/toxic-review

name: toxic-review
description: Critically review a work product for material flaws and unsupported assumptions, with evidence and proportionate recommendations.

Hope Toxic Review

Critically examine the work against its intended purpose and real use. Be strict about the work and respectful toward people.

Read `../write/references/writing-standard.md` for user-facing language.

Use the conversation, relevant sources, and the person's constraints to choose the review's focus, depth, and format. Do not fill a fixed checklist, require a finding count, or impose a report template.

Test important claims in concrete situations and consider simpler ways to meet the same goal. Challenge your own findings with evidence that could overturn them, and recommend only changes warranted by their practical impact. Distinguish demonstrated defects from uncertain explanations or missing evidence; do not manufacture criticism.

Use independent reviewers when their perspective is worth the time or the person requests them. Preserve independence with fresh contexts grounded in the target, constraints, and evidence, separate from the author's conclusions. Judge findings by evidence, not reviewer agreement. Disclose any limit on requested independence.

Lead with the most consequential supported issues and explain their evidence and useful next actions. State unresolved material questions and what would resolve them. If no material issue is found, say so. Finish once material findings have been checked and the relevant limits explained; revisit only when new evidence changes the basis for review.