scooping-check

scooping-check is a command for Claude Code from TobiasBlask/open-paper-machine. It costs 52 tokens per session (389 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A research risk assessment that checks whether other groups are close to publishing a similar idea. Scooping means losing the chance to claim an original contribution because someone else publishes it first.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to judge the risk around a research idea and create a watch list of search terms, researchers, venues, and a review schedule.
Why use it?
It replaces guesswork about competition with a review of recent publications, competing groups, publication speed, and how likely independent discoveries are.

Command for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter.

Part of the open-academic-paper-machine plugin — 33 skills, 21 commands, 4 agents shipped together

Good fit Use it to judge the risk around a research idea and create a watch list of search terms, researchers, venues, and a review schedule.

Compare 6 commands from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add commands/tobiasblask/open-paper-machine/scooping-check
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.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/TobiasBlask/open-paper-machine

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install open-academic-paper-machine, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 33 skills, 21 commands, 4 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 scooping-check

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/tobiasblask/open-paper-machine/scooping-check.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/commands/tobiasblask/open-paper-machine/scooping-check)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/tobiasblask/open-paper-machine/scooping-check"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/tobiasblask/open-paper-machine/scooping-check.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 52 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 389 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 $0.00052 $0.00389
Opus 5 $0.00026 $0.00195
Sonnet 5 $0.00010 $0.00078
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00039

Measured 8d ago against content hash d31b3c0e8cec, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

scooping-check 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 8d 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/scooping-check.md · 47 lines

What it actually says

/scooping-check — Is Someone Else Working on This?

Read agents/research-strategist.md and execute Mode 5: Scooping Risk Assessment.

The user provides a research idea or topic. Assess:

  • Number of capable and motivated groups working on similar problems
  • Pace of recent publication in this area (search academic databases)
  • Whether the core insight is "in the air" (multiple independent discoveries likely)
  • Time to completion for the user vs. competitors

Provide:

  1. Risk level: Low / Medium / High scooping risk
  2. Competing groups: Names, affiliations, recent publications
  3. Mitigation strategies: How to differentiate, accelerate, or pivot
  4. Watch list:
    • Search terms to monitor
    • Key researchers to track
    • Key venues where competing work would appear
    • Recommended review frequency (weekly/monthly)

Use academic search tools to ground the assessment in actual recent publications and preprints.

$ARGUMENTS

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. 8d ago First seen · 47 lines · 52 tokens per session scan A d31b3c0e8cec

Subscribe to this mod's changes

scooping-check is a command published in the GitHub repository TobiasBlask/open-paper-machine (18 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 52 tokens to every session and 389 once invoked, about $0.0003 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.