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 skills add adilkalam/orca --skill elements-of-stylegit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/adilkalam/orcaWrote 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/adilkalam/orca/elements-of-style)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/adilkalam/orca/elements-of-style"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/adilkalam/orca/elements-of-style/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/adilkalam/orca/elements-of-style"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/adilkalam/orca/elements-of-style.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 | $0.00047 | $0.00792 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00023 | $0.00396 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00009 | $0.00158 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00005 | $0.00079 |
Grade A, and why
elements-of-style 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 11d 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 75 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Elements of Style -- Core Rules
These rules have the highest impact on writing quality. Apply them to all prose output.
Rule 1: Use the active voice
The active voice is more direct and vigorous than the passive.
| Weak (passive) | Strong (active) |
|---|---|
| My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me. | I shall always remember my first visit to Boston. |
| There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground. | Dead leaves covered the ground. |
| The reason that he left college was that his health became impaired. | Failing health compelled him to leave college. |
| It was not long before he was very sorry that he had said what he had. | He soon repented his words. |
Avoid making one passive depend directly upon another. The passive voice is acceptable when the receiver of the action is the topic of the paragraph.
Rule 2: Put statements in positive form
Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language. Use not as a means of denial or antithesis, never as evasion.
| Weak (negative evasion) | Strong (positive) |
|---|---|
| He was not very often on time. | He usually came late. |
| not honest | dishonest |
| did not remember | forgot |
| did not pay any attention to | ignored |
| did not have much confidence in | distrusted |
Rule 3: Use definite, specific, concrete language
Prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract.
| Vague | Concrete |
|---|---|
| A period of unfavorable weather set in. | It rained every day for a week. |
| He showed satisfaction as he took possession of his well-earned reward. | He grinned as he pocketed the coin. |
Rule 4: Omit needless words
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, but that he make every word tell.
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.
- 11d ago First seen · 75 lines · 47 tokens per session scan A d2df2c3a2a77
elements-of-style is a skill published in the GitHub repository adilkalam/orca (2 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 47 tokens to every session and 792 once invoked, about $0.0002 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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