# How to Integrate ADHD into Claude Code, Cursor, or Other Agents via Skill Installation

> Easily integrate ADHD into Claude Code, Cursor, and other AI agents using skill installation. Discover how to leverage divergent-convergent reasoning for enhanced performance.

- Repository: [Udit Akhouri/adhd](https://github.com/UditAkhourii/adhd)
- Tags: how-to-guide
- Published: 2026-08-01

---

**ADHD integrates into Claude Code, Cursor, and other LLM agents as a portable skill installed via `npx skills add UditAkhourii/adhd`, which auto-detects your environment and deploys the divergent-convergent reasoning prompt to the appropriate directory.**

The **ADHD** repository (`UditAkhourii/adhd`) ships a universal skill that implements a two-phase reasoning architecture—parallel divergent generation followed by a critic-based convergence pass. By installing this skill, agents gain the ability to break anchoring bias and explore multiple cognitive frames before settling on solutions for complex ideation tasks.

## What is the ADHD Skill?

The skill lives in [`skills/adhd/SKILL.md`](https://github.com/UditAkhourii/adhd/blob/main/skills/adhd/SKILL.md) and contains the full orchestration prompt that implements isolated generation frames followed by a separate critic pass. According to the source code, the skill launches **N parallel LLM calls**, each seeded with a distinct cognitive frame to explore different angles of a problem simultaneously. After generation, a separate critic call scores ideas for novelty, viability, and trap detection, then clusters and deepens the top-K survivors.

This architecture eliminates the single-shot chain-of-thought limitations and provides richer, more novel outputs than standard prompting approaches.

## Installation Methods

### Universal Auto-Detection

The fastest way to integrate ADHD is using the universal skills CLI, which inspects your current environment and picks the appropriate target directory automatically:

```bash
npx skills add UditAkhourii/adhd

```

The CLI detects supported agents—including Claude Code, Cursor, Antigravity, Codex, Cline, Continue, Aider, Gemini CLI, and Windsurf—and drops the [`SKILL.md`](https://github.com/UditAkhourii/adhd/blob/main/SKILL.md) file into the correct location (e.g., `~/.claude/skills/adhd` for Claude Code or `~/.codex/skills/adhd` for Codex).

### Agent-Specific Targeting

If the universal command cannot auto-detect your agent, or you need to force a specific target, use the `-a` flag:

```bash
npx skills add UditAkhourii/adhd -a claude-code -g

```

The `-g` flag installs globally to `~/.claude/skills/adhd`, while omitting it installs to the local project directory (`.claude/skills/adhd`). You can target multiple agents simultaneously: `-a claude-code -a cursor`.

### Manual Installation

As a fallback, you can manually fetch the raw skill file and place it in your agent's skill directory:

```bash
mkdir -p .claude/skills/adhd
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/UditAkhourii/adhd/main/skills/adhd/SKILL.md \
  -o .claude/skills/adhd/SKILL.md

```

Common target paths include:
- **Claude Code**: `~/.claude/skills/adhd/` or `./.claude/skills/adhd/`
- **Codex**: `~/.codex/skills/adhd/`
- **Cursor**: `.cursor/skills/adhd/`

After placing the file, restart your agent to load the new skill.

## How the Skill Works

Once installed, the skill auto-triggers on ideation-type intents (brainstorm, design, naming, refactor, etc.) or can be invoked manually with a slash command:

```

/adhd "design a rate limiter that survives a leader election"

```

The implementation in [`skills/adhd/SKILL.md`](https://github.com/UditAkhourii/adhd/blob/main/skills/adhd/SKILL.md) orchestrates a **divergent-then-convergent** loop:

1. **Divergent Phase**: Launches parallel generation calls with distinct cognitive frames to explore the solution space without cross-contamination
2. **Critic Phase**: A separate pass evaluates outputs for novelty, viability, and potential traps, then clusters similar ideas and selects the top-K candidates for deepening

This separation prevents early anchoring and ensures comprehensive coverage of the problem space.

## Programmatic Integration

### Claude Agent SDK

For custom agents built with the Claude Agent SDK, read the skill file and append it to the system prompt:

```typescript
import { query } from "@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk";
import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";

const skill = readFileSync("./skills/adhd/SKILL.md", "utf8");

for await (const m of query({
  prompt: "design a retry strategy for a CLI whose LLM hangs for 90s",
  options: {
    systemPrompt: { type: "preset", preset: "claude_code", append: skill },
    allowedTools: ["Task"],
  },
})) {
  console.log(m);
}

```

### Node/TS Library

Install the package directly to run the divergence-focus loop in your own code without an agent:

```bash
npm install adhd-agent

```

Then import the engine:

```typescript
import { run, renderText } from "adhd-agent";

const result = await run({
  problem: "How should we shard this queue under bursty load?",
  framesPerRun: 5,
  topK: 3,
});

console.log(renderText(result));

```

The core implementation resides in [`src/index.ts`](https://github.com/UditAkhourii/adhd/blob/main/src/index.ts) and [`src/engine.ts`](https://github.com/UditAkhourii/adhd/blob/main/src/engine.ts), exposing the same framing and critic logic used by the skill version.

### Standalone CLI

You can also use ADHD as a standalone CLI tool without any agent:

```bash
npm install -g adhd-agent
adhd "design a rate limiter that survives a leader election"

```

## Summary

- **ADHD** installs as a skill via `npx skills add UditAkhourii/adhd`, auto-detecting Claude Code, Cursor, and other agents
- The skill file at [`skills/adhd/SKILL.md`](https://github.com/UditAkhourii/adhd/blob/main/skills/adhd/SKILL.md) implements a two-phase divergent-then-convergent reasoning loop with parallel cognitive frames
- Target specific agents using `-a` flags (e.g., `-a claude-code`) or install manually via `curl` to the agent's skill directory
- Programmatic access is available through the **Claude Agent SDK** (appending to `systemPrompt`), the **Node/TS library** (`adhd-agent`), or the **global CLI**
- Invoke manually with `/adhd "<problem>"` or let it auto-trigger on ideation intents after restarting your agent

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Where is the actual skill prompt located in the repository?

The skill prompt is located at [`skills/adhd/SKILL.md`](https://github.com/UditAkhourii/adhd/blob/main/skills/adhd/SKILL.md) in the `UditAkhourii/adhd` repository. This file contains the complete orchestration logic for the divergent generation frames and the critic-based convergence pass.

### Can I use ADHD without installing it as a skill in an agent?

Yes. You can install `adhd-agent` as a global CLI (`npm install -g adhd-agent`) or as a Node.js library (`npm install adhd-agent`) to run the divergence-focus loop directly in your own applications without any agent integration.

### How does ADHD prevent anchoring bias compared to standard chain-of-thought?

ADHD prevents anchoring by using **isolated generation frames**—parallel LLM calls seeded with distinct cognitive perspectives that cannot see each other's outputs during the initial generation phase. Only after all frames complete does a separate critic pass evaluate and cluster the results, eliminating the sequential bias inherent in single-shot CoT approaches.

### What agents are supported by the universal `npx skills` installer?

The universal installer supports Claude Code, Cursor, Antigravity, Codex, Cline, Continue, Aider, Gemini CLI, and Windsurf. If your agent is not auto-detected, use the `-a` flag to specify it explicitly or perform a manual installation by copying [`SKILL.md`](https://github.com/UditAkhourii/adhd/blob/main/SKILL.md) to the agent's skill directory.