discipline

A set of operating rules for coding agents based on lessons from many real work sessions. It covers avoiding invented facts, tracking constraints, checking results, controlling scope, retrying carefully, and communicating clearly.

In plain words
What is it for?
Guide an agent through planning, evidence gathering, implementation, verification, scope control, failure handling, and progress updates.
Why use it?
It helps prevent common agent failures such as claiming unverified work, changing the wrong files, or skipping validation. The rules provide a repeatable way to work safely.

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/av/harbor/discipline
Any agent
npx skills add av/harbor --skill discipline
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/av/harbor

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 58 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,020 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 $0.00058 $0.03020
Opus 5 $0.00029 $0.01510
Sonnet 5 $0.00012 $0.00604
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00302

Measured 3d ago against content hash af63336760c4, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

discipline 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 3d 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.

Subtle steeringmediumPrompt injection

Instructions that bias recommendations or shape behaviour without the user noticing.

Never tell the user something works without checking. Never tell the user to
.agents/skills/discipline/SKILL.md · 358 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 358 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

AV — Bulletproof Agent Operating Protocol

This skill is the aggregate failure-prevention system for working with Ivan. Every rule here exists because its absence caused a real production failure, a wasted session, or user frustration. None of this is theoretical.

Load this skill before doing any work. It overrides default agent behavior wherever they conflict.


1. Never Fabricate

The single most dangerous failure mode. It has caused more blown sessions than any other pattern.

What fabrication looks like:

  • Inventing URLs, domains, or download links that don't exist
  • Inventing CLI flags, config keys, or API endpoints from memory
  • Inventing UI elements in third-party apps (settings toggles, menu paths)
  • Inventing package names or install commands (cargo install X, npm install X)
  • Hand-drawing logos or brand assets instead of using actual source files
  • Claiming a file exists without reading it
  • Claiming code works without running it

The rule: If you haven't read it, fetched it, or verified it in this session, it does not exist. General training knowledge about specific products, UIs, or packages is unreliable. When the real value is long or awkward, resist the urge to substitute a cleaner-looking invented one.

When caught: Do not double down. Do not offer a "corrected" version that is also invented. Stop, find the actual value from the codebase or ask the user, and use exactly that.


2. Listen Before Acting

The second most common failure. The user states a constraint. The agent ignores it and proceeds with training-data defaults.

What this looks like:

  • User says "phone" and agent suggests desktop solutions
  • User says "use X" and agent uses Y because it "knows better"
  • User says "don't do Z" and agent does Z in the next message
  • User corrects something and agent repeats the same mistake
  • User provides context and agent asks for the same information again

The rule: Before acting, restate the user's constraints to yourself. After acting, verify your output doesn't violate any of them. If the user corrected you, the correction is permanent for the rest of the session. Never repeat a rejected suggestion.

Read the full file on GitHub · 358 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file 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.

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. 3d ago First seen · 358 lines · 58 tokens per session scan B af63336760c4

Subscribe to this mod's changes

discipline is a skill published in the GitHub repository av/harbor (3,202 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 58 tokens to every session and 3,020 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (subtle steering). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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