Quaere /ˈkwae̯.re/ — "ask"

Skills that make coding agents stop and verify before they patch.

A skill is a markdown file the agent loads on demand based on task context. Quaere ships five. While they are active, the agent reads first and writes a checkable claim before it edits — naming what it found, running the test, type-check, or probe that could prove it wrong, and stopping if the result doesn't back the claim. Overhead per task: roughly +12% tokens and +22% wall time.

Where it helps

Terminal-Bench, Codex CLI, v0.3.2 sweep. Two cuts:

+1.25 pp on the full 80-task set (41 → 42 resolved). Within run-to-run variance — read it as "does not regress".
+8.7 pp on the 69 tasks where the install pipeline wasn't broken (52.2% → 60.9%). The other 11 tasks failed before the skill could load.

The per-category cut below comes from the clean 69-task subset. Per-category samples are small (n = 3 to 10), so treat the splits as suggestive rather than confirmed effects:

Task type	Δ resolution
Data processing	+60 pp
SWE-bench style	+25 pp
Security	+22 pp
Build / compile	+17 pp
Other 5 categories (ceiling, floor, or no clear fit)	~0
ML / AI	−10 pp

The load-bearing measurement is the in-tree eval (18 scenarios, +37.7 pp on assertion pass rate). Terminal-Bench is reported alongside as an external no-regression check.

Install

npx quaere-cli install

Or: bunx quaere-cli install · npm install -g quaere-cli

Deploys the five skills into ~/.claude/skills/ and (if Codex CLI is present) ~/.agents/skills/. Re-running with the same version is a no-op; use --force to reinstall.

Skills

Skill	Use when
`quaere-semantic`	Understand unfamiliar code before changing it.
`quaere-grounding`	Verify external, version-sensitive facts (SDKs, APIs, advisories).
`quaere-evidence`	Defend or reject claims, bug causes, review comments.
`quaere-execution`	Stage a confirmed fix into reviewable, single-purpose commits.
`quaere-audit`	Walk a codebase for security properties and reject findings that can't be shown reachable from real input.

Manage

npx quaere-cli list      # show installed skills
npx quaere-cli doctor    # verify install integrity
npx quaere-cli update    # check for a newer release