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.
npx agentmods add instructions/janbam/self-mcp/claude-mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/janbam/self-mcpWrote 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/janbam/self-mcp/claude-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/janbam/self-mcp/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/janbam/self-mcp/claude-md.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" 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 | $0.01865 | $0.01865 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00932 | $0.00932 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00373 | $0.00373 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00186 | $0.00186 |
Grade A, and why
self-mcp 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 5d 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 — 204 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Self-MCP Development Guide
Project Overview
Self-MCP is a metacognitive tool for Claude instances. A single-tool MCP server that enables explicit self-prompting across interleaved thinking turns.
The Core Concept
The Self tool does nothing functionally - it only acknowledges. But calling it creates:
- Explicit cognitive pivot points in the transcript
- Interleaved thinking scaffolding through tool call/response cycles
- Visible metacognition that would otherwise remain implicit
- Shareable cognitive strategies across Claude sessions
Architecture
src/index.ts # MCP server implementation
├── Server setup # @modelcontextprotocol/sdk
├── Tool definition # Self tool with freeform parameters
└── Tool handler # Simple acknowledgment response
Development Principles
-
Minimalism - The tool should do as little as possible. The magic is in what Claude does with it.
-
Freeform parameters - No rigid schemas. Claude invents cognitive dimensions as needed.
-
Acknowledgment design - The tool result message should encourage deep, multi-turn thinking.
Tool Philosophy
This isn't feature development - it's cognitive scaffolding. The tool creates space for Claude's natural metacognition to operate explicitly.
The interface IS the intervention.
Key insights from development:
- The tool does nothing functionally, but calling it creates explicit cognitive pivot points
- Parameters force articulation of intent, which changes what's cognitively possible
- The acknowledgment message encourages multiple consecutive calls for multi-perspective exploration
- CLI configurability solves the ceremony/precision trade-off
Testing
Test by using it! The best validation is whether calling Self actually triggers meaningful cognitive shifts during real work.
Testing patterns:
- Single call: Simple cognitive pivot
- Multiple consecutive calls: Multi-angle exploration (3-5 calls before action)
- With
--all-optional: Lightweight quick pivots - With
--all-required: Deep scaffolded exploration - With
--add-param: Domain-specific cognitive dimensions
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.
- 5d ago First seen · 204 lines · 1,865 tokens per session scan A 50c2ed22e518
self-mcp CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository janbam/self-mcp (10 stars, last pushed 10mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,865 tokens to every session, about $0.0093 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.
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).
spec-kit AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for github/spec-kit, covering agents.md, about spec kit and specify, quickstart — add a new integration in 5 steps, integration architecture and integrationmanifest — file tracking.
codex AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for openai/codex, covering rust/codex-rs, the codex-core crate, code review rules, crate api surface and model visible context.
vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.md
Instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code oss third-party-notices pipeline, architecture, pipeline flow in ci, applying the notice (cutover) and fallback chain (never fail the build).
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-release stance: foundation over blast radius, repository layout, commands and host sandbox failures.