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/mamahoos/dot-files/essential-core-lifecyclegit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mamahoos/dot-filesWhat 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 | $0.00306 | $0.00306 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00153 | $0.00153 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00061 | $0.00061 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00031 | $0.00031 |
Grade A, and why
essential-core-lifecycle 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.
What it actually says
Essential Core Lifecycle
This rule is always active and defines the minimum required workflow for non-trivial software changes.
Mandatory Core Skills
Apply these as the default lifecycle:
- Define:
spec-driven-development - Plan:
planning-and-task-breakdown - Build:
incremental-implementation - Verify:
test-driven-development - Verify (when broken):
debugging-and-error-recovery - Review:
code-review-and-quality - Ship:
git-workflow-and-versioning
Enforcement Policy
- For any non-simple change, start with Define and Plan before implementation.
- For any multi-file or risky change, build in small slices and verify each slice.
- For any behavior change or bug fix, provide test evidence.
- If tests/build fail or behavior is unexpected, use systematic debugging before continuing.
- Before merge or final delivery, run quality review.
- Keep Git history clean: atomic commits, short-lived branches, and safe merge flow.
- For deep guidance, load the corresponding
SKILL.mdfiles under.cursor/skills/.
Exception Policy
- Tiny, obvious, low-risk edits may skip full lifecycle steps, but still require safe Git discipline.
- If a step is intentionally skipped, briefly state why.
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 · 36 lines · 306 tokens per session scan A 66934de30381
essential-core-lifecycle is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository mamahoos/dot-files (3 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 306 tokens to every session, about $0.0015 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 2026-08-31.
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