Elephant Goldfish Model: a Claude Code skill by Google
Official
For engineers who write design docs before building and want fresh-eyed agent reviewers. Skip it if you go straight from idea to code without a written spec.
- Score
- 64of 100
- Rank
- #217of 239
- Installs
- 413on skills.sh
- Stars
- 17.2Kon GitHub
- Security
- Clear 3 scanners
- Updated
- 2026
- Context
- ~67tokens always
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/google/elephant-goldfish-model
Run it in your terminal. View the source
Most people install it straight from GitHub, where it has 17.2K stars, so its skills.sh count understates how widely it is used.
Using the Claude app rather than Claude Code? You can add a skill there too. How to add it in the app
What does Elephant Goldfish Model do?
Elephant Goldfish Model is a set of 7 skills from Google for writing and reviewing software design documents with agents. The elephant side keeps your project context: egm-brainstorm tests an idea and saves concepts_brief.md, and egm-draft turns that brief or your notes into design_draft.md one section at a time, waiting for your approval after each. It is told to critique before agreeing and to leave architecture choices to you. The goldfish side is fresh subagents that see only the draft and its sources: egm-review runs five review stages, egm-resolve works through findings, and egm-drift-report compares checked-in docs with current code.
When should you use Elephant Goldfish Model?
Use it when
- You need a design doc for a feature with real trade-offs
- You want reviewers that did not see the earlier chat
- Your docs may have drifted away from the code
Skip it when
- The change is small enough to code without a spec
- Your agent can't start fresh subagents for reviews
What it needs and what it can touch
What it can do
- Reads project files and writes concepts_brief.md and design_draft.md
- Starts fresh subagents to review documents
From reading its instructions, not from running it.
Why it scores 64
Strongest on trust (100 of 100), weakest on adoption (14).
Is Elephant Goldfish Model safe to install?
Every scanner that checked it passed it. Scanners often miss what other scanners catch, and a skill can change after a scan. Read its source before you install it.
| Scanner | Result | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Gen Agent Trust Hub | Passed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Socket | Passed | Nov 4, 2026 |
| Snyk | Low risk | Nov 3, 2026 |
Details
- Installs
- 413
- Repository stars
- 17,171
- Last repository change
- Tokens always loaded
- about 67
- Tokens when used
- about 4,278
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Data confidence
- High
Did it do the job for you?
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Elephant Goldfish Model