pathfinder

pathfinder is a command for Cursor from emaraschio/cursor-commands. It costs 45 tokens per session (916 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A planning workflow that maps what is known, what is undecided, and what is still unclear before a project is built.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to clarify a goal, identify open decisions, assign research or prototype work, plan parallel tracks, and list the next three actions. It does not build the project in the same turn.
Why use it?
It prevents work from starting with hidden assumptions and gives each unknown a concrete next step.

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/pathfinder
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 pathfinder

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/emaraschio/cursor-commands/pathfinder.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/commands/emaraschio/cursor-commands/pathfinder)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/emaraschio/cursor-commands/pathfinder"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/emaraschio/cursor-commands/pathfinder.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 45 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 916 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 $0.00045 $0.00916
Opus 5 $0.00023 $0.00458
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00183
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00092

Measured 4d ago against content hash 777b0be14fff, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

pathfinder 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.

.cursor/commands/pathfinder.md · 49 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 49 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Overview

Map a project's uncertainty before building. Given a goal and known context, produce a six-section fog map: decisions already fixed, decision frontiers, fog-of-war questions, a next move per unknown, a parallel work plan, and the next three actions. Plan-only. Does not execute the project in the same turn. Full workflow: .cursor/skill-contracts/pathfinder/SKILL.md (user install: ~/.cursor/skill-contracts/pathfinder/SKILL.md).

Defaults

Setting Default
Deliverable Six-section fog map in chat
Execution None in same turn (follow-up track, or define-agent-goal)
Ambiguity Clarify the goal and separate fixed from unknown before drafting
Next-move labels research, prototype, ask an expert, user test, delegate
Examples Generic names only (service-a, repo1)

Steps

  1. Read .cursor/skill-contracts/pathfinder/SKILL.md for the full agent contract; if that file is missing, read ~/.cursor/skill-contracts/pathfinder/SKILL.md.
  2. Execute phases in order (Intake -> Discovery -> Draft the map -> Deliver); do not skip discovery or start building the project.
  3. Report the fog map (sections 1 to 6); offer optional save under docs/decision-maps/ when the host has docs/.

Anti-patterns

  • Separate fixed from unknown. Trigger: drafting the "decisions already fixed" section. Wrong: listing an assumption as a settled decision. Correct: mark a decision fixed only when the context states it; An assumption is not a fixed decision, so keep assumptions in frontiers or fog. Reason: false certainty hides the real risk and sends the project building on ground that was never solid.
  • Tag every unknown with a next move. Trigger: listing fog-of-war questions. Wrong: leaving an unknown with no resolution path. Correct: label each unknown with exactly one next move (research, prototype, ask an expert, user test, or delegate). Reason: an unknown with no next move never gets resolved and resurfaces mid-build.
  • Deliver the map without building it. Trigger: finishing the map for a project whose next step looks obvious. Wrong: scaffolding code or running destructive commands in the same turn. Correct: stop at the map (plan-only) unless the user explicitly says to skip planning and build now. Reason: this skill is plan-only, and building on unmapped fog is exactly the failure it exists to prevent.
  • Parallel tracks and three actions. Trigger: filling the parallel work plan and next-actions sections. Wrong: a single-thread plan or vague next steps. Correct: 3 to 5 parallel tracks plus exactly three concrete actions today. Reason: a map without parallelizable work and concrete next steps fails to unlock progress.
  • Docs save only after confirm. Trigger: host has a docs/ directory and the map is ready. Wrong: writing docs/decision-maps/... unprompted. Correct: offer the path and write only after the user confirms. Reason: unsolicited docs clutter the host workspace.
  • Do not claim a native product feature. Trigger: describing what this deliverable is. Wrong: implying a built-in Cursor product feature. Correct: present this as a portable planning document for Cursor agents. Reason: a native-product claim misleads the user about what shipped.

Read the full file on GitHub · 49 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 · 49 lines · 45 tokens per session scan A 777b0be14fff

Subscribe to this mod's changes

pathfinder is a command published in the GitHub repository emaraschio/cursor-commands (9 stars, last pushed 28d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 45 tokens to every session and 916 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.