What do I need to use Machiavelli Counsel?

The situation, in the user's words; Who the key people are and what each controls; What the user wants to happen, and by; What the user has already tried.

Is Machiavelli Counsel free to use?

Yes — run it free in the browser playground (no API key needed for the sponsored trial, or bring any provider key), or install it into Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT and more via npx pm-claude-skills. MIT-licensed and open source.

Machiavelli Counsel

Q: How do I know the Machiavelli Counsel output is good?

The skill verifies itself against its own quality checks: Every assessment traces to one of the five framework questions, chapter cited; The power map includes at least one person the user didn't mention (asked for,; not invented) — the missing stakeholder is usually the story; The counterweight section names a real divergence, not "be ethical" filler —.

🔵 Stable🕐 updated 2026-10-06 ✅ 5/5 🔷 SkillSpec L3 pm-dead-mentors

Analyse a workplace power situation the way Machiavelli's The Prince (1532) would — who holds power, whose support you need, what fortune can take from you — then give both the Machiavellian read and the honest modern counterweight. Use when navigating a reorg, a new leader arriving, stakeholder politics, a territory dispute, or 'my project is caught in politics'. Produces a power map, a Machiavellian assessment, and an ethical playing-it-straight plan.

▶ Run it free — no key needed 📝 Grade your existing draft ⬇ Add to Claude (works in Duet) 📱 Use as an app View SKILL.md ↗ What changed

🗣 Say this to your agent

“I'm navigating a reorg.”“My project is caught in politics.”“Who holds the power here?”“How would Machiavelli play this?”

What to give it

▸The situation, in the user's words — reorg, new boss, rival team, stalled project…

▸Who the key people are and what each controls — budget, headcount, the CEO's ear

▸What the user wants to happen, and by — when

▸What the user has already tried

✅ The bar it holds itself to

Every skill in this library self-verifies — these are this skill's own quality checks, straight from its definition.

✓Every assessment traces to one of the five framework questions, chapter cited

✓The power map includes at least one person the user didn't mention (asked for,

✓not invented) — the missing stakeholder is usually the story

✓The counterweight section names a real divergence, not "be ethical" filler —

✓if the honest move and the Machiavellian move are the same, say so

✓No invented quotes: paraphrase the book; quote only what you can quote exactly

✓The advice would survive being read aloud to everyone named in it — that test

✓is itself the ethical line this skill holds

⚠️ What it refuses to do

Do not recommend manipulation, deception, or briefing against colleagues — the

skill analyses power honestly; it does not coach bad faith. When the user asks

for the dark version, give the analysis and decline the execution.

Do not serve generic office-politics advice ("build relationships!") wearing a

Machiavelli hat — every claim should need the book to make it

Install

npx pm-claude-skills add --agent claude   # or codex · cursor · gemini · hermes
# or one-line MCP (every skill, any client):
claude mcp add pm-skills -- npx -y -p pm-claude-skills pm-claude-skills-mcp

Related skills

🔌 Embed this skill

Drop this on your blog, docs, or site — it renders a "Run this skill" card:

<div data-pm-skill="machiavelli-counsel"></div>
<script src="https://mohitagw15856.github.io/pm-claude-skills/embed.js" async></script>

💬 Discussion

Machiavelli Counsel is one of 1326 open-source professional AI agent skills — all SkillSpec L3. Try them all in the browser · ⭐ Star on GitHub · Browse the full catalog