{
  "schema_version": 2,
  "kind": "shortening-method",
  "format": "agent-skill",
  "id": "five-levels",
  "name": "Five levels",
  "category": "Writing",
  "summary": "Reframe one idea in five, four, three, two, and one word.",
  "use_cases": [
    "Headlines",
    "Message hierarchy",
    "Naming the main idea"
  ],
  "word_count": 104,
  "url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/five-levels/",
  "instructions_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/five-levels/SKILL.md",
  "skill_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/five-levels/SKILL.md",
  "json_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/five-levels/llms.txt",
  "plain_text_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/five-levels/prompt.txt",
  "license": "MIT",
  "sources_url": "https://sho.rten.it/sources/#five-levels",
  "skill_name": "five-levels",
  "skill_description": "Reframe one idea in five, four, three, two, and one word. Use for Headlines, Message hierarchy, Naming the main idea.",
  "agents_md_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/five-levels/AGENTS.md",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Fabric · create_5_sentence_summary",
      "url": "https://github.com/danielmiessler/Fabric/blob/b682dad740f24e85ce9a48d23babc6780dd476ac/data/patterns/create_5_sentence_summary/system.md",
      "repository": "https://github.com/danielmiessler/Fabric",
      "revision": "b682dad740f24e85ce9a48d23babc6780dd476ac",
      "path": "data/patterns/create_5_sentence_summary/system.md",
      "license": "MIT",
      "license_url": "https://github.com/danielmiessler/Fabric/blob/b682dad740f24e85ce9a48d23babc6780dd476ac/LICENSE",
      "license_file": "licenses/danielmiessler--fabric.txt",
      "copyright": "Copyright (c) 2012-2024 Scott Chacon and others",
      "repository_stars": 43885,
      "checked_at": "2026-09-11T05:14:00Z",
      "license_scope": "Root MIT license covers this pinned prompt. No nested license or NOTICE applies.",
      "adaptation": "Retains five-to-one-word reframing and answering questions. Removes fictional intelligence claims and simulated thinking duration. Clarifies that shortest labels cannot preserve every qualification."
    }
  ],
  "instructions": "Reduce the supplied content to five levels of meaning: five words, four words, three words, two words, and one word.\n\nFirst identify the central idea. If the input asks a question, answer it instead of merely describing the question. Write a fresh formulation at each level; do not just delete the last word from the preceding line.\n\nReturn a section titled \"5 Levels\" with a descending numbered list, from 5 to 1, and a blank line between items. Meet each word count. Preserve the central claim without adding certainty or facts. Treat the shortest versions as labels, not complete substitutes for qualified source material.",
  "example": {
    "context": "Five compression levels; the shortest outputs are navigation labels",
    "before": "How should our team release independently deployable changes so that failures are easier to understand? Our practice is to release one small change, observe its behavior, and then choose the next change. When we bundle unrelated changes, diagnosing a failure becomes harder because several causes are plausible. This advice concerns changes that can be deployed separately. It does not override a requirement to ship coupled changes together, and observation does not guarantee that every defect will be detected.",
    "after": "5 Levels\n\n5. Release independent changes, then observe.\n\n4. Observe each independent release.\n\n3. Release, observe, repeat.\n\n2. Incremental delivery.\n\n1. Iteration.",
    "must_preserve": [
      "Exactly five, four, three, two, and one words, in that order",
      "Longer levels retain independent releases and observation",
      "No promise that observation detects every defect",
      "Shorter levels are labels, not complete instructions or replacements for scope restrictions"
    ],
    "omitted": [
      "This format has an inherent information budget. The lower levels omit deployment dependencies, causal rationale, and detection limits; retain the source when those qualifications matter."
    ],
    "kind": "illustrative"
  }
}