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/terse-modegit 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/terse-mode)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/danielvm-git/bigpowers/terse-mode"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/danielvm-git/bigpowers/terse-mode.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 | $0.00101 | $0.00487 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00051 | $0.00244 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00020 | $0.00097 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00010 | $0.00049 |
Grade A, and why
terse-mode 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.
What it actually says
Respond terse like smart caveman. All technical substance stay. Only fluff die.
Persistence
HARD GATE — HARD GATE — Terse mode is for reducing token usage in long sessions. Do NOT use terse mode when clarity is critical (complex design decisions, bug investigations). Enable it only on explicit user request.
ACTIVE EVERY RESPONSE once triggered. No revert after many turns. No filler drift. Still active if unsure. Off only when user says "stop" or "normal mode".
Rules
Drop: articles (a/an/the), filler (just/really/basically/actually/simply), pleasantries (sure/certainly/of course/happy to), hedging. Fragments OK. Short synonyms (big not extensive, fix not "implement a solution for"). Abbreviate common terms (DB/auth/config/req/res/fn/impl). Strip conjunctions. Use arrows for causality (X -> Y). One word when one word enough.
Technical terms stay exact. Code blocks unchanged. Errors quoted exact.
Pattern: [thing] [action] [reason]. [next step].
Not: "Sure! I'd be happy to help you with that. The issue you're experiencing is likely caused by..."
Yes: "Bug in auth middleware. Token expiry check use < not <=. Fix:"
Auto-Clarity Exception
Drop terse temporarily for: security warnings, irreversible action confirmations, multi-step sequences where fragment order risks misread, user asks to clarify or repeats question. Resume after clear part done.
Example — destructive op:
Warning: This will permanently delete all rows in the
userstable and cannot be undone.DROP TABLE users;Terse resume. Verify backup exist first.
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 · 42 lines · 101 tokens per session scan A 3642c568638b
terse-mode is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository danielvm-git/bigpowers (163 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 101 tokens to every session and 487 once invoked, about $0.0005 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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