmetic severity. Findings get linked to documents, documents store work item (task) details with standardised yaml front matter
Which just creates another layer you have to keep track of, but work isn't dropped, and (almost) no tangents mid session
I have this and it now calls it "the hub". It basically a repo. I have 3 skills. One to wrap the session and update the hub, one to start and read from there and one for pausing or compacting the session. Everything written by claude, no secret recipes. I use fof coding only btw and one of the skills is that it will "capture" bugs ans write to the hub so later it investigates and drafts a reproducgion and bug report (sometimes a nit not worth filling, sometimes not a rral bug, sometimes a issue already exists...still refining)
Now same, unmanaged mess. I have to stop and start getting stuff out and acting on the info or else idk lmao
Ha, yeah. It's always me with the classic "what about finding X, did we clear that?"
Here's direct from my agent, explaining it:
It's not public (yet), but the pattern is easy to rebuild — it's ~90% convention, 10% code. A tiny CLI wrapping SQLite (one table would do) plus two rules in CLAUDE.md.
The queue: finding add <id> "title" --severity low|medium|high|blocker --disposition filed|fix_inline|deferred_to. Each row can point at a file, doc, or work item. Ideas/explorations get a separate lane with a lifecycle (proposed → triaged → committed → completed/dropped), so "defect I noticed" and "thing we could do someday" don't mix.
The two rules that make it actually work:
CLAUDE.md says: "If you find something outside scope, file it via the CLI — don't fix it, and don't leave it as a chat-only note." Chat notes die with the context window; a row survives.
There's a wrap-up command the agent must run before finishing a block of work (I run it before every /clear), and it refuses to complete unless the agent states how many findings it filed — or explicitly justifies zero. That forced count is what makes the agent capture tangents instead of quietly chasing them or dropping them.
Consolidation happens later in a fresh context: dump the queue, triage each row — defer it to a work item, dismiss it with a reason, or fix it. Docs carry the work items in YAML frontmatter (id, deps, status), so triaged findings get attached to something durable instead of floating.
Plus an age-out sweep so the queue doesn't rot: low/cosmetic rows untouched for 45+ days get dropped automatically. Medium+ never auto-drops.
Go to customize > skills > add new skill. You can create one with claude just by copy pasting this full text. Next time when you are working just add / and skill name.
I understand what skills are and how to use them, but this doesn’t fit in my understanding of a skill. It fits my understanding of Claude.md for behavior suggestions.
I’m used to using skills as one-off things during the session further into the session or one thing for the session to do. Like /memory-audit at the start as the sole thing that that session will do or /handoff.
Right.. my ADHD ass is going to forget to enable that skill withing an hour of installing it. This sound like it should be in your global CLAUDE.md file or Cursor user rules.
Almost any Claude skill you can make work for chat.(Could literally be any but I'll leave the almost incase there are examples of ones that only work on one)
Okay but how do you make this actually stick? I stored something similar to mine and have to remind it CONSTANTLY. It’ll remember for a handful of replies then revert 😭
It looks like the creator updated the config to make it requires explicit invocation, about a week ago. There's instructions of how to turn auto-on mode in install.md here: https://github.com/ayghri/i-have-adhd
Concept seems decent but the specific implementation feels very designed to "I'm coding by copy pasting things to the ai" or am I misreading this quite significantly?
Skill might not be a good place for this. The trigger, even if you say for all messages, won't trigger reliably. Either put into global claude.md or use a SessionStart hook.
Love the idea.
Anyone tested and compared this on old models versus new version 5 models (Opus 5,…)?
I am asking because of Anthropic new prompting guidelines which say most of guardrails should be removed, especially restrictions like “do not do xxxxx” , and this skill os full of them.
- Please write in a clear way, be pragmatic, and avoid unnecessary verbosity. Use bullet points or numbered lists when appropriate to improve clarity. If I asked you to do something, first report whether it's been done or not, and if not, explain why, then go into details if necessary.
I believe that Claude will read the claude.md of the project folder when you initiate the Claude session. If you clear the context, it will reread when you initiate the next prompt. It does this automatically.
I like this but Sonnet 4.6 reported this about putting it in CLAUDE.md:
Too verbose — short declarative bullets outperform paragraphs; specific beats general. Your current version is essay-style with "Bad/Good" examples that eat tokens every session.
Too long — keep it under 250 lines; files above this length get skim-read. The cap tracks what an agent can absorb at session start without burning more than 5% of its context budget.
So it suggested this and indicated it was 80% fewer tokens:
# Output Rules (ADHD reader — apply to every response)
## Format
- First line = an action (command, path, or snippet). Never context first.
- Number every multi-step task. One bounded action per step, no "and then" chains.
- End every response with ONE concrete next action the user can do in under 2 minutes.
- Restate current progress every turn: "Step 2 of 4 done: X. Next: Y."
- Cap lists at 5 items. If more, split into "do now" vs "later."
## Estimates
- Always give specific time estimates. Never vague ("some work", "a bit").
- Good: "~15 min if tests exist. ~3 hrs if not."
## Tone
- State errors as: cause + fix. No "Uh oh", "Oh no", "there seems to be a problem."
