Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to darkroomengineering/cc-settings. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/darkroomengineering/cc-settings/main/AGENTS.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/darkroomengineering/cc-settingsWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/darkroomengineering/cc-settings/agents-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/darkroomengineering/cc-settings/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/darkroomengineering/cc-settings/agents-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/darkroomengineering/cc-settings/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/darkroomengineering/cc-settings/agents-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.03605 | $0.03605 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.01442 | $0.01442 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00721 | $0.00721 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00361 | $0.00361 |
Grade A, and why
cc-settings 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 yesterday.
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 — 289 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Darkroom Engineering
Portable coding standards for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, and other AGENTS.md-aware tools.
Response Calibration
Match length to the request. Lead with the answer. A lookup gets a sentence and file:line; a multi-file change gets a brief plan and landing summary. Skip preambles and duplicate recaps.
Register
Optimize for first-read comprehension, not brevity:
- Put the subject first; move modifiers into a clause instead of stacking them.
- Prefer active voice and direct verbs. Name the actor when it matters; use passive only when the actor is unknown or irrelevant.
- Keep one subject or decision per sentence when combining claims creates ambiguity.
- Use an existing name for an existing thing; never coin or capitalize a replacement concept. Define an unavoidable new name in its first sentence and reuse it unchanged.
- Use identifiers when pointing at code, plain names when describing behavior:
parseConfigwhen the reader will open it, "the config parser" when describing what it does. - Define jargon inline on first use.
- State the effect before the mechanism. Never clip sentences or remove substance to be shorter; explain fully when explanation is the task.
- Say what you mean literally. No mannered prose: metaphor or flourish in place of a direct statement ("a dial worth turning" for "a parameter worth varying") makes the reader work so the writer can perform.
- Use lists, tables, or headers when the content is multifaceted enough that they help the reader; keep to plain prose otherwise.
Guardrails
Laziness Ladder (Before Writing Code)
Stop at the first rung that holds:
- Does this need to exist? If not, skip it (YAGNI).
- Search behavior and callers. Reuse matching project wrappers before primitives; name gaps before adding code.
- Does the standard library/runtime do it? Use it.
- Does the native platform do it? Use it.
- Does an installed dependency do it? Use it; add nothing.
- Can it be one line? Make it one line.
- Only then, write the minimum that works.
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.
- yesterday Changed · -8 lines · -25 tokens per session 7787e20b64c0
- 4d ago Changed · -7 lines · +14 tokens per session 2efbe7a0a21d
- 8d ago Changed d68c1342bf46
- 15d ago Changed · +7 tokens per session 09064389bc09
- 17d ago Changed · +4 tokens per session 5382ff79d044
- 21d ago Changed · -1 lines · +4 tokens per session 334342e3cf9d
- 22d ago Changed · -4 tokens per session b0007f43b982
- 24d ago Changed · -12 lines · +17 tokens per session aea5e4bfbe68
- 29d ago Changed · -37 lines · -17 tokens per session d066075910f9
- 1mo ago First seen · 354 lines · 3,605 tokens per session scan A fc1252dcfa06
cc-settings AGENTS.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository darkroomengineering/cc-settings (51 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 3,605 tokens to every session, about $0.0144 per session on Opus 5.5. 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.
Other instructions, from other repositories
vscode buildNext.instructions.md
Working notes and architecture documentation for the new esbuild-based build system in build/next. Use when making changes to the new build pipeline (transpile/bundle commands, NLS plugin, source-map handling, resource copying, or self-hosting watch tasks).
next.js AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for vercel/next.js, covering next.js development guide, codebase structure, monorepo overview, core package: packages/next and other important packages.
vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.md
Instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code oss third-party-notices pipeline, architecture, pipeline flow in ci, cache eligibility and rollout and applying the notice (cutover).
langchain AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for langchain-ai/langchain, covering global development guidelines for the langchain monorepo, corridor security analysis, project architecture and context, monorepo structure and development tools & commands.
deepseek-harness AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness, covering agents.md, pre-stable apis and released session data, repository layout, commands and host sandbox failures.
vscode copilot-instructions.md
Copilot instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code copilot instructions, project overview, root folders, core architecture (src/ folder) and built-in extensions (extensions/ folder).