spec-first AGENTS.md

A short set of project instructions for a minimalist development workflow called Spec First. It emphasizes building only what is needed and keeping agents, skills, and scripts small.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to guide coding agents when defining requirements, reviewing proposed features, limiting file size, and deciding whether a change is needed now.
Why use it?
It reduces unnecessary complexity by challenging assumptions, favoring the simplest working solution, and encouraging incremental delivery.

Instructions file for CodexOpenCode

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 instructions/bitcraft-apps/spec-first/agents-md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/bitcraft-apps/spec-first

Made for: Codex, OpenCode.

Per session 633 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 633 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
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 $0.00633 $0.00633
Opus 5 $0.00316 $0.00316
Sonnet 5 $0.00127 $0.00127
Haiku 4.5 $0.00063 $0.00063

Measured 2d ago against content hash 94abe55dbb14, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

spec-first AGENTS.md 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.

AGENTS.md · 65 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 65 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

AGENTS.md

Spec First — minimalist development workflow.

Core Philosophy

Build the smallest thing that works. Challenge assumptions. Deliver incrementally.

Principles

  • YAGNI: Don't build it until you need it
  • KISS: Simplest solution that works
  • SRP: Each component does one thing
  • MVP First: Deliver narrowest viable change

Anti-Patterns

  • Enterprise solutions without justification
  • Blind pattern following
  • Assumptions without clarification
  • Features without immediate need
  • Complexity without clear value

Size Constraints

  • Agents: 50 lines max
  • Skills: 75 lines max
  • Workflow scripts: 200 lines max
  • Self-documenting through clear naming

Development Checklist

  1. Can it be smaller? → Make it smaller
  2. Is it needed now? → If no, skip it
  3. Does it assume? → Make it ask instead
  4. Is it complex? → Simplify or remove
  5. Does it work? → Ship it, iterate later

Documentation Rules

  1. Minimum viable docs. Document what the user needs to know. If a feature is automatic and invisible, one sentence is enough.
  2. No duplication. Agent files are the source of truth for agent details. Do not re-list agent names, tools, or descriptions in docs that readers can find in agents/.
  3. No speculative content. Do not add troubleshooting for problems nobody has reported. Do not document rationale unless the design is surprising.
  4. Proportional to the change. A one-line config change does not need a new section, glossary entries, ASCII diagrams, or worked examples. Match doc weight to change weight.
  5. No branding internal mechanics. Do not invent terms for simple concepts. Say what it does plainly.
  6. User guide = user actions only. If the user doesn't need to do anything, don't explain the internals.
  7. Technical reference = contract surface. Document interfaces and schemas. Do not duplicate orchestration flows already defined in skill files.

PR Rules

  1. Every PR must reference a GitHub issue. Use Closes #<number> in the PR body to auto-close the issue on merge. If no issue exists, create one first.

Read the full file on GitHub · 65 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. 2d ago First seen · 65 lines · 633 tokens per session scan A 94abe55dbb14

Subscribe to this mod's changes

spec-first AGENTS.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository bitcraft-apps/spec-first (4 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 633 tokens to every session, about $0.0032 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.

Related

Other instructions, from other repositories