recursive-lock

A command that validates and locks a file produced by recursive-mode, a staged workflow for producing checked project artifacts. It refuses to lock artifacts that are missing required checks or evidence.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to lock a named artifact for a run after validation, including required test evidence, exception explanations, review-bundle files, or quality-assurance sign-offs.
Why use it?
It prevents incomplete workflow outputs from being treated as finished by checking phase-specific requirements before locking them.

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/try-works/recursive-mode/recursive-lock
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/try-works/recursive-mode
Per session 0 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 325 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 $0.00000 $0.00325
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00162
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00065
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00032

Measured 2d ago against content hash 45378887379c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

recursive-lock 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 2d 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.

docs/templates/commands/recursive-lock.md · 37 lines

What it actually says

recursive-lock (prompt template)

Paste this into chat if your agent does not support custom slash commands.

Usage Pattern

Lock recursive artifact: [run-id] [artifact]
python "<SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recursive-lock.py" --repo-root . --run-id "<run-id>" --artifact "<artifact>.md"
python3 "<SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recursive-lock.py" --repo-root . --run-id "<run-id>" --artifact "<artifact>.md"

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "<SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recursive-lock.ps1" -RepoRoot . -RunId "<run-id>" -Artifact "<artifact>.md"
pwsh -NoProfile -File "<SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recursive-lock.ps1" -RepoRoot . -RunId "<run-id>" -Artifact "<artifact>.md"

What It Does

  • Validates the target artifact before locking
  • Refuses to lock if required gates or lint-critical structure are invalid
  • Refuses to lock strict Phase 3 artifacts that are missing RED or GREEN evidence
  • Refuses to lock pragmatic Phase 3 artifacts that are missing an explicit exception rationale plus compensating evidence
  • Refuses to lock Phase 5 artifacts whose declared QA mode is missing the required sign-off or execution evidence
  • Sets Status: LOCKED
  • Writes LockedAt
  • Computes canonical LockHash

Example

Lock recursive artifact: <run-id> 04-test-summary.md
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. 2d ago First seen · 37 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 45378887379c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

recursive-lock is a command published in the GitHub repository try-works/recursive-mode (129 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 325 tokens. 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.