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 assimovt/productskills --skill scope-cuttinggit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/assimovt/productskillsWrote 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/assimovt/productskills/scope-cutting)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/assimovt/productskills/scope-cutting"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/assimovt/productskills/scope-cutting/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/assimovt/productskills/scope-cutting"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/assimovt/productskills/scope-cutting.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 | $0.00052 | $0.00733 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00026 | $0.00367 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00010 | $0.00147 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00005 | $0.00073 |
Grade A, and why
scope-cutting 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 10d 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 — 57 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Cut scope by flipping the question. Instead of "How long will this take?" ask "How much time is this problem WORTH?" Set the appetite first, then shape the solution to fit. This is Shape Up's core insight: fixed time, variable scope.
Set the Appetite
Before touching scope, declare the time budget:
- Small batch: 1-2 weeks for 1-2 people
- Big batch: 6 weeks max for a small team
If a project takes more than 6 weeks (or 3 weeks for 1-3 people per Linear's method), it's too big. Break it down or walk away.
The appetite is NOT an estimate. An estimate says "this will take X." An appetite says "this is WORTH X." If the shaped solution doesn't fit the appetite, cut scope until it does — or kill the project.
Scope Hammering
For every item in the spec, ask these questions in order:
- Must-have or nice-to-have? If the feature ships without it and users still get value, it's nice-to-have. Cut it.
- Shippable without it? Can you deploy a working version that doesn't include this? If yes, cut it from v1.
- Edge case or core path? If fewer than 20% of users will encounter this scenario, defer it.
- Compare to baseline. The baseline is NO feature — not the ideal version. "Is this better than nothing?" always wins over "Is this as good as it could be?"
Shape the Solution Down
When scope is still too big after hammering:
- Cut breadth, not quality. Support 1 auth provider well instead of 3 badly. Handle the happy path completely instead of covering every error state.
- Remove entire surfaces. Kill the settings page. Remove the dashboard. Ship with sensible defaults instead of configurability.
- Time-bound the edge cases. "We'll handle CSV import of up to 1,000 rows. Above that, they email us." Solve it manually until scale demands automation.
- Ask: "What's the simplest version a customer would thank us for?" That's your scope.
Circuit Breaker (Shape Up)
If it doesn't ship in one cycle, it's cancelled by default. No automatic rollover. The team must re-pitch for another cycle. This prevents zombie projects that drag on forever.
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.
- 10d ago First seen · 57 lines · 52 tokens per session scan A 47ccf43e2a6a
scope-cutting is a skill published in the GitHub repository assimovt/productskills (68 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 52 tokens to every session and 733 once invoked, about $0.0003 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.
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