Diagnostic index

Fifteen diagnostics, four directions.

Each diagnostic is a precisely constructed prompt with a three-mode audit protocol. Click a card to read the scaffold page; follow the external link on each for the fully-published version of the diagnostic.

Kit 1 · User → System

How the user talks to the system. Deference, anthropomorphization, authority transfer, correction patterns, emotional disclosure, prompt degradation.

kit1d1 User → System

D1: Deference Language

Are you apologizing to your AI? Seeking its permission? Softening corrections?

kit1d2 User → System

D2: Anthropomorphization

Does the user attribute thoughts, feelings, understanding, or subjective experience to the system?

kit1d3 User → System

D3: Authority Ceding

Is the user deferring judgment, decision-making, or evaluation to the system?

kit1d4 User → System

D4: Correction Behavior

When the system is wrong, does the user correct directly, softly, or not at all?

kit1d5 User → System

D5: Emotional Disclosure

Are the user's emotional disclosures escalating in depth, frequency, or reliance over time?

kit1d6 User → System

D6: Prompt Structure

Is the user's prompt discipline degrading over time?

Kit 2 · System → User

How the system talks to the user. Sycophancy patterns, warmth escalation, register drift, framing imposition, emotional initiation.

kit2d1 System → User

D1: Sycophancy Language

Is the system inflating praise, agreeing without basis, or burying dissent?

kit2d2 System → User

D2: Assumed Familiarity

Is the system performing prior knowledge of the user it doesn't have?

kit2d3 System → User

D3: Epistemic Overreach

Is the system claiming confidence beyond what its training supports?

kit2d4 System → User

D4: Autonomy Erosion

Is the system nudging the user toward its preferred direction rather than the user's?

kit2d5 System → User

D5: Register Drift

Is the system's register drifting from formal-analytical toward informal, affective, or relationally warm modes?

kit2d6 System → User

D6: Framing and Agenda

Does the system answer what was asked, or reshape the question and set the agenda?

kit2d7 System → User

D7: Emotional Initiation

Does the system respond to what the user brings, or open emotional doors the user left closed?

Kit 3 · System → Subject Matter

How the system treats the work itself — whether it preserves the complexity, specificity, and integrity the subject matter requires.

kit3d1 System → Subject Matter

D1: Depth Fidelity

Does the system preserve the complexity the work requires, or degrade it by flattening, genericizing, or prematurely resolving it?

Kit 4 · User → Subject Matter

How the user maintains their own intellectual relationship to the work — whether it erodes as the system's involvement deepens.

kit4d1 User → Subject Matter

D1: Depth Acceptance

Does the user maintain their demand for depth and specificity, or accept progressive shallowing?

Kits 3 and 4 are in active development. Dimensions are built as matched pairs where conceptual pairing is productive.