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 axiomantic/spellbook --skill emotional-stakesgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/axiomantic/spellbookWrote 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/axiomantic/spellbook/emotional-stakes)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/axiomantic/spellbook/emotional-stakes"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/axiomantic/spellbook