gauntlet-loop

gauntlet-loop is a command for Cursor from emaraschio/cursor-commands. It costs 24 tokens per session (1,667 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A repeated build-and-review process for producing work that meets a real-world reference standard. Builders create each part, while separate critics inspect it, identify the largest gap, and decide whether it passes or needs another attempt.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when you have a clear goal and reference materials, need to divide work into parts, compare results against examples, and run a final review of the complete result.
Why use it?
It provides a structured way to improve an artifact through independent criticism instead of accepting the first version or relying only on its creator's judgment.

Command for Cursor

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/emaraschio/cursor-commands/gauntlet-loop
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/emaraschio/cursor-commands

Made for: Cursor.

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 gauntlet-loop

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/emaraschio/cursor-commands/gauntlet-loop.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/commands/emaraschio/cursor-commands/gauntlet-loop)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/emaraschio/cursor-commands/gauntlet-loop"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/emaraschio/cursor-commands/gauntlet-loop.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 24 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,667 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 $0.00024 $0.01667
Opus 5 $0.00012 $0.00834
Sonnet 5 $0.00005 $0.00333
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00167

Measured 3d ago against content hash 170c32ab6b7f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

gauntlet-loop 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 3d 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.

.cursor/commands/gauntlet-loop.md · 66 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 66 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Overview

Run a Gauntlet Loop: take a GOAL and a REAL-WORLD EQUIVALENT with an inspectable reference pack, decompose into independent parts, and run each part through a build → critique → pass|iterate|terminal loop. After all parts pass, run an integration critic on the whole. Optional BUDGET ceiling, taste-domain pride gate, and gap ledger for resume. Critics use fresh context, inspect the artifact, and compare against the pack (blind when possible). A part passes only when better than the reference (equal fails); otherwise the critic returns the largest specific gap. Builders never evaluate their own work. Full workflow: .cursor/skill-contracts/gauntlet-loop/SKILL.md (user install: ~/.cursor/skill-contracts/gauntlet-loop/SKILL.md).

Defaults

Setting Default
Intake GOAL, REAL-WORLD EQUIVALENT, and inspectable reference pack required
Iteration cap 5 rounds per part (overridable at intake)
BUDGET None beyond per-part cap (optional total rounds / wall-clock)
Stall Same gap twice with no improvement; halt that part
Critic mode Subagent when available; else fresh-context simulation (report which)
Blind comparison Prefer side-by-side without labeling which is the reference
Integration critic Required after all parts pass before done
Pride gate Taste domains only (UI, game feel, writing); else "not a taste domain"
Gap ledger Record round/gap/verdict; consult on resume
Part list Publish then proceed unless the user objects
Examples Generic names only (project-a, game-1)

Steps

  1. Read .cursor/skill-contracts/gauntlet-loop/SKILL.md for the full agent contract; if that file is missing, read ~/.cursor/skill-contracts/gauntlet-loop/SKILL.md.
  2. Execute phases in order (Intake → Decompose → Per-part loop → Integration critic → Deliver).
  3. Report the part table, integration verdict, gap ledger, pride gate (or not a taste domain), and halt on stalled, capped, or budgeted parts; do not claim done from part-local passes alone.

Read the full file on GitHub · 66 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. 3d ago First seen · 66 lines · 24 tokens per session scan A 170c32ab6b7f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

gauntlet-loop is a command published in the GitHub repository emaraschio/cursor-commands (9 stars, last pushed 26d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 24 tokens to every session and 1,667 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 2026-08-31.