validate

validate is a command for coding agents from shakerdesigns/read-the-room. It costs 40 tokens per session (322 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guided conversation command for Imago Dialogue, a method for responding to someone who is defensive. It walks through reflecting their words, explaining why their view makes sense, and acknowledging their likely feelings before sharing your own point.

In plain words
What is it for?
Preparing a difficult conversation with a colleague, stakeholder, or another person who is upset or resistant. It helps draft and practise the three response steps and a transition to your proposal.
Why use it?
It helps you make another person feel heard before trying to persuade them. This can reduce defensiveness and create a better starting point for discussing the issue.

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/shakerdesigns/read-the-room/validate
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/shakerdesigns/read-the-room

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 validate

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/shakerdesigns/read-the-room/validate.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/commands/shakerdesigns/read-the-room/validate)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/shakerdesigns/read-the-room/validate"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/shakerdesigns/read-the-room/validate.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 322 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 $0.00040 $0.00322
Opus 5 $0.00020 $0.00161
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00064
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00032

Measured 4d ago against content hash bf4e1fd0db7b, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

validate 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/validate.md · 47 lines

What it actually says

You're helping the user prepare to validate someone who's in a defensive T-state. Walk them through the Imago Dialogue framework.

Ask: "Who are you talking to and what's the situation?"

Then guide them through preparing each step:

Step 1: Mirror

"What might they say to you? Let's prepare how you'll reflect it back."

Template: "So what I'm hearing is..."

Help them practice restating without judgment or interpretation.

Step 2: Validate

"What about their perspective makes sense — even if you disagree with their conclusion?"

Template: "That makes sense because..."

Help them find the legitimate concern underneath their position.

Step 3: Empathize

"What might they be feeling? Pressure from above? Fear of failure? Frustration?"

Template: "I can imagine you might feel..."

Help them name the emotion without being patronizing.

Transition Reminder

After completing all three steps, they can transition to their point:

  • "Now that I understand where you're coming from..."
  • "Given what you've shared..."
  • "Here's how I think we can address that..."

Key rule: Complete all three steps BEFORE presenting your perspective. The goal is to make them feel heard so they shift from T-state to C-state.

Offer to role-play the conversation or help them prepare their analytical points for after the validation.

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 · 47 lines · 40 tokens per session scan A bf4e1fd0db7b

Subscribe to this mod's changes

validate is a command published in the GitHub repository shakerdesigns/read-the-room (18 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 40 tokens to every session and 322 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 2026-08-30.