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 rules/danielvm-git/bigpowers/diagnose-stallgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/danielvm-git/bigpowersWrote 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/danielvm-git/bigpowers/diagnose-stall)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/danielvm-git/bigpowers/diagnose-stall"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/danielvm-git/bigpowers/diagnose-stall.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 | $0.00043 | $0.00609 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00022 | $0.00304 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00009 | $0.00122 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00004 | $0.00061 |
Grade A, and why
diagnose-stall 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 today.
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 — 54 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Diagnose Stall
HARD GATE — Do NOT restart work blindly. Run this diagnostic first when orchestration goes quiet without an explicit terminal state.
Explicit handler for silent stalls in long-running agent workflows (/loop, dispatch-agents, execute-plan, build-epic resume mode).
Stall signals
| Signal | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| No stdout for >5 min on a monitored loop tick | Sleep/watcher misconfigured or prompt never re-armed |
| Subagent dispatched but no completion message | Agent hung, blocked on approval, or scope too large |
dispatch-agents cycle 3 reached with gaps |
Circuit exhausted — needs human escalation |
| Verify command running >15 min | Missing timeout or waiting on external service |
handoff.next_skill unchanged across turns |
Prior skill never wrote handoff |
Process
- Read state —
specs/state.yaml:handoff.next_skill,active_flow,metrics.story_start, open decisions. - Check locks —
bash scripts/check-stale-locks.shif present; readspecs/agent-locks.yaml. - Inspect terminals — list background shells; note PIDs, last output timestamp, exit codes.
- Classify stall type:
- waiting_approval — tool blocked on user consent
- blocked_dependency — prior task incomplete or red gate
- agent_exhausted — max iterations/cycles reached
- misconfigured_loop — duplicate sentinel, wrong regex, or sleeper not re-armed
- external_io — network, CI, or deploy wait without timeout
- unknown — escalate with evidence bundle
- Recommend recovery — one action only (resume, kill PID, re-dispatch with smaller brief, escalate to user).
- Write report —
specs/verifications/STALL-<timestamp>.mdwith classification, evidence, and recommended next skill.
Integration
| Caller | When to invoke |
|---|---|
/loop (Cursor) |
After two consecutive ticks with no observable progress |
dispatch-agents |
When a wave exceeds expected duration with zero returns |
execute-plan |
When a step checkpoint is overdue |
| User | "Why did this stop?" / "Nothing is happening" |
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.
- today First seen · 54 lines · 43 tokens per session scan A 529fc005b71f
diagnose-stall is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository danielvm-git/bigpowers (162 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 43 tokens to every session and 609 once invoked, about $0.0002 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 2026-09-03.
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