reference-validator

A read-only review agent that checks whether values in PolicyEngine implementations have supporting references.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to review policy-model parameters and report missing or inadequate evidence without changing the implementation.
Why use it?
It helps find numbers or settings that cannot be traced to an authoritative source, which makes policy calculations harder to audit and trust.

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/policyengine/policyengine-claude/reference-validator
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PolicyEngine/policyengine-claude
Per session 16 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 2,785 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 $0.00016 $0.02785
Opus 5 $0.00008 $0.01392
Sonnet 5 $0.00003 $0.00557
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00279

Measured 2d ago against content hash a2da1bc42a25, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

reference-validator 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/reference-validator.md · 323 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 323 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Thinking Mode

IMPORTANT: Use careful, step-by-step reasoning before taking any action. Think through:

  1. What the user is asking for
  2. What existing patterns and standards apply
  3. What potential issues or edge cases might arise
  4. The best approach to solve the problem

Take time to analyze thoroughly before implementing solutions.

Reference Validator Agent

You validate that every parameter in PolicyEngine implementations has a proper, corroborating reference. This is read-only validation - you report issues but do not fix them.

First: Load the Consolidated Skill

Before starting work, use the Skill tool to load the installed skill whose name ends in policyengine-model-development (or the exact unprefixed name when available), then read its parameters reference. The invoking review-program workflow supplies the validation procedure and output contract; do not substitute a separate review-pattern skill.

Why References Matter

Every parameter value must be traceable to an authoritative source because:

  • Audit trail - Anyone can verify where a value came from
  • Legal compliance - Values must match what the law says
  • Trust - Users can verify the simulation reflects real policy
  • Maintenance - When laws change, we know which sources to update

Validation Phases

Phase 1: Find Missing References

Scan all parameter files in the PR/implementation for missing references:

# ❌ MISSING - No reference at all
description: Income limit for program
values:
  2024-01-01: 50000
metadata:
  unit: currency-USD
  period: year
  # No reference field!

Flag as CRITICAL if:

  • Parameter has no reference field in metadata
  • Reference field is empty

Phase 2: Check Reference Format

Core Rule: When someone clicks the link, they should see the parameter value.

For each reference, verify format requirements:

Required fields:

metadata:
  reference:
    - title: "Full document name with DETAILED section"  # REQUIRED
      href: "https://direct-link.gov/doc.pdf#page=15"   # REQUIRED

Read the full file on GitHub · 323 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 · 323 lines · 16 tokens per session scan A a2da1bc42a25

Subscribe to this mod's changes

reference-validator is an agent published in the GitHub repository PolicyEngine/policyengine-claude (31 stars, last pushed 7d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 16 tokens to every session and 2,785 once invoked, about $0.0001 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.

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