Where to buy AI thinking frameworks: 2026 buyer's guide

"AI thinking frameworks" is a new category. Three years ago the options were: write your own system prompt, or don't. Today there are marketplaces, subscription tools, and curated catalogues, all promising to make Claude or ChatGPT reason like Warren Buffett, Kobe Bryant, or Richard Feynman.

We run one of those marketplaces (authority.md), so treat this guide as informed but partisan. We've tried to be honest about where other options beat us — and specifically, which buyer should pick which tool.

What counts as a thinking framework?

Before picking a seller, make sure you know what you're buying. Three different products get marketed under similar language:

1. Persona prompts. A system prompt that tells the AI to "act like X." Example: "You are Warren Buffett, a patient value-focused investor who seeks undervalued opportunities and thinks in decades, not quarters." The AI adopts the voice. Cheap to create, cheap to use. Works fine for conversational curiosity.

2. Structured frameworks. A document containing named mental models, decision heuristics, signature questions, anti-patterns, and activation instructions. The AI executes against the structure rather than adopting a voice. More engineering effort, more consistent output.

3. AI coaching products. A hosted chat product where an AI walks you through decisions using mental models. You don't own anything; you subscribe to the service.

Each is legitimate for different use cases. A lot of buyer confusion comes from assuming these are the same product.

Criteria that matter when choosing

Before ranking anything, here are the criteria we'd use if we were buying:

• Catalogue depth — how many thinkers are covered, and how well
• Format quality — is it a prompt, a structured file, or a hosted chat
• Price and ownership — one-off purchase, subscription, or free
• Provenance — is the framework drawn from the thinker's documented work, or invented based on vibes
• Portability — can you use it in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and agent systems, or is it locked to one
• Refund and support — what happens if it doesn't work

No product scores perfectly on all six. The question is which trade-off matches your use case.

The ranking

1. authority.md (paid, structured, broad) — authority.md

That's us. Read the bias disclaimer above. We've tried to be specific about why we rank ourselves here rather than just claiming it.

What you get: 447 thinking frameworks, each delivered as a native Claude Skill (.zip) plus a plain .md file. Each framework is roughly 2,000 words covering:

• Core philosophy (documented, not invented)
• Five named mental models with concrete examples
• Decision heuristics the person actually used
• Five signature questions in their voice
• Anti-patterns — what they explicitly wouldn't do
• A copy-paste activation prompt
• A worked example

Pricing: $4.99 per framework. 4 for $14.99. 10 for $29.99. One-off purchase, no subscription. 24-hour refund via email reply.

Scores on criteria:

• Catalogue depth: 447 thinkers, weighted toward documented thought leaders (Buffett, Feynman, Curie, Kobe, Rubin, Morrison, Aurelius, etc.)
• Format quality: structured frameworks, not prompts
• Price: $4.99 each
• Provenance: drawn from documented work — letters, books, interviews, filmed lectures
• Portability: works in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, any LLM; native Claude Skill format
• Refund: 24 hours, no questions

Best for: buyers who want engineered frameworks for decision work, not conversation. Use cases: investment analysis, creative direction, strategic planning, agent system prompts, team training.

Skip if: you want to test the category for free first (try Think Like Them), or you want conversational coaching rather than a file (try Mental Models AI).

2. Think Like Them (free, conversational, broad) — thinklikethem.net

107+ free persona prompts inspired by named entrepreneurs and thinkers. You pick a persona, copy the prompt, paste into ChatGPT or Claude.

Scores on criteria:

• Catalogue depth: 107 personas, mostly entrepreneurs and tech figures
• Format quality: persona prompts (not structured frameworks)
• Price: free
• Provenance: short bios and principle lists — light on documented source material
• Portability: copy-paste prompt, works in any chat tool
• Refund: not applicable (free)

Best for: first-time buyers exploring whether AI personas are useful at all. Conversational use cases where you want the voice, not the structured reasoning. Budget-conscious users.

Skip if: you need the framework to execute reliably as part of an agent workflow, or you use Claude and want native Skill auto-invocation.

We wrote a longer comparison with Think Like Them that breaks down the prompts-vs-frameworks distinction in detail. Short version: if "I'll ask Warren Buffett what he thinks" is your use case, Think Like Them works. If "Claude needs to evaluate an investment using Buffett's actual filters" is your use case, you want structured frameworks.

3. Mental Models AI (subscription, coaching, narrow) — mentalmodels.ai

An AI coaching product with 50+ general mental models (first principles, inversion, second-order thinking). Not tied to named thinkers — the models themselves are the product.

Scores on criteria:

• Catalogue depth: 50 models, abstract rather than persona-driven
• Format quality: hosted chat product, not a file you own
• Price: $19/mo or $49/yr
• Provenance: based on general mental-model canon (Charlie Munger, Shane Parrish, etc.)
• Portability: not portable — access only via their web app
• Refund: subscription terms vary

Best for: users who want an ongoing coaching relationship, not a one-off purchase. Users with consistent decision-making needs who value having the AI walk them through each decision.

Skip if: you want to own what you buy, integrate frameworks into agent systems, or share with a team. You can't install Mental Models AI into Claude Code; you can't put it in your company's shared prompt library.

4. Writing your own framework (free, fully custom) — the DIY option

Not a seller, but worth including: you can write your own framework. Read a thinker's books, distil the principles, structure them into a system prompt or .md file, load into Claude.

Scores on criteria:

• Catalogue depth: however deep you build
• Format quality: whatever you engineer
• Price: free (plus your time)
• Provenance: whatever you source
• Portability: whatever you decide
• Refund: not applicable

Best for: people with the time and interest to do serious source work. People who want a framework for a thinker no marketplace sells yet.

Skip if: you've got real work to do and would rather pay $4.99 to save 20 hours of reading and drafting.

We wrote a longer guide to writing your own frameworks if this is the path you want to take.

The comparison table

Decision tree: which should you pick?

"I want to try one thinker's framework and see if this AI-persona thing works for me." → Think Like Them. It's free. If you like the result, upgrade to authority.md for the engineered version.

"I need Claude to actually reason like Warren Buffett when I'm evaluating an investment." → authority.md. You want a structured framework, not a voice.

"I want to improve my own decision-making and I'd like AI coaching on it." → Mental Models AI. It's a coaching product, not a file marketplace.

"I'm building an AI agent and I need it to have a specific thinker's mental models baked in." → authority.md. You need a file you can load into the agent's system prompt or skills directory.

"I want a framework for [specific thinker] that nobody sells yet." → Write your own. Or email us and we'll often add them within a week.

"I'm on a Claude team plan and want shared frameworks across multiple people." → authority.md. Files are portable, shareable, and version-controllable. Subscription products break this workflow.

One honest observation

This category barely existed in 2023. Most of the tools above have launched in the last 18 months. The space is new enough that positioning is still shifting — Think Like Them may add paid tiers, Mental Models AI may launch a file export, new competitors will emerge.

If you're reading this more than three months after the date at the top, check the providers directly. We'll update this guide when positions materially change, but the AI thinking frameworks category is moving fast.

Start here

• Browse authority.md's 447 frameworks — free to browse, paid to install.
• Compare authority.md to Think Like Them for the paid-vs-free decision.
• Compare authority.md to writing your own for the DIY-vs-buy decision.

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This guide is updated when providers materially change their offerings. Last reviewed: April 2026.