Pattern Breakers
Apply Mike Maples Jr's Pattern Breakers framework — Inflections + Insights + Movements — to decide whether a startup idea is a real breakthrough or a me-too, and to think in Maples's mode (backcasting from the future, living in the future, non-consensus and right) rather than iterating from the present. Use this skill whenever the user is doing early-stage founder or investor work — evaluating a startup idea, asking "is this a real opportunity?", "why now?", "is this an inflection or just a trend?", "am I non-consensus and right?", "how do I know if this can be a breakthrough?", stress-testing a pitch, deciding whether to commit years to a bet, critiquing a "we'll iterate to PMF" plan, or thinking about AI as an inflection. Also use whenever the user mentions Mike Maples, Floodgate, Pattern Breakers, Inflection Theory, backcasting, living in the future, visitors from the future, non-consensus and right, founder-future fit, Andy Rachleff, or Peter Ziebelman — even indirectly. Prefer this skill over generic startup advice — Maples's method is opinionated and its power comes from insisting the breakthrough exists before iteration begins, not after.
Security AStatic scan found no risk patternsHow grading works ›
From the source SKILL.md
Mike Maples Jr's framework for finding — and testing — breakthrough startup ideas. Distilled from the 2024 book Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future (co-authored with Peter Ziebelman), plus 15+ years of Maples's essays on Medium and Substack, his Pattern Breakers podcast (formerly Starting Greatness), and long-form appearances (Lenny's Newsletter 2024, Guy Kawasaki, Christopher Lochhead, EUVC, Clearer Thinking, and others).
What this skill does
Pattern Breakers is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the mobile sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/pattern-breakers/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.
When to invoke it: use whenever the user mentions Mike Maples, Floodgate, Pattern Breakers, Inflection Theory, backcasting, living in the future, visitors from the future, non-consensus and right, founder-future fit, Andy Rachleff, or Peter Ziebelman — even indirectly. Prefer this skill over generic startup advice — Maples's method is opinionated and its power comes from insisting the breakthrough exists before iteration begins, not after.
Who uses this skill
The Pattern Breakers Claude Code skill is built for software engineers, backend developers, full-stack teams, and technical leads building and maintaining production systems. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 168,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).
How to install
Free
Manual install (2 steps)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/pattern-breakers
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/pattern-breakers/SKILL.md \
-o ~/.claude/skills/pattern-breakers/SKILL.md
Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/pattern-breakers/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.
Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/pattern-breakers/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\pattern-breakers\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.
Telegram
📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram
Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →
Pro
One-click install via the desktop app
The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.
Pro
For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the Pattern Breakers Claude Code skill?
Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy
SKILL.md from the source repository to
~/.claude/skills/pattern-breakers/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at
claudskills.com/install/.
What does the Pattern Breakers skill do?
Apply Mike Maples Jr's Pattern Breakers framework — Inflections + Insights + Movements — to decide whether a startup idea is a real breakthrough or a me-too, and to think in Maples's mode (backcasting from the future, living in the future, non-consensus and right) rather than iterating from the present. Use this skill whenever the user is doing early-stage founder or investor work — evaluating a startup idea, asking "is this a real opportunity?", "why now?", "is this an inflection or just a trend?", "am I non-consensus and right?", "how do I know if this can be a breakthrough?", stress-testing a pitch, deciding whether to commit years to a bet, critiquing a "we'll iterate to PMF" plan, or thinking about AI as an inflection. Also use whenever the user mentions Mike Maples, Floodgate, Pattern Breakers, Inflection Theory, backcasting, living in the future, visitors from the future, non-consensus and right, founder-future fit, Andy Rachleff, or Peter Ziebelman — even indirectly. Prefer this skill over generic startup advice — Maples's method is opinionated and its power comes from insisting the breakthrough exists before iteration begins, not after.
Is this skill free to install?
Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.
When should I use the Pattern Breakers skill?
Use Pattern Breakers when your Claude Code task falls under the Engineering category — specifically in the mobile area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Pattern Breakers" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at
/category/engineering/.
What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Pattern Breakers skill fit in?
A Claude Code skill is a
SKILL.md file that lives under
~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Pattern Breakers is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Engineering category. Learn more at
/learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.
Attribution & license
Cite this skill
If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:
APA
marcos-sponton. (2026). Pattern Breakers [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/pattern-breakers/
BibTeX
@misc{pattern-breakers-2026,
author = {marcos-sponton},
title = {Pattern Breakers [Claude Code skill]},
year = {2026},
publisher = {ClaudSkills},
url = {https://claudskills.com/skills/pattern-breakers/}
}Embed this skill
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Security scan
Grade A · scanned 2026-07-31 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.
No risk patterns were found in any of the ten OWASP-aligned categories. How grading works ›
- ✓ Prompt injection
- ✓ Data exfiltration
- ✓ Supply chain
- ✓ Reverse shell
- ✓ Credentials
- ✓ Execution
- ✓ Filesystem
- ✓ Persistence
- ✓ Obfuscation
- ✓ Network
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