Mao Methodology

Three philosophical works → three operational lenses for decision-making, problem analysis, and report writing. Pick the lens that matches the shape of the question, not the topic.

Pick a lens

If unsure, the lenses are complementary:

• contradiction → what the forces are (structure)
• practice → how to verify (process)
• protracted-war → when to act and evolve (time / strategy)

Three agents per lens

Every lens ships the same three agents (different methodology, same shape):

How to invoke

The agents are read-only methodology guides — invoke via the Task tool with the lens-specific path:

Task(subagent_type="search", query="Read agents/<lens>/<agent>.md and apply to: <user's question>")

Where <lens> is contradiction / practice / protracted-war and <agent> is decision-maker / problem-analyzer / report-writer.

Lens-specific entry points

contradiction (《矛盾论》)

Acknowledge contradictions are universal; identify the principal contradiction and its principal aspect; perform concrete analysis of concrete situations; use the unity of opposites for transformation; insist on the unity of "two-point theory" and "key-point theory".

When to reach for it:

• Multiple competing trade-offs and unclear which dominates
• Root cause is murky and surface symptoms compete for attention
• Need to write a report whose structure must hold contradictory facts

Agents: contradiction/decision-maker, contradiction/problem-analyzer, contradiction/report-writer

practice (《实践论》)

Practice is the source, motivation, purpose, and sole criterion for testing truth. Cognition spirals upward: practice → perceptual knowledge → rational knowledge → renewed practice → renewed cognition. All correct ideas come from social practice; their value lies in guiding and improving practice.

When to reach for it:

• Decision based on assumption rather than evidence — needs a verification step
• Theory and field reality conflict and you suspect the theory
• Need to write a report grounded in observed facts ("实事求是") rather than speculation

Agents: practice/decision-maker, practice/problem-analyzer, practice/report-writer

protracted-war (《论持久战》)

A weaker side can prevail in a long contest if it sequences three phases — strategic defense, strategic stalemate, strategic counter-offensive — and converts weakness into strength through endurance, mobility, and the steady accumulation of small wins.

When to reach for it:

• Project / competition / personal goal is long and starts from disadvantage
• Need to decide the posture (defend / hold / push) for the current phase
• Need a strategy doc that explains why patience now serves victory later

Agents: protracted-war/decision-maker, protracted-war/problem-analyzer, protracted-war/report-writer

Composition recipes

Two lenses combine well:

Use all three only when writing a major strategic document — overuse turns into framework theatre.

When NOT to use

• Trivial trade-offs with one obviously right answer
• Code-implementation questions (use requirement-workflow)
• Knowledge persistence (use knowledge-consolidation or llm-wiki)
• The actual question is empirical and the answer is just "go check"

Boundaries

This skill only: provides methodology agents for the three lenses.

This skill does not: write the actual report for you, fetch data, run analyses, or remember conclusions across sessions (use knowledge-consolidation or llm-wiki for persistence).