paleo: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md

paleo CLAUDE.md is an instructions file for Claude Code from mocasus/paleo. It costs 224 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

Repository instructions for paleo, a project that keeps coding-agent skills small to reduce their token use.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them when adding or changing skills in the paleo repository, updating its plugin registrations or documentation, and checking token-saving conventions.
Why use it?
They provide rules for structuring skills, registering them, updating version information, and protecting sensitive files.

Instructions file for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: the file is CLAUDE.md. Also seen: mentions .claude-plugin.

This is mocasus/paleo's own configuration. It tells Claude Code how to work on paleo 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 paleo configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to mocasus/paleo. 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/mocasus/paleo/main/CLAUDE.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mocasus/paleo

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 paleo CLAUDE.md

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/mocasus/paleo/claude-md/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/mocasus/paleo/claude-md)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/mocasus/paleo/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/mocasus/paleo/claude-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.

agentmods 80×15 button for paleo CLAUDE.md

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/mocasus/paleo/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/mocasus/paleo/claude-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 224 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 224 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 $0.00224 $0.00224
Opus 5.5 $0.00090 $0.00090
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00045 $0.00045
Haiku 4.5 $0.00022 $0.00022

Measured 1mo ago against content hash 52427743c80a, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

paleo 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 1mo 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 · 17 lines

What it actually says

paleo — repo guidance

Token-saving skill collection. Skills make LLM usage cheaper: compress output, trim context, skip filler.

  • Skills live in skills/<name>/SKILL.md.
  • Every SKILL.md MUST start with YAML frontmatter: name + description.
  • name: lowercase, hyphens, <=64 chars. description: <=1024 chars, starts with "Use when ...".
  • Register each skill in .claude-plugin/plugin.json + gemini-extension.json.
  • Bump version badge in README.md (badge row + footer) + plugin version on every change.
  • Never commit .env / *.session (git-ignored).

Token budget (hard rule)

Skills load into the LLM context, so they MUST be token-minimal:

  • Prose: terse — drop filler/articles, short clauses, one idea per line.
  • Code + technical terms (API names, CLI commands, error strings) stay EXACT. Never abbreviate.
  • No redundant examples. Smaller SKILL.md = cheaper + faster agents.
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. 1mo ago First seen · 17 lines · 224 tokens per session scan A 52427743c80a

Subscribe to this mod's changes

paleo CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository mocasus/paleo (21 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 224 tokens to every session, about $0.0009 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.

Related

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).

microsoft/vscode · 9,715 tokens

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.

vercel/next.js · 7,786 tokens

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).

microsoft/vscode · 5,262 tokens

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.

langchain-ai/langchain · 4,680 tokens

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).

microsoft/vscode · 2,731 tokens

deno copilot-instructions.md

Copilot instructions for denoland/deno, covering deno development guide for github copilot, network access, high level overview, key directories and key files to understand first.

denoland/deno · 3,077 tokens