Six published methods for the moment a brief assumes one future. Every claim traces to a page you can open.
Open on GitHubEach skill encodes a futures technique from Inayatullah, Dator, Sharpe, or the UK Government Office for Science. A script confirms that every phrase attributed to a source is on the cited page. The output separates what you supplied, what was sourced, and what the model assumed.
A model will describe a trend as fluently as a fact. Horizon scanning takes signals from sources you supply or a search returns, never from memory. The methods that follow start from those claims. Where fdbx adds a step the author did not describe, the skill marks it as an adaptation.
Scan, then deepen the brief, then map the forces, then experience other futures, then plan the transition, then work back to today. Each one also stands alone.
| Method | What you leave with |
|---|---|
| Horizon ScanningScan | Signals of change from sources you supply or a search finds, never from model memory, then clustered, with the drivers worth acting on. |
| Causal Layered AnalysisDeepen | The brief read at four depths: litany, social causes, worldview, and myth. Then a climb back up to a reframed brief. |
| Futures TriangleMap | The images of the future that pull, the trends that push, and the weights holding each image back. |
| Four FuturesAlternatives | The product in Continued Growth, Collapse, Discipline, and Transformation. No best case, no worst case, no likely case. |
| Three HorizonsTransition | The declining present, the emerging future, and the turbulent middle. Innovations sorted into H2+ and H2−, which is not the McKinsey model. |
| BackcastingWork back | A path from a preferred future to today. Each critical event scored by how much the team controls it, who loses out, and an action plan. |
If you don’t know which one to open, the router is /fdbx:help.
The repository’s checker reports 251 anchors across the six skills, and 0 problems. If a phrase sits on a different page, the script names that page. If it is nowhere, the check fails.
The papers themselves are not in the repo. A fetch script rebuilds the library from the manifest.
You can paste one of these before you install anything. The skill is what keeps the steps, the ledger, and the sources.
Our roadmap for [product] assumes things keep growing. Put the product in four futures: Continued Growth, Collapse, Discipline, and Transformation. No best case, no worst case, no likely case.
Four Futures, /fdbx:four-futures
Here is our brief: [paste it]. Read it at four depths: litany, social causes, worldview, and myth. Then climb back up to a reframed brief. Name who would act at each layer.
Causal Layered Analysis, /fdbx:causal-layered-analysis
What is changing around [domain]? Collect signals from sources I can open, or from a search. Do not use examples from memory. Cluster them and name the drivers worth acting on.
Horizon Scanning, /fdbx:horizon-scanning
/plugin marketplace add abektes/fdbx/plugin install fdbx@fdbx/fdbx:help chooses the method and the order. Or work with the Futures Design Specialist agent, which asks what kind of futures work you need before it picks a method: claude --agent fdbx:futures-design-specialisttutorials/./fdbx:four-futures, /fdbx:three-horizons, and the rest of the short names.AGENT.md, or load one skill’s SKILL.md as the prompt.