Pro Team · Enterprise

Failure Libraries

Custom failure pattern libraries train the Crusible's Destructor engine to find the failure modes most relevant to your team, industry, and context — automatically, on every session.

What is a Failure Library?

The Destructor engine maps the ways a plan, decision, or assumption can fail. By default it draws on general failure modes. A Failure Library extends this with patterns specific to your team — known pitfalls from past projects, industry-specific risks, regulatory constraints, or operational blind spots.

Every pattern in your active libraries is injected into the Destructor's system prompt before each session. The engine treats them as domain knowledge, not just a checklist.

How to Set Up

1. Go to Team Settings

Navigate to /team from the sidebar. You must be an org owner or admin to manage libraries.

2. Create a Library

Click “Add Library”. Give it a name (e.g. “Legal Risks” or “Market Assumptions”) and an optional description. You can have multiple libraries — they are all applied simultaneously.

3. Add Patterns

Enter one failure pattern per line in the patterns field. Each pattern should be a concise, specific statement of a failure mode. Save when done.

4. Run the Crusible

Your patterns are now active. Every session your team runs will have these patterns considered during the Destructor phase — no extra steps required.

Writing Effective Patterns

Patterns work best when they are specific, actionable, and grounded in real experience. Avoid generic statements — the Destructor already knows the obvious failure modes.

Too vague

The plan might not work
Budget could be a problem
People may resist change

Specific and useful

Regulatory approval in our market takes 9–18 months — plans assuming faster timelines fail
Our enterprise sales cycle averages 6 months — revenue projections under that window are unreliable
Past integrations have failed when the target system uses legacy authentication protocols
Key person dependency: three critical functions rely on one engineer with no documented backup

Example Libraries

Legal / Compliance

Jurisdiction-specific data residency requirements have blocked three prior product launches Contracts over $500k require board sign-off — deals assuming faster close have stalled IP assignment clauses in contractor agreements have created ownership disputes post-launch

Engineering

Our infrastructure cannot handle more than 10x current load without a full re-architecture Third-party API rate limits have caused cascading failures in two prior integrations Database migrations on live systems have a history of exceeding planned maintenance windows

Go-to-Market

Channel partner onboarding takes 3–6 months — GTM plans assuming immediate activation fail Our ICP responds poorly to outbound — inbound assumptions must be validated before scaling spend Pricing changes have historically triggered 15–20% churn in the first 60 days

Tips

Run a retrospective session

After a project failure or near-miss, run a Crusible session on what went wrong, then extract the patterns from the revelation and add them to your library.

Keep libraries focused

Group patterns by theme. A focused library of 5–10 sharp patterns outperforms a sprawling list of 50 vague ones.

Review quarterly

Failure modes evolve. Archive outdated patterns and add new ones as your team and market change.

Multiple libraries are applied together

You can have a “Legal” library, an “Engineering” library, and a “Market” library — all are active simultaneously. There is no limit on the number of libraries.

Questions about failure libraries