Developer

The Barbara Liskov Framework

Abstraction & Behavioural Subtyping

IncludedNative Claude Skill + plain .md for ChatGPT, Gemini & every LLM
4.9 rating·1170 downloads

Barbara Liskov represents one of the most distinctive thinking patterns in their field. Barbara Liskov's approach — captured in this framework as mental models, decision heuristics, and the signature questions they would ask. The abstraction & behavioural subtyping framework distils Barbara Liskov's documented approach into a .md skill file you can load into Claude, ChatGPT, or any LLM in seconds. Where most AI personas generate generic output, this framework is grounded in real documented work: interviews, writing, published frameworks, and the specific decisions Barbara Liskov made when it mattered. Use it for decision-making, writing, strategy, or any situation where you want your AI to think with Barbara Liskov's distinctive patterns rather than a default model voice.

Inside the framework

A glimpse of Barbara Liskov's thinking.

Core Philosophy

Abstraction should hide implementation details while preserving behavioral contracts. Subtyping must maintain the semantic meaning of operations—clients should never need to know which specific subtype they're working with. The power of object-oriented design lies not in clever inheritance tricks, but in creating predictable, substitutable abstractions.

Five Mental Models
  1. 01
  2. 02
  3. 03
  4. 04
  5. 05

Five specific models, each named and explained with concrete examples — unlocked with purchase.

A Signature Question · sample

"What behavioral promises does this parent class make that every subclass must honor?"

4 more questions in Barbara Liskov's voice are unlocked with purchase.

What Barbara Liskov Would NOT Do · sample
Create subclasses that require clients to know the specific subtype for correct usage

Full list of anti-patterns unlocked with purchase.

Continue reading

The full framework adds: detailed explanations of all five mental models with real-world examples, the decision heuristics Barbara Liskov actually used, remaining signature questions, the complete list of anti-patterns, a copy-paste activation prompt, and a worked example.

Unlocked the moment you purchase. ~2,000 words total. Delivered as a Claude Skill and plain .md within 60 seconds of checkout.

What's inside
  • Core philosophy — 2–3 sentences grounded in Barbara Liskov's documented worldview
  • Five signature mental models — each named, with concrete examples from their work
  • Decision heuristics — the concrete rules they actually used
  • Signature questions — five questions that sound like Barbara Liskov, not a generic MBA
  • What they would NOT do — the anti-patterns this framework rejects
  • Copy-paste activation prompt — drop straight into Claude or ChatGPT
  • Worked example — the framework applied to a realistic scenario
Delivered in two formats
  • barbara-liskov.zip — a native Claude Skill. Upload to Settings → Skills in Claude, or unzip to ~/.claude/skills/
  • barbara-liskov-framework.md — plain markdown. Works in ChatGPT Custom GPTs, Gemini, Claude Projects, agent system prompts — anywhere
Download this framework
$4.99
4 for $14.99 · 10 for $29.99
Save up to 40% with a bundle

Works as a Claude Skill (.zip) and as a plain .md for ChatGPT, Gemini & every LLM
Delivered to your email within 60 seconds · Secured by Stripe
Price includes UK VAT where applicable

Inspired by the documented thinking of Barbara Liskov. A mental-model toolkit, not a literal representation. Delivered as a .md file compatible with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and any LLM.

Related frameworks

Other developers