think-stepback

think-stepback is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from aaronsb/claude-code-config. It costs 36 tokens per session (272 once invoked), scanned B, original, MIT.

A reasoning method that steps back from a specific problem to identify general principles, then applies them to the problem.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to work through difficult or unfamiliar coding problems, especially when you are stuck.
Why use it?
It helps when the details are confusing or no obvious solution appears. It provides a structured way to reconsider the problem.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/aaronsb/claude-code-config/think-stepback
Any agent
npx skills add aaronsb/claude-code-config --skill think-stepback
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aaronsb/claude-code-config

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote 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.

agentmods badge for think-stepback

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/aaronsb/claude-code-config/think-stepback.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/aaronsb/claude-code-config/think-stepback)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/aaronsb/claude-code-config/think-stepback"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/aaronsb/claude-code-config/think-stepback.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 36 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 272 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 1 finding. 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 $0.00036 $0.00272
Opus 5 $0.00018 $0.00136
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00054
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00027

Measured 4d ago against content hash 2a1213886087, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

think-stepback scanned grade B with 1 finding 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 4d 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.

Reads agent configuration directoriesmediumAgent snooping

.claude/, .codex/, .gemini/ hold keys, settings and other credentials a mod has no legitimate need for.

cat ~/.claude/hooks/ways/meta/think/strategies/step-back.md
skills/think-stepback/SKILL.md · 41 lines

What it actually says

Step-Back

Start Session

Before beginning, register this think session:

# Check for active session
if [[ -f /tmp/.claude-think-session ]]; then cat /tmp/.claude-think-session; fi

If another session is active, ask the user to finish or abandon it first. Otherwise:

echo "step-back" > /tmp/.claude-think-session

Work Through Stages

Read the strategy definition and follow its stages in order:

cat ~/.claude/hooks/ways/meta/think/strategies/step-back.md

Work through each numbered stage sequentially. Do not skip stages. Present your work for each stage before moving to the next.

Complete Session

After the final stage, clean up so the think way can fire again:

rm -f /tmp/.claude-think-session /tmp/.claude-way-meta-think-*"${CLAUDE_SESSION_ID:+-$CLAUDE_SESSION_ID}" 2>/dev/null
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. 4d ago First seen · 41 lines · 36 tokens per session scan B 2a1213886087

Subscribe to this mod's changes

think-stepback is a skill published in the GitHub repository aaronsb/claude-code-config (18 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 36 tokens to every session and 272 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (reads agent configuration directories). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.