stackhawk-optimize-metrics

A set of rules for reviewing results from a StackHawk security scan and adjusting its settings based on those results.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to inspect scan metrics, identify problematic paths, adjust concurrency or exclusions, improve authentication settings, and repeat the refinement process within its limits.
Why use it?
It turns scan data such as errors, slow pages, timeouts, and rate limits into specific configuration changes instead of relying on guesswork.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/stackhawk/agent-skills/stackhawk-optimize-metrics
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/stackhawk/agent-skills

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 74 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,154 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00074 $0.01154
Opus 5 $0.00037 $0.00577
Sonnet 5 $0.00015 $0.00231
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00115

Measured 2d ago against content hash 75d7e1f7e9ee, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

stackhawk-optimize-metrics 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.

cursor/.cursor/rules/stackhawk-optimize-metrics.mdc · 97 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 97 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Scan Metrics → Refine Loop

After the trial scan, analyze its metrics and refine the config using real scan data. This skill does NOT compute metrics — it consumes hawk op scan metrics.

Get the metrics

hawk op scan metrics <SCAN_ID> --format json

<SCAN_ID> is the trial scan's id (use the id returned by the trial scan; latest also works). Output (MetricsJson):

{
  "scan_id": "...",
  "request_health": { "timeout": 0, "connection_failure": 0, "timeout_streak_max": 0 },
  "scan_flags": ["timeout-prone"],
  "paths": [
    {
      "method": "GET", "path": "/x", "total_requests": 100,
      "status_counts": {"200": 90, "429": 10},
      "class_2xx": 90, "class_3xx": 0, "class_4xx": 10, "class_5xx": 0,
      "error_rate": 0.10,
      "time": {"p50_bucket": 256, "p90_bucket": 4096, "max_bucket": 8192, "est_total_ms": 30000},
      "flags": ["slow-path", "rate-limited"]
    }
  ],
  "operations": []
}

Useful read-only views (human framing): --sort {heaviest|slowest|erroring|most-requested}, --top N, --method <VERB>, --operations.

Flag → lever mapping

Flag Meaning Lever Tier Goal
rate-limited 429s from target lower hawk.scan.concurrentRequests auto better+faster
timeout-prone target overwhelmed/flaky (scan-level) lower hawk.scan.concurrentRequests auto reliability
heavy-path path dominates est. scan time app.excludePaths (or narrow includePaths) confirm faster
slow-path high p90 latency app.excludePaths if low security value confirm faster
auth-wall >=50% 401/403 — route not actually tested guide app.authentication.* (never fabricate creds) confirm / needs-input better coverage
server-erroring / error-prone app erroring under scan surface for investigation; optionally app.excludePaths advisory / confirm better findings

Tiers

  • auto = concurrency reductions ONLY (non-destructive, reversible, no coverage loss). Apply, then re-scan.
  • confirm = anything that drops coverage (app.excludePaths) or needs human input (app.authentication.*). Show the exact yml diff; apply only on explicit approval.

Read the full file on GitHub · 97 lines

Changes

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.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 97 lines · 74 tokens per session scan A 75d7e1f7e9ee

Subscribe to this mod's changes

stackhawk-optimize-metrics is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository stackhawk/agent-skills (15 stars, last pushed 12d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 74 tokens to every session and 1,154 once invoked, about $0.0004 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 2026-08-30.