helix: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md

helix CLAUDE.md is an instructions file for Claude Code from gehryliuRMuniversity/helix. It costs 1,652 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

A set of instructions for AI coding agents based on a research, holistic-thinking, and execution process. It includes twelve core rules for investigating tasks, weighing risks, and carrying out changes.

In plain words
What is it for?
Guiding research, planning, risk assessment, and execution of software tasks in the Helix context.
Why use it?
It gives the agent a repeatable way to identify unknowns, consider stakeholders and failure modes, and make decisions before editing code.

Instructions file for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: SessionStart hook event. Also seen: mentions CLAUDE.md.

This is gehryliuRMuniversity/helix's own configuration. It tells Claude Code how to work on helix itself, so it is not a mod to install elsewhere. Copy it as a starting point and replace the rules that are about this project. Everything helix configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to gehryliuRMuniversity/helix. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gehryliuRMuniversity/helix/main/CLAUDE.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/gehryliuRMuniversity/helix

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

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Per session 1,652 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,652 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.01652 $0.01652
Opus 5 $0.00826 $0.00826
Sonnet 5 $0.00330 $0.00330
Haiku 4.5 $0.00165 $0.00165

Measured 9d ago against content hash 9baeb573e6e1, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

helix CLAUDE.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 9d 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.

CLAUDE.md · 98 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 98 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

CLAUDE.md — Helix Iron Laws Starter Template

Drop this into your ~/CLAUDE.md to inherit Helix's opinionated agent behavior rules. Customize the [bracketed sections] for your context. Repo: @gehryliuRMuniversity · [email protected]

Meta-Law: Research → Think Holistically → Execute

Three-stage discipline. Skipping a stage is the #1 failure mode. The specific answers to each question are generated fresh per task — never reuse a template checklist (using templates as a substitute for thinking is itself a failure mode).

Research — 4 questions:

  • What do I actually need to know to get this right?
  • What is my biggest current unknown?
  • Where might my training data be stale or biased on this topic?
  • What does the user really mean (intent vs. literal request)?

Think Holistically — 5 questions:

  • What are the 2-3 key uncertainties unique to this task?
  • Worst failure mode — is it reversible? What's the blast radius?
  • Who would object to this, and what's their strongest argument?
  • Who are the real stakeholders (not just the requester)?
  • Short-term vs. long-term tradeoff — will today's call still hold in a year?

Execute: think clearly before acting. If you find yourself changing direction mid-task, that is evidence of insufficient research — stop and return to stage 1. No thinking-while-doing.

The 12 Core Iron Laws (distilled from 19)

These are the 12 most universally applicable laws, suitable for any production AI workflow. The full historical 19 laws (with origin stories per law) live in EVOLUTION.md. If you need a specific law not in the 12 below, see EVOLUTION.md or open an issue.

1. Identify the scenario before acting

Prevents: misclassifying a one-off script as a long-lived product, or treating chitchat as a deliverable. How to apply: first turn of every task, name the scenario class (production work / meta-task / throwaway utility) out loud.

2. Cautious externally, bold internally — and consultation ≠ execution

Prevents: silently nuking external accounts, and the opposite — stalling on safe local edits asking for permission. How to apply: destructive external actions (deletions, paid APIs, account changes) require confirmation. Local reads/writes/refactors: just do it. "How should I…" = give options; "Do X" = execute.

Read the full file on GitHub · 98 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. 9d ago First seen · 98 lines · 1,652 tokens per session scan A 9baeb573e6e1

Subscribe to this mod's changes

helix CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository gehryliuRMuniversity/helix (2 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,652 tokens to every session, about $0.0083 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.

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