Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to a9a4k/tour. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/a9a4k/tour/main/.agents/skills/prototype/SKILL.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/a9a4k/tourWrote 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/skills/a9a4k/tour/prototype)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/a9a4k/tour/prototype"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/a9a4k/tour/prototype/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/skills/a9a4k/tour/prototype"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/a9a4k/tour/prototype.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 | $0.00090 | $0.00710 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00036 | $0.00284 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00018 | $0.00142 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00009 | $0.00071 |
Grade A, and why
prototype 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 1mo 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.
This is a copy
84% identical to prototype — 11 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 33 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Prototype
A prototype is throwaway code that answers a question. The question decides the shape.
Pick a branch
Identify which question is being answered — from the user's prompt, the surrounding code, or by asking if the user is around:
- "Does this logic / state model feel right?" → LOGIC.md. Build a tiny interactive terminal app that pushes the state machine through cases that are hard to reason about on paper.
- "What should this look like?" → UI.md. Generate several radically different UI variations on a single route, switchable via a URL search param and a floating bottom bar.
The two branches produce very different artifacts — getting this wrong wastes the whole prototype. If the question is genuinely ambiguous and the user isn't reachable, default to whichever branch better matches the surrounding code (a backend module → logic; a page or component → UI) and state the assumption at the top of the prototype.
Rules that apply to both
- Throwaway from day one, and clearly marked as such. Locate the prototype code close to where it will actually be used (next to the module or page it's prototyping for) so context is obvious — but name it so a casual reader can see it's a prototype, not production. For throwaway UI routes, obey whatever routing convention the project already uses; don't invent a new top-level structure.
- One command to run. Whatever the project's existing task runner supports —
pnpm <name>,python <path>,bun <path>, etc. The user must be able to start it without thinking. - No persistence by default. State lives in memory. Persistence is the thing the prototype is checking, not something it should depend on. If the question explicitly involves a database, hit a scratch DB or a local file with a clear "PROTOTYPE — wipe me" name.
- Skip the polish. No tests, no error handling beyond what makes the prototype runnable, no abstractions. The point is to learn something fast and then delete it.
- Surface the state. After every action (logic) or on every variant switch (UI), print or render the full relevant state so the user can see what changed.
- Delete or absorb when done. When the prototype has answered its question, either delete it or fold the validated decision into the real code — don't leave it rotting in the repo.
What ships with it
2 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
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.
- 1mo ago First seen · 33 lines · 90 tokens per session scan A 86cefb389c34
prototype is a skill published in the GitHub repository a9a4k/tour (5 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 90 tokens to every session and 710 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 84% identical to prototype, differing in 11 lines, and is treated as a copy.
Other skills, from other repositories
schematics
Creates or refines publication-quality technical diagrams with the native generateimage tool (Nano Banana Pro through Ace or a Gemini key, GPT Image 2 through an OpenAI key), method and architecture overviews, pipelines, CONSORT and PRISMA flows, experimental workflows, biological pathways, circuits and conceptual…
frontend-philosophy
Visual & UI philosophy (The 5 Pillars of Intentional UI). Understand deeply to avoid "AI slop" and create distinctive, memorable interfaces.
design-skill
Use BEFORE building or restyling anything a user will see — web/mobile UIs, landing pages, dashboards, components, emails, AND creative work like Three.js/WebGL/canvas/SVG scenes, data-viz, games, and animations — to make it look intentional and polished, not generic; covers tokens, type, color, layout, motion…
design-method
Use when starting any design task — resolves register, sets the 3 dials, locks Gate 0, and routes to the right move and target skill.
design-webapp
Use when building or extending a dashboard, SaaS screen, or any authenticated app surface — use design-web instead for a marketing site.
design-motion
Use when adding or reviewing motion on an already-settled layout or component — never to hide or compensate for an unfinished one.