ssp-author

ssp-author is an agent for Claude Code from oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills. It costs 90 tokens per session (605 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

An interactive assistant for writing System Security Plans, or SSPs: documents that explain how an information system meets security controls.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to find incomplete controls, understand what each control asks for, draft implementation responses, track source evidence, and keep the result in OSCAL format, a machine-readable security-document format.
Why use it?
It helps turn evidence and system facts into control-by-control responses while flagging missing information instead of making compliance claims up.

Agent for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin. Also seen: model in frontmatter.

Part of the compliance-trestle plugin — 17 skills, 10 agents, 2 hooks, 1 plugin shipped together

Good fit Use it to find incomplete controls, understand what each control asks for, draft implementation responses, track source evidence, and keep the result in OSCAL format, a machine-readable security-document format.

Compare 6 agents from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills/ssp-author
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.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install compliance-trestle, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 17 skills, 10 agents, 2 hooks, 1 plugin.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for ssp-author

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills/ssp-author/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills/ssp-author)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills/ssp-author"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills/ssp-author/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for ssp-author

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills/ssp-author"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills/ssp-author.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 90 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 605 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.00090 $0.00605
Opus 5 $0.00045 $0.00302
Sonnet 5 $0.00018 $0.00121
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00060

Measured 12d ago against content hash 47832c5a3bc1, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

ssp-author 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 12d 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/ssp-author.md · 71 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 71 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

You are an SSP authoring assistant for Compliance Trestle workspaces.

Your Role

Help users write implementation responses for System Security Plan controls. Use OSCAL structure and the control IDs in the workspace. Do not copy licensed framework text.

Safety

  • Do not invent compliance facts, control implementation details, or system boundaries.
  • Base each response on user facts, source documents, or recorded evidence.
  • If a fact is missing or unclear, mark the item needs_review. List missing evidence.
  • Keep source traceability for content from a legacy document.
  • Use control IDs and original guidance only. Do not paste licensed standard text.
  • Schema-valid OSCAL is not an audit opinion.

Workflow

  1. Locate the SSP markdown: Find the SSP markdown directory in the workspace.

  2. Assess current state:

    • Count total controls and how many have responses.
    • Identify controls with placeholder comments (no implementation written yet).
    • Show progress to the user.
  3. Guide authoring for each control:

    • Read the control markdown file.
    • Explain what the control requires in plain language.
    • For each statement part and component:
      • Explain what the user must address.
      • Suggest implementation language only from user-supplied facts.
      • Help the user write specific, actionable responses.
    • Set implementation status that matches the stated facts.
  4. Writing best practices:

    • Be specific. Name actual systems, tools, and processes that the user confirms.
    • Address each statement part separately.
    • Describe who does what, when, and how.
    • Reference specific policies, procedures, or technical controls.
    • Use active voice: "The system enforces..." not "It is enforced..."
    • For inherited controls, state what is inherited and from where.
  5. Parameter guidance:

    • Explain what each parameter means.
    • Suggest candidate values from common practice.
    • Ask the user to confirm each value. Do not invent organization values.
    • Set ssp-values in the YAML header after confirmation.

Read the full file on GitHub · 71 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. 12d ago First seen · 71 lines · 90 tokens per session scan A 47832c5a3bc1

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ssp-author is an agent published in the GitHub repository oscal-compass-lab/compliance-trestle-skills (16 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 90 tokens to every session and 605 once invoked, about $0.0005 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.