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/jondoescoding/jondoescoding-coding-rules/scott-adams-writing-principlesgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jondoescoding/jondoescoding-coding-rulesWhat 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 | $0.00000 | $0.00937 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00000 | $0.00468 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00000 | $0.00187 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00000 | $0.00094 |
Grade A, and why
scott-adams-writing-principles 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 2d 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 115 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Scott Adams Writing Principles
Based on "The Day You Became a Better Writer" by Scott Adams (Dilbert creator), these principles create clear, persuasive writing that hooks readers and drives action.
Core Philosophy
Business writing is about clarity and persuasion. Simple writing is persuasive. A good argument in five sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a hundred sentences.
The 6 Essential Rules
1. Keep Things Simple
- Simple writing is persuasive
- Don't fight complexity - embrace simplicity
- Focus on one clear message per piece
2. Prune Your Sentences
- Remove extra words ruthlessly
- Don't write "He was very happy" when you can write "He was happy"
- Words like "very", "really", "quite" add nothing - cut them
- Eliminate unnecessary modifiers and filler
3. Use Active Voice & Proper Structure
- Readers comprehend "the boy hit the ball" quicker than "the ball was hit by the boy"
- Put the person/object before the action
- All brains organize information this way
- Example: "I watched professionals realize..." not "Professionals were watched by me as they realized..."
4. Grab Attention with Your First Sentence
- Your opening sentence determines if people keep reading
- Rewrite it multiple times until it creates curiosity
- Make it specific and compelling
- Avoid generic openings
5. Write Short Sentences
- Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence
- Readers aren't as smart as you think
- Break complex ideas into digestible pieces
- Each sentence should serve one purpose
6. Choose Impactful Words
- For business writing: choose clarity over cleverness
- For engaging content: choose vivid over bland ("swill" vs "drink")
- Remove hedge words ("I think", "maybe", "perhaps")
- Use concrete nouns and strong verbs
Implementation Checklist
Before publishing any content, verify:
- Simplicity: Can a 12-year-old understand this?
- Word Count: Have I removed every unnecessary word?
- Structure: Person before action in each sentence?
- Hook: Does my first sentence create curiosity?
- Length: Are my sentences short and punchy?
- Impact: Do my word choices drive the message forward?
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.
- 2d ago First seen · 115 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 205fd62f78de
scott-adams-writing-principles is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository jondoescoding/jondoescoding-coding-rules (2 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 937 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 2026-08-31.
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