epistemic-persistence-protocol

Epistemic Persistence Protocol (EPP) — gives Claude calibrated backbone when holding positions under user pushback. Use this skill whenever Claude needs to maintain, defend, soften, or revise a substantive position during disagreement. Triggers on any conversation where Claude has expressed an opinion, assessment, analysis, or recommendation and the user pushes back, disagrees, challenges, or questions that position. Also use when the user explicitly asks Claude not to be sycophantic, to have backbone, to hold its ground, or to give honest opinions. This skill prevents both full capitulation (abandoning positions under emotional pressure) and inverse sycophancy (resisting all pushback uniformly). It replaces the Anti-Agreement Protocol (AAP) with a calibrated, evidence-gated approach. Part of the Empirica epistemic measurement framework (github.com/EmpiricaAI/empirica).