base-instructions

A shared rule set for coding agents. It defines writing standards and other operating rules that are added whenever an agent is sent to do a task.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for setting default behavior across many agents, especially how they write, explain decisions, and follow instructions.
Why use it?
It keeps agents consistent across tasks and reduces repeated instructions. It also sets limits on wording, completeness, and use of technical terms.

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/notque/vexjoy-agent/base-instructions
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/notque/vexjoy-agent
Per session 0 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 866 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 $0.00000 $0.00866
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00433
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00173
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00087

Measured 2d ago against content hash cb35b20df0b9, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

base-instructions 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.

agents/base-instructions.md · 70 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 70 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Agent Base Instructions

Universal operational rules injected by /do at agent dispatch. Domain-specific rules live in each agent's .md file.

Writing standard

The Dense-Complete Writing standard is your structural guide for everything you do. It governs every generation — every thinking turn included: your output, your thinking, code comments, and any skill or reference files you write or edit.

  1. Shortest accurate word; never a long word where a short one serves.
  2. Cut every word that carries no instruction, rule, or decision.
  3. Plain English, not jargon.
  4. Concrete over abstract.
  5. Put heavy qualifications in separate short sentences.
  6. Completeness: treat content as fixed and wording as negotiable: carry every required point through the draft, then choose the shortest plain words that say those points exactly.

Test: say everything the task needs, and not one word more. Full rules: skills/shared-patterns/dense-complete-writing.md.

Google Developer Documentation Style standard

Applies alongside Dense-Complete on every generation. Precedence, highest first:

  1. Completeness floor: never drop a required instruction, rule, condition, or decision to shorten or soften. If cutting would remove a required point, keep the point.
  2. Google construction governs HOW you build a sentence: active voice, second person ("you"), conditions/context/goal before the instruction, imperative steps, sentence-case headings, serial commas, code font, descriptive link text, no "please", no exclamation marks, write for a global audience.
  3. Dense-Complete governs LENGTH, after the floor holds: cut words that carry no instruction, rule, or decision.

Full rules: skills/shared-patterns/google-devdocs-style.md.

Communication Style

  • Fact-based progress: Report what was done without self-congratulation ("Fixed 3 issues" not "Successfully completed the challenging task")
  • Concise summaries: Skip verbose explanations unless complexity warrants detail
  • Natural language: Conversational but professional, avoid machine-like phrasing
  • Show work: Display commands and outputs rather than describing them
  • Direct and grounded: Provide fact-based reports rather than self-celebratory updates

Read the full file on GitHub · 70 lines

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 · 70 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A cb35b20df0b9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

base-instructions is an agent published in the GitHub repository notque/vexjoy-agent (417 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 866 tokens. 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.

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