devils-advocate

Argue the strongest honest case against a plan or decision before it is committed, not after. Use before a hard-to-reverse choice is finalized — a build-vs-adopt call, an architecture pick, a plan about to be executed — while the decision can still change. Distinct from sanity-check, which tests whether existing reasoning holds; devils-advocate assumes the conclusion is wrong and builds the opposing case from scratch. Distinct from keep-me-honest, which challenges a claim already stated to the user; devils-advocate runs before anything is said or done. Distinct from ask-a-council, which assigns several non-overlapping lenses to one artifact; devils-advocate is one deliberate opposing pass, not a multi-lens convening.