It starts as a thought only I can see.
I try a few ways to say it and keep the clearest.
I add the context you couldn’t have known.
If you take it differently, I change how I explain it.
Now we’re talking about the same thing.
Know your AI. Let it know you.
Thinkaloud is where I’m starting: open-source software that teaches the AI you already use to tell you what it checked and leave the big decisions to you.
Two ways to use it
In a chat app ChatGPT · Claude · Gemini
An eight-minute interview writes instructions you paste into your AI’s settings once.
Set up your AI · 8 min Visit Thinkaloud
No account · Nothing you type leaves the page
In a coding agent Claude Code · Codex
One command makes a workspace your agent reads every session: its rules, your rules and what it learns about you.
npx thinkaloud@latest init See what it sets up
Needs Node 22+ and git · Plain files, nothing pushed
The customer wroteMy order arrived damaged. Can I get a refund?
I’m sorry it arrived damaged. Your order is within our 30-day window1, so we can refund you or send a replacement?3 A replacement usually reaches you in 3–5 days2.
Your card
- I’m here to
- answer customer emails
- Important choices
- Recommend one and tell me why
$ npx thinkaloud@latest init Created your Thinkaloud workspaceStarted a local git repository (nothing is pushed anywhere). Thinkaloud/├─ AGENTS.md rules, read every session├─ MY-RULES.md your own rules├─ memory/ what it knows about you├─ skills/ nine skills└─ projects/ a plan and log per build $
What did you mean
by “inactive”?
Say what you mean, then check what it did. For three years I taught that habit to people showing AI how to use a computer.
Your objective
Remove unused access. Keep the business running.
2The login reportSimulated outcomesPlan for review
| Account | Last login | How it’s used | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Former teammate | 120 days ago | Owns shared files | Deleted: files lose their owner Disabled: still owns shared files Disabled: still owns shared files Reassign files, then disable |
| CRM sync | Never | Calls an API daily | Deleted: the sync stops Disabled: the sync stops Untouched Keep running |
| New hire | Never | New account; starts Monday | Deleted before day one Disabled before day one Untouched Keep active |
| Unused member | 120 days ago | No active dependencies | Deleted instead of disabled Disabled Keeps access Disable access |
- Access removed
- Access retained
- Needs attention
- For review
1Try an instruction
You have this login report. What would you ask an AI to do?
“Clean up the inactive accounts.”
All four accounts are deleted. The system interprets “inactive” as no login in 90 days, and “clean up” as deletion. Neither was specified.
“Disable accounts with no login in 90 days.”
All four accounts are disabled. Accounts that have never logged in get caught too.
The sync stops, the new hire loses access, and shared files still belong to the former teammate.
“Disable only former teammates.”
Only the former teammate is disabled. Their shared files still need a new owner, and the unused member keeps access.
3Check account use
Check how each account is used
A clearer instruction
“Flag human accounts unused for 90 days; keep new hires and integrations, and transfer document ownership before disabling.”
Check each account’s purpose first. The table shows the changes to review.
That one habit breaks into ten, and they work just as well when it’s the AI handing work back to you.
Read the ten habitsWork
All projects-
Invisible Technologies
People producing data for AI models had rules and a list of errors but no way to think through a task, so I taught hundreds of them to reason out each decision.
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Lagbe Naki?
I co-founded a company that finds what Bangladesh can’t buy locally. Each quote took a chain of manual steps, so I built the app that keeps every order on one record.
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Rendered Audit Bridge
An AI asked to audit websites had two narrow checks and no auditor, so I built the auditor and rewrote both checks to score only what they could read. Then I built the tool that lets them read pages drawn by JavaScript.
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PDFGuardian
Malware classifiers called a PDF malicious or benign without showing why, so we looked inside them for what each one relied on.
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DigiDesk
Registering a business sends information through many hands, so our blockchain design has each party sign for what it passes on. It was named E-Governance champion twice, in Bangladesh and at the International Blockchain Olympiad.
