Claude Cognitive Toolkit
April 26, 2026 · View on GitHub
Evidence-based CBT and DBT intervention skills for AI assistants. Built for developers who want structured mental health support in their terminal workflow — without leaving the command line.
CBT Thought Record Tool
A full 7-step cognitive restructuring workflow based on Aaron Beck's Cognitive Therapy and David Burns' Feeling Good methodology.
Steps:
- Describe the situation
- Identify automatic thoughts
- Detect cognitive distortions (Burns' 10-category taxonomy)
- Rate emotion intensity (0–100)
- Generate a balanced alternative thought
- Re-rate emotion after reframing
- Export structured markdown with frontmatter
Distortion detection is automatic — the toolkit matches your thought against all 10 Burns categories and flags the most salient ones before asking you to reframe.
DBT Skills Training
Skills from Marsha Linehan's Dialectical Behavior Therapy adapted for conversational AI delivery.
| Skill | Module | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Opposite Action | Emotion Regulation | ✅ Available |
| DEAR MAN | Interpersonal Effectiveness | 🔜 Wave 2 |
| TIPP | Crisis Survival | 🔜 Wave 2 |
| Wise Mind | Core Mindfulness | 🔜 Wave 3 |
| GIVE / FAST | Interpersonal Effectiveness | 🔜 Wave 4 |
Opposite Action guides you through identifying the action urge driven by an emotion, then choosing the behaviorally opposite response — evidence-based for breaking avoidance, shame spirals, and anger escalation.
DEAR MAN (Wave 2) includes roleplay: the AI plays the other person so you can rehearse assertive communication before the real conversation.
Cognitive Distortion Detection
Automatic detection across all 10 Burns categories:
- All-or-Nothing Thinking — seeing things in black/white, no middle ground
- Overgeneralization — one negative event = a never-ending pattern of defeat
- Mental Filter — dwelling on a single negative detail
- Disqualifying the Positive — rejecting positive experiences as "not counting"
- Mind Reading — assuming others' negative reactions without evidence
- Fortune Telling — predicting things will turn out badly
- Magnification / Minimization — catastrophizing or shrinking things inappropriately
- Emotional Reasoning — "I feel it, therefore it must be true"
- Should Statements — rigid rules that generate guilt and resentment
- Labeling and Mislabeling — attaching a global negative label to yourself or others
Anxiety Management
The toolkit features configurable pushback — the AI challenges negative thoughts with varying intensity based on your preference and current capacity.
Configurable Pushback
| Level | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Silent | Record only, no challenge |
| 1 | Gentle | Soft Socratic questions |
| 2 | Balanced | Moderate challenge + reframe (default) |
| 3 | Direct | Strong evidence-based confrontation |
Set pushback_level: 2 in your skill config or pass --pushback 3 at invocation.
Developer Mental Health
Built by a developer for developers. Core design principles:
- Terminal-native: works inside Claude Code via
/cbtslash command — no browser, no app switch - Structured data: every session exports frontmatter-tagged markdown, importable into Obsidian or any PKM
- Privacy-first: all data stays local; no telemetry, no external API calls beyond your configured Claude
- Composable: integrates with HRV data, genome vault, and daily notes pipelines
- Async-friendly: start a record mid-debug session, pause, resume later
HRV Biofeedback Integration
Optional physiological context enriches your thought records.
Apple Health: resting HRV, heart rate, sleep data pulled via local Health MCP or export.
Aurora Ring: overnight HRV trend, recovery score, and readiness index can be appended to session frontmatter.
Genome Vault: if you have a genome vault configured, CYP/BDNF/DRD2 pharmacogenomic context is available as a background note — relevant for interpreting mood patterns over time.
When HRV data is present, the toolkit adds a hrv_context block to output frontmatter and may adjust its framing (e.g., noting that low HRV days correlate with negative cognitive bias).
Quick Start
Claude Code
# 1. Copy skill file to your skills directory
cp cognitive-toolkit/skill.md ~/.claude/skills/cognitive-toolkit.md
# 2. Start a thought record
/cbt
# 3. Run opposite action
/opposite
Telegram Bot
If you have a Telegram bot configured with this skill:
/record — start a CBT thought record
/opposite — run Opposite Action DBT skill
/checkin — daily mood + distortion check-in
Techniques
| Name | Type | Steps | Time | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thought Record | CBT | 7 | 10–15 min | ✅ Available |
| Opposite Action | DBT | 5 | 5–10 min | ✅ Available |
| DEAR MAN | DBT | 7 | 15–20 min | 🔜 Wave 2 |
| TIPP | DBT | 4 | 5 min | 🔜 Wave 2 |
| Chain Analysis | DBT | 8 | 20–30 min | 🔜 Wave 3 |
| Behavioral Activation | CBT | 6 | 10–15 min | 🔜 Wave 3 |
| Wise Mind | DBT | 3 | 5–10 min | 🔜 Wave 3 |
| GIVE / FAST | DBT | 8 | 15–20 min | 🔜 Wave 4 |
| Affect Labeling | Neuroscience | 3 | 3–5 min | 🔜 Wave 4 |
Health Data (Optional)
All health integrations are optional and off by default.
Apple Health — resting HRV, heart rate variability trends, sleep stages. Requires Apple Health MCP or manual CSV export.
Aurora Ring — overnight recovery score, readiness index, HRV baseline. Requires Aurora export or API token.
Genome Vault — pharmacogenomic markers (CYP1A2, BDNF Val66Met, DRD2, OPRM1). Requires a local genome vault at ~/Brains/genome/ or configurable path. Provides background context only — never diagnostic.
Output
Each session produces a structured markdown file:
---
type: thought-record
date: '[[20260426]]'
technique: thought_record
distortions: [all-or-nothing, fortune-telling]
emotion_before: 75
emotion_after: 40
pushback_level: 2
hrv_context: low # if health data present
---
## Situation
...
## Automatic Thought
...
## Distortions Detected
- All-or-Nothing Thinking
- Fortune Telling
## Balanced Thought
...
Files are saved to vault-output/ by default. Path is configurable in skill frontmatter.
Not a Therapist
This toolkit is a self-help tool implementing publicly documented CBT and DBT techniques. It is not a substitute for professional mental health care.
- It does not diagnose conditions
- It does not replace a licensed therapist or psychiatrist
- It does not handle crisis situations — if you are in crisis, contact a mental health professional or crisis line
If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please contact your local emergency services or a crisis hotline.
License
MIT — see LICENSE
Citation
If you reference this toolkit in academic or professional work, please cite it using the metadata in CITATION.cff.