COG-second-brain: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md

COG-second-brain CLAUDE.md is an instructions file for Claude Code from huytieu/COG-second-brain. It costs 4,002 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

Project instructions for COG Second Brain, a system for organizing and verifying work by coding agents. They describe its response style, optional verification tools, visual checks for interface work, limits on delegation, and how to choose models.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them when producing documentation, plans, code changes, or interface work for COG Second Brain, especially when deciding how to verify results or present findings.
Why use it?
They help agents give direct, honest answers and avoid adding unsupported frameworks or unnecessary structure. They also clarify when verification and visual review are expected.

Instructions file for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: the file is CLAUDE.md. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions subagents; mentions Claude Code.

This is huytieu/COG-second-brain's own configuration. It tells Claude Code how to work on COG-second-brain 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 COG-second-brain configures →

About the project

COG is an AI-assisted second brain that stores knowledge in Markdown files and uses agents, skills, and version control to evolve it over time. It helps people manage knowledge and contacts while supporting several coding-agent tools; the catalogue entries are COG’s skills, agents, instructions, rules, and plugin surfaces.

huytieu/COG-second-brain · 1,173 stars · on GitHub

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to huytieu/COG-second-brain. 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/huytieu/COG-second-brain/main/CLAUDE.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/huytieu/COG-second-brain

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote 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.

agentmods badge for COG-second-brain CLAUDE.md

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/huytieu/cog-second-brain/claude-md.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/huytieu/cog-second-brain/claude-md)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/huytieu/cog-second-brain/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/huytieu/cog-second-brain/claude-md.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 4,002 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 4,002 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 1 finding. 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 $0.04002 $0.04002
Opus 5 $0.02001 $0.02001
Sonnet 5 $0.00800 $0.00800
Haiku 4.5 $0.00400 $0.00400

Measured 7d ago against content hash 9ff2da4c033f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

COG-second-brain CLAUDE.md scanned grade A with 1 finding 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 7d 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.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

- **Verification means observing the artifact**: curl the URL, screenshot the page, re-fetch the issue, diff the file. Never re-read a worker's own summary of it. Mandatory for external mutations; see § Skill Post-Condit
CLAUDE.md · 250 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 250 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

COG Second Brain — Framework Instructions

Opt-in verification harness: WORKFLOW.md · Universal surface: AGENTS.md

Response Style (ALWAYS APPLY, every agent, every deliverable)

Optimize for information gain, not apparent completeness. The failure mode is framework slop: ordinary reasoning dressed as a consulting memo. Full pattern list: .claude/skills/no-ai-slop/SKILL.md § Structural slop.

  • Start with the answer or strongest finding; no introduction announcing how you will answer.
  • Never invent named frameworks, gates, layers, pillars, lenses, or numbered taxonomies unless they exist in the source material or the categorization materially simplifies a complex subject.
  • No sections for 1-2 paragraphs; default to continuous prose with occasional descriptive headings.
  • Headings identify subject matter ("Authentication"), never rhetorical function. Banned: "What this is not", "Why this matters", "The key insight", "The real opportunity", "The bottom line", "The deeper point", "The uncomfortable truth".
  • No straw-man contrasts ("It's not X, it's Y", "This isn't about X", "While it may seem...", "Unlike...") unless X is a position someone relevant actually holds.
  • Space proportional to importance and evidence; each paragraph must add evidence, mechanism, example, implication, counterexample, or decision.
  • Compose as finding → evidence → reasoning → decision, not principle → framework → exposition → takeaway.
  • Prefer concrete nouns over abstract labels. Stop when the useful information is exhausted.

Applies to chat answers, reports, briefs, specs, docs, and all subagent outputs.

Verification Harness (opt-in, off by default)

COG ships a V-model verification harness: decompose left (spec then plan), build at the apex, verify right with evidence traced to criterion IDs (AC-n). It does not run unless you ask for it. Ordinary work (notes, briefs, research, drafts, edits) takes no checkpoints, no lane classification, and no evidence ledger.

Read the full file on GitHub · 250 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. 7d ago First seen · 250 lines · 4,002 tokens per session scan A 9ff2da4c033f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

COG-second-brain CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository huytieu/COG-second-brain (1,173 stars, last pushed 12d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 4,002 tokens to every session, about $0.0200 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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