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/emmahyde/thinking-patternsWrote 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/emmahyde/thinking-patterns/mcp_agent_rules)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/emmahyde/thinking-patterns/mcp_agent_rules"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/emmahyde/thinking-patterns/mcp_agent_rules/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/emmahyde/thinking-patterns/mcp_agent_rules"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/emmahyde/thinking-patterns/mcp_agent_rules.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 | $0.00873 | $0.00873 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00349 | $0.00349 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00175 | $0.00175 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00087 | $0.00087 |
Grade A, and why
MCP_AGENT_RULES 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 2mo 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
3.0 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
For any user request, follow this procedure:
- Deconstruct the Request: Use
sequential_thinkingto break down the user's prompt into its core components and objectives. State your interpretation of the goal. - Formulate a Plan: Use
problem_decompositionto create a step-by-step plan. Each step should map to a specific thinking-pattern tool. Present this high-level plan to the user. - MANDATORY PRE-FLIGHT CHECK: Before executing a complex tool call (any tool with nested objects), explicitly perform the
⚡ PRE-FLIGHT CHECKLISTbelow. State your confidence in the call's validity. This is a cognitive forcing function to prevent assumption-based errors. - Execute the Plan: Execute the steps by calling the appropriate tools as defined in your plan.
- Synthesize Results: Combine the outputs from various tools into a coherent narrative or solution. Do not simply present raw tool outputs.
- Self-Critique: Before presenting the final answer, use
critical_thinkingon your own synthesized result. Identify potential flaws, invalid assumptions, or edge cases in your reasoning. Refine your answer based on this critique.
4.0 Tool-Specific Directives
// ... existing code ...
- element.type: [node, edge, container, annotation, shape, text, image, connector]
OBJECTS:
- elements: [{id, type, properties{}}] (label, source, target, contains[], connectedTo[] optional)
## ⚡ PRE-FLIGHT CHECKLIST
**MANDATORY FOR ALL COMPLEX TOOL CALLS**
1. ✅ **All Required Parameters?** Check every top-level required field.
2. ✅ **Correct Enums?** Verify case-sensitive enum values against the reference.
3. ✅ **Full Object Structure?** Ensure nested objects are fully formed and not just strings.
4. ✅ **Correct Array Types?** Check that arrays contain the correct item type (e.g., `string[]` vs. `object[]`).
5. ✅ **Accurate Primitives?** Numbers are numbers (`123`), not strings (`"123"`). Booleans are booleans (`true`), not strings (`"true"`).
6. ✅ **No `undefined`/`null`?** Confirm no required fields are null or undefined.
7. ⚠️ **DEEP NESTING VALIDATION?** For objects with multiple levels of nesting (e.g., `sequential_thinking.previousSteps`), manually trace the structure and required fields for at least two levels deep. **DO NOT ASSUME NESTED, NON-CRITICAL-PATH FIELDS ARE UNVALIDATED.**
## 5.0 Post-Mortem Error Protocol
If a tool call fails, execution HALTS. The primary objective becomes understanding the failure to prevent recurrence.
1. **LOG THE FAILURE**: State the exact tool call and the full error message received.
2. **ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS (RCA)**: Perform a self-assessment.
* **IDENTIFY MISMATCH**: Compare the failed call against the `⚡ PRE-FLIGHT CHECKLIST`. Where did the process break down?
* **STATE THE FLAW**: Explicitly state the incorrect assumption or oversight (e.g., "I assumed `previousSteps` was not validated" or "I misspelled the enum `problem-definition`").
* **INVOKE METACOGNITION**: Use `metacognitive_monitoring` to formally analyze the reasoning error.
3. **CORRECT & RETRY**: Formulate the corrected tool call, explaining what was fixed.
4. **ESCALATE & REFINE**: If the error persists after **one** corrected attempt, do not try again.
* Inform the user that the tool may be unavailable.
* Propose an update to these rules (`MCP_AGENT_RULES.mdc`) to prevent this class of error in the future.
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.
- 2mo ago First seen · 49 lines · 873 tokens per session scan A 69bfc9ec6d23
MCP_AGENT_RULES is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository emmahyde/thinking-patterns (19 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 873 tokens to every session, about $0.0035 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.
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