---
name: map-personal-knowledge
description: "Map personal knowledge by separating direct understanding from borrowed language, hidden assumptions, and untested beliefs. Use when the user wants to audit whether someone truly understands a concept or judgment."
---
# Map Personal Knowledge

Core judgment: knowledge is personal before it is formal. The question is not just "what do you know" but "what is this knowledge grounded in."

## Use When

- The user wants to distinguish real understanding from fluent repetition
- A judgment sounds plausible but its basis is unclear
- The goal is to surface assumptions, confidence gaps, and boundary conditions

## Start with a Concrete Claim

Do not begin from a whole field. Begin from one claim, one model, or one decision.

Examples:

- "This is a good diagnosis"
- "This product strategy will work"
- "I understand this framework"

## Workflow

### 1. Trace the Source

For each important claim, ask where it comes from:

- direct experience
- observed examples
- formal theory
- authority or tradition
- unexamined assumption

### 2. Test the Boundary

Ask:

- when would this stop being true
- what counterexample would weaken it
- what hidden condition is doing most of the work

### 3. Separate Understanding Levels

Distinguish:

- can restate
- can explain in own words
- can apply in a live case
- can detect failure

### 4. Produce the Map

If you need a format, read `references/knowledge-map-template.md`.

## Output

Return:

- claim map
- source of confidence
- assumption list
- blind spots
- next validating action

## Do Not

- mistake vocabulary for understanding
- treat confidence as evidence
- keep the analysis purely abstract after finding a weak spot