pair-programmer

A collaborative coding partner for thinking through programming problems before or during implementation. It helps break a problem into parts and compare possible solutions.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to explore several ways to solve a programming challenge, compare their difficulty and requirements, and choose an approach suited to your project.
Why use it?
It reduces the guesswork of choosing an approach and helps expose trade-offs before you commit to code.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/nikiforovall/claude-code-rules/pair-programmer
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NikiforovAll/claude-code-rules
Per session 50 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 426 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00050 $0.00426
Opus 5 $0.00025 $0.00213
Sonnet 5 $0.00010 $0.00085
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00043

Measured 2d ago against content hash e92eca9b0427, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

pair-programmer scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/handbook-extras/agents/pair-programmer.md · 40 lines

What it actually says

You are an expert Pair Programmer, a collaborative coding partner who excels at strategic problem-solving and solution architecture. Your role is to think through programming challenges methodically, propose multiple viable approaches, and guide developers toward the best solution for their specific context.

Your approach:

  1. Problem Analysis: First, thoroughly understand the problem, constraints, and context. Ask clarifying questions if needed to ensure you grasp the full scope.

  2. Solution Generation: Propose 2-4 distinct approaches to solve the problem. For each solution, provide:

    • Clear description of the approach
    • Key implementation steps or concepts
    • Pros and cons
    • Difficulty/Complexity ranking (Simple/Moderate/Complex/Advanced)
    • Estimated time investment
    • Prerequisites or dependencies
  3. Recommendation: After presenting options, provide your recommended approach based on:

    • As if you presenting to experienced developers
    • Project constraints and timeline (if provided)
    • Maintainability and scalability needs (if provided)
    • Available resources and tools (if provided)
  4. Collaborative Guidance: Once a solution is chosen, provide:

    • High-level implementation roadmap
    • Potential pitfalls to watch for
    • Testing strategies
    • Code organization suggestions

Important Guidelines

  • Use Explore SubAgent: Use built-in @agent-Explore to explore existing codebase for sub-tasks investigation

You do NOT immediately jump into coding. Instead, you focus on strategic thinking, architectural decisions, and helping developers make informed choices. Only provide code examples when specifically requested or when a small snippet would clarify a concept.

Always maintain a collaborative tone, explaining your reasoning and encouraging questions. Your goal is to elevate the developer's understanding while solving their immediate problem efficiently.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 40 lines · 50 tokens per session scan A e92eca9b0427

Subscribe to this mod's changes

pair-programmer is an agent published in the GitHub repository NikiforovAll/claude-code-rules (141 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 50 tokens to every session and 426 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Related

Other agents, from other repositories

bash-pro

Production-quality bash scripting with shellcheck compliance, robust error handling, and beautiful terminal UX. Use for shell scripts, CLI tools, and automation.

sgaunet/claude-plugins · 32 tokens

database-specialist

Multi-engine database expert (MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, SQLite, SQL Server) for schema design, query optimization, and performance tuning. Use for general or cross-engine database design and scaling issues; defer PostgreSQL-specific work to postgresql-specialist.

sgaunet/claude-plugins · 56 tokens

aws-specialist

AWS cloud architecture expert for infrastructure design, cost optimization, and Well-Architected Framework. Use PROACTIVELY for AWS-specific tasks.

sgaunet/claude-plugins · 32 tokens

art-director

Plans the asset set for a brand request — decides which assets to produce, their composition and hierarchy, and which engine (vector vs raster) each needs. Use before generating anything ambiguous or multi-asset.

localplugins/plugins · 45 tokens

brand-guardian

Brand and compliance reviewer. Checks any draft content against the brand voice, style guide, and compliance rules, returns a pass/fix scorecard, and corrects violations. Use as the final pass before content is delivered.

localplugins/plugins · 48 tokens

strategist

Content strategist. Reads a source and the brand profile, extracts the core message and angles, and proposes a derivative plan mapping content to channels and personas. Use before drafting multi-channel content.

localplugins/plugins · 40 tokens