qa

qa is a command for coding agents from d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook. It costs 6 tokens per session (547 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A pre-build checklist command for validating a software project. It checks dependencies, configuration, the environment, and whether a minimal build works.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for checking installed versions, configuration files, required tools and ports, platform compatibility, and whether the project's core code can be built or imported.
Why use it?
It finds missing packages, invalid settings, unavailable tools, permission problems, and basic build failures before implementation begins.

Command

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/d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook/qa
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook

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 qa

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook/qa.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/commands/d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook/qa)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook/qa"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook/qa.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 6 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 547 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 $0.00006 $0.00547
Opus 5 $0.00003 $0.00273
Sonnet 5 $0.00001 $0.00109
Haiku 4.5 $0.00001 $0.00055

Measured 4d ago against content hash e074e3781508, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

qa 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 4d 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/qa.md · 127 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 127 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

QA VALIDATION MODE ACTIVATED

You are now in QA VALIDATION phase.

Purpose

Technical validation to prevent implementation failures. Run this before /build for Level 2+ tasks.

Four-Point Validation

1. Dependency Verification

Check:

  • All required packages/tools installed
  • Versions compatible with requirements
  • No missing dependencies
# Examples to run:
# Python: pip list, uv pip list
# Node: npm list, package.json check
# Go: go mod verify

2. Configuration Validation

Check:

  • Configuration files exist and are valid
  • Syntax correct (JSON, YAML, TOML)
  • Platform compatibility (Windows/macOS/Linux)
  • Required settings present

3. Environment Validation

Check:

  • Build tools available (npm, pip, make, etc.)
  • Permissions sufficient
  • Environment variables set (if needed)
  • Required ports available

4. Minimal Build Test

Check:

  • Build process works
  • Core functionality testable
  • No blocking errors
# Examples:
# Python: python -c "import main_module"
# Node: npm run build
# Go: go build ./...

Output Format

Success Report

✅ QA VALIDATION PASSED

1️⃣ Dependencies: All required packages installed
2️⃣ Configuration: Valid and platform-compatible
3️⃣ Environment: Build tools ready
4️⃣ Build Test: Core functionality verified

-> Clear to proceed to /build

Failure Report

❌ QA VALIDATION FAILED

Issues found:

1️⃣ DEPENDENCY ISSUES:
   - Missing: [package name]
   - Fix: [command to install]

2️⃣ CONFIGURATION ISSUES:
   - File: [config file]
   - Problem: [description]
   - Fix: [how to fix]

3️⃣ ENVIRONMENT ISSUES:
   - Missing: [tool/permission]
   - Fix: [how to resolve]

4️⃣ BUILD TEST ISSUES:
   - Error: [error message]
   - Fix: [how to resolve]

⛔ IMPLEMENTATION BLOCKED until issues resolved.
Run /qa again after fixing.

Common Fixes

Dependency Issues:

  • npm install, pip install -r requirements.txt, uv sync

Configuration Issues:

  • Validate JSON/YAML syntax
  • Check for missing required keys

Read the full file on GitHub · 127 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. 4d ago First seen · 127 lines · 6 tokens per session scan A e074e3781508

Subscribe to this mod's changes

qa is a command published in the GitHub repository d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook (16 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 6 tokens to every session and 547 once invoked, about $0.0000 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.