design-log

Rules for keeping design logs that record the reasoning behind important features and architecture changes. They define what to check before editing and what each log should contain.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them before implementing significant changes, when creating a design proposal, and when documenting plans, examples, diagrams, and validation requirements.
Why use it?
They preserve decisions, constraints, trade-offs, and verification criteria so future work does not ignore earlier design choices.

Cursor rule

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/yoavaa/design-log-methodology/design-log
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/yoavaa/design-log-methodology
Per session 762 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 762 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
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 $0.00762 $0.00762
Opus 5 $0.00381 $0.00381
Sonnet 5 $0.00152 $0.00152
Haiku 4.5 $0.00076 $0.00076

Measured 2d ago against content hash 6a90dd7aa012, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

design-log 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.

design-log.mdc · 62 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 62 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Design Log Methodology

The project follows a rigorous design log methodology for all significant features and architectural changes.

Before Making Changes

  1. Check design logs in ./design-log/ for existing designs and implementation notes
  2. For new features: Create design log first, get approval, then implement
  3. Read related design logs to understand context and constraints

When Creating Design Logs

  1. Structure: Background → Problem → Questions and Answers → Design → Implementation Plan → Examples → Trade-offs
  2. Be specific: Include file paths, type signatures, validation rules
  3. Show examples: Use ✅/❌ for good/bad patterns, include realistic code
  4. Explain why: Don't just describe what, explain rationale and trade-offs
  5. Ask Questions (in the file): For anything that is not clear, or missing information
  6. When answering question: keep the questions, just add answers
  7. Be brief: write short explanations and only what most relevant
  8. Draw Diagrams: Use mermain inline diagrams when it makes sense
  9. Define verification criteria: how do we know the implementation solves the original problem

When Implementing

  1. Follow the implementation plan phases from the design log
  2. Write tests first or update existing tests to match new behavior
  3. Do not Update design log initial section once implementation started
  4. Append design log with "Implementation Results" section as you go
  5. Document deviations: Explain why implementation differs from design
  6. Run tests: Include test results (X/Y passing) in implementation notes
  7. After Implementation add a summary of deviations from original design

When Answering Questions

  1. Reference design logs by number when relevant (e.g., "See Design Log #50")
  2. Use codebase terminology: ViewState, Contract, JayContract, phase annotations
  3. Show type signatures: This is a TypeScript project with heavy type usage
  4. Consider backward compatibility: Default to non-breaking changes

Read the full file on GitHub · 62 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 · 62 lines · 762 tokens per session scan A 6a90dd7aa012

Subscribe to this mod's changes

design-log is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository yoavaa/design-log-methodology (42 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 762 tokens to every session, about $0.0038 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.