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.
npx agentmods add instructions/agidesigner/five-step-method-skill/agents-mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/agidesigner/five-step-method-skillWhat 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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5 | $0.02674 | $0.02674 |
| Opus 5 | $0.01337 | $0.01337 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00535 | $0.00535 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00267 | $0.00267 |
Grade A, and why
five-step-method 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 213 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Five-Step Work Method
A universal decision framework that teaches you to evaluate whether to act before deciding how to act. Apply this to any decision — code, product, strategy, process, hiring, meetings, or resource allocation.
When to Apply
| Trigger | Action |
|---|---|
| New feature / product request | Must apply — Question need before designing |
| External feedback (multiple points) | Must apply — Evaluate each point independently |
| Bug fix that requires > 10 lines | Must apply — Question if the fix adds complexity |
| Process / workflow change proposal | Must apply — Can we delete the process instead? |
| New tool / vendor / hire decision | Must apply — Is the role/tool actually needed? |
| Meeting or review request | Must apply — Can this be an async message? |
| Strategy / roadmap planning | Must apply — Delete low-impact items first |
| Configuration / deployment issue | Must apply — Ask if code change is even needed |
| Single-line typo or obvious fix | Skip — Just fix it |
| User gives explicit instructions | Skip — Follow instructions, then review |
The Five Steps
Step 1: Question the Requirement
Ask: "Is this actually needed? What happens if we don't do it?"
- Challenge every request, including your own instincts
- Check if the problem solves itself (e.g., agent self-corrects after retry)
- Distinguish "nice to have" from "actually broken"
- Ask who benefits and how often
- If only one user hit it once, it's probably not a product problem
Decision matrix:
| Frequency | Impact | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Common + High | Do it | Proceed to Step 2 |
| Common + Low | Maybe | Proceed to Step 2 |
| Rare + High | Record | Log for later, don't code now |
| Rare + Low | Skip | Don't do it |
Step 2: Delete
Remove what shouldn't exist before adding anything.
- Delete the feature, code, or process that created the problem
- Delete options when a sensible default works
- Delete fallbacks when the primary path is reliable
- Delete auto-detection when one config line suffices
- Delete backwards-compatibility shims for things nobody uses
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.
- 2d ago First seen · 213 lines · 2,674 tokens per session scan A e4b3476b9a86
five-step-method is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository agidesigner/five-step-method-skill (20 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 2,674 tokens to every session, about $0.0134 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.
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