lading is a data-generation and load-testing tool that measures the performance and resource behavior of long-running programs by sending them repeatable synthetic workloads. Developers and performance engineers use it to test daemons and other complex programs across different protocols, including in Datadog Agent regression testing. The catalogue skills and instruction support working with lading.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to DataDog/lading. 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/DataDog/lading/main/AGENTS.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/DataDog/ladingWrote 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/datadog/lading/agents-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/datadog/lading/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/datadog/lading/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/datadog/lading/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/datadog/lading/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 | $0.01777 | $0.01777 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00711 | $0.00711 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00355 | $0.00355 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00178 | $0.00178 |
Grade A, and why
lading 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 2mo 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 — 185 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Agent Instructions
Guidelines for AI agents working on the lading codebase. For detailed rationale behind these rules, see the Architecture Decision Records.
Quick Reference
| Need | Answer |
|---|---|
| Validate changes | ci/validate (mandatory, never skip) |
| Run tests | ci/test |
| Run Kani proofs | ci/kani <crate> |
| Shape rule | 3+ repetitions = create abstraction |
| Dependencies | When in doubt, implement rather than import |
| HashMap allowed? | No - use IndexMap/IndexSet for determinism |
Task Routing
| Task | Key Rules | ADRs |
|---|---|---|
| Adding a generator | Pre-compute payloads, deterministic RNG, no panics, property tests for determinism | 001, 002, 003, 006 |
| Modifying payload generation | Property tests for invariants, deterministic output, no wall-clock time | 002, 003, 006 |
| Adding a blackhole | Must never backpressure target, property tests for throughput guarantees | 001, 005, 006 |
| Modifying throttle | Kani proofs required, formal invariants | 003, 005, 006 |
| Core algorithm changes | Proofs where feasible, property tests otherwise | 006 |
| Writing tests | Property tests default, document invariants | 006 |
| Adding a dependency | Evaluate: performance, determinism, control | 008 |
| Code style questions | Shape rule, no mod.rs, imports at top | 007 |
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.
- 2mo ago First seen · 185 lines · 1,777 tokens per session scan A c0c8cf68f58a
lading AGENTS.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository DataDog/lading (101 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,777 tokens to every session, about $0.0071 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.
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