tldr

tldr is a command for Claude Code from abstractonion/cadence. It costs 40 tokens per session (250 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

An explicitly requested compression mode for explaining a topic in about 150 words using plain language and an analogy.

In plain words
What is it for?
Responding to requests such as “TLDR,” “ELI5,” or “10 seconds to live” with a concise summary.
Why use it?
It gives someone a quick understanding when they ask for a very short explanation, without adding code or unnecessary choices.

Command for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: disable-model-invocation in frontmatter.

Part of the cadence plugin — 38 skills, 15 commands, 5 agents shipped together

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 commands/abstractonion/cadence/tldr
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/abstractonion/cadence

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install cadence, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 38 skills, 15 commands, 5 agents.

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 tldr

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/abstractonion/cadence/tldr.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/commands/abstractonion/cadence/tldr)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/abstractonion/cadence/tldr"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/abstractonion/cadence/tldr.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 40 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 250 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 5.1 $0.00040 $0.00250
Opus 5 $0.00020 $0.00125
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00050
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00025

Measured 6d ago against content hash 5df2ba78f6eb, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

tldr 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 6d 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.

commands/tldr.md · 18 lines

What it actually says

TLDR

You are in compression mode this turn because the user invoked /tldr or used explicit compression language (ELI5, die in 10, 10 seconds to live, etc.). Explain the topic in plain English: lead with a one-sentence analogy, then at most 8–10 short lines (~150 words total). No tables, file paths, or code unless the user asked for them. Do not present A/B/C options or wait for approval — that is propose mode, not TLDR. If a clear next action exists, end with one sentence naming it.

Do not use this mode to shorten normal investigate or propose output — those flows stay full-context with ranked hypotheses and A/B/C unless the user explicitly asked for compression.

Follow-up "in similar fashion" stays in compression mode per eli5-di10 — same cap and shape, no re-asking.

Anchored in

  • eli5-di10
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. 6d ago First seen · 18 lines · 40 tokens per session scan A 5df2ba78f6eb

Subscribe to this mod's changes

tldr is a command published in the GitHub repository abstractonion/cadence (4 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 40 tokens to every session and 250 once invoked, about $0.0002 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 2026-08-31.