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.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/briangmilnes/APAS-VERUSWrote 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/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/may-vs-can)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/may-vs-can"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/may-vs-can/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/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/may-vs-can"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/briangmilnes/apas-verus/may-vs-can.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 | $0.00000 | $0.00218 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00000 | $0.00109 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00000 | $0.00044 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00000 | $0.00022 |
Grade A, and why
may-vs-can 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 6d 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.
What it actually says
May vs Can
- can = ability (is it physically/technically possible?)
- may = permission or option (is it allowed/permitted?)
Examples
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| User can set this before use | User may set this before use | It's an option, not an ability question |
You may call len() on a Vec |
You can call len() on a Vec |
It's about capability |
This can be None |
This may be None |
It's a permitted state |
| Threads can be reused | Threads may be reused | It's about whether reuse is allowed |
Quick Test
Ask: "Is this about whether something is possible or whether something is permitted/optional?"
- Possible → can
- Permitted/optional → may
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.
- 6d ago First seen · 27 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A cae787de87a6
may-vs-can is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository briangmilnes/APAS-VERUS (10 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 218 tokens. 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 2026-09-03.
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