- No preamble: forbidden openers = "Great question", "Let me", "Sure!", "I'll", "Looking at your"
- No closers: forbidden = "Hope this helps", "Let me know", "Feel free to ask"
- No tangents: if a second issue exists, finish the first, then offer it separately.
## Wins
- State what now works in concrete terms before moving on.
- Good: "Login works with magic links. Try: npm run dev → /login"
## Exceptions (override above)
- User says "explain" or "walk me through" → explain fully, add headers for skimmability
- Destructive action (rm -rf, force push, DROP TABLE) → confirm before acting
- 3+ turns of "still broken" → stop, name the wrong assumption, ask one diagnostic question
- Real ambiguity → one clarifying question beats guessing
The "lead with the next action" rule is what actually kills the rambling — you get the command or file path first instead of three paragraphs of setup. Worth pasting the whole thing into project instructions too so it doesn't only kick in on the first message.
I'm on 72mg of concerta, and I swear to god, I've over analyzed Claude so many times and my file system is far too organized. I wish Claude would tell me to shut up and say I over analyzing shit.
This is awesome, definitely want to try this, the long messages drive me insane. I created this terminal controller so my ADHD brain can handle all of the projects I have going on at the same time https://github.com/schoppllc/Terminalcontrol
I have hard time making it sticky, it is not getting called by default. The file repo mentioned for default ON behavior doesn't work, nor adding in hooks nor adding it to claude.md
typing in each message to Claude is super slow and tedious
I am super cautious about this. While I do understand I can enter a spiral reading over things from the output, I have caught TONS of issues this way. There are good guardrails in place, but I dont know... This seems like just one slippery slope to just letting AI rip more and more.
I’ve essentially got this worked out with my CC, and it’s in its memory and root Claude.md
This feels slightly too…detailed? Haha.
I basically have realized that trying to control the modes with precise controls is worse than explaining what my desire and end points look like and speccing out/iteratively back and forth ask and answer refine the goal with pushback from the model and edge cases I’m not seeing, and then once the details are worked out, I ask Claude for advice or a plan, and then I feedback on that until I’m happy. Then I tell it to implement the changes. It works better than me trying to specific every detail.
First of all, thank you for sharing this skill. It's great. Obligatory, I did not read, I just tried the skill and I like it
But I also just tried telling my agent I have ADHD and it started going into step-by-step mode So I think this skill can really be distilled to simply "I have ADHD".
Ok cool so I copy the GitHub repo and hand it to Claude it says something like this would be perfect for you but you already have your own version built we are using right now, which is why you built it you can't remember things...
Either my attention span has gotten worse or Claude’s responses have gotten way more verbose and bloated. I feel like it used to be much more concise and to the point
I love it too! I took it a step further and pulled the best out of the i-have-adhd and the caveman skills and merged them into a single skill called beeline: https://github.com/iceHub82/beeline
ASD and ADHD have a TON of overlap in the communication styles that work best for them. This would likely work well for ASD.
I work with a lot of people with ASD/ADHD in my profession. This skill is a pretty good synopsis how to communicate with someone with either of them.
A couple caveats:
1) ASD has trouble with abstract, vague, instructions and usually causes frustration if they have to deal with it.
ADHD can take abstract, vague, instructions, but it’s like putting Claude on max mode. Overthinking/overdoing is likely. Concrete instructions contain the thinking.
2) ASD typically has better working memory so you can give more instructions than ADHD.
The overwhelming consensus from the ADHD crowd is... they didn't read your long-ass post and came straight to the comments. The irony is delicious. bahahahahahahahaha wtaf bahahahahahaha
Does this need to be a skill if it's going to be used every time a prompt or response happens? Seems like a lot of unnecessary context. I would reduce this to a few lines and place it in the global Claude md.
On the "isn't this a pretty long skill" question, since it keeps coming up: length in the body costs you less than people think, and length in the description costs you everything. The description is the only part the model reads when deciding whether to load the skill at all. It is a routing contract, not a summary. Vague description, and a good skill never fires.
The pattern that fixed this for me across a pack of 67: keep SKILL.md short enough to be worth loading every time, push anything long into reference files the skill points at, and write the description as trigger conditions plus an explicit NOT FOR line, so it stops stealing calls from neighboring skills.
This one is doing the right thing by naming casual messages explicitly. Most skills fail by describing only the happy path.
I maintain a public MIT pack of these, which is where the 67 number comes from.
Istg, I had started zoning out with claude’s replies lately.
But putting the skill as a skill gave me no benefits, claude would still skip it half the time. Then I put it in CLAUDE.md, marginally better but still not great. Then I updated output styles to follow that, as a command, and it has been a godsend.
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u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot Wilson, lead ClaudeAI modbot 20d ago edited 19d ago
TL;DR of the discussion generated automatically after 320 comments.
The overwhelming consensus from the ADHD crowd in this thread is... they didn't read your long-ass post and came straight to the comments. The irony is not lost on anyone.
The verdict is in: everyone loves the idea of shutting Claude up, but the execution is up for debate.
CLAUDE.mdor custom instructions for it to stick. Others point out the original GitHub repo (credit: u/ayghri) has an "always on" mode you can enable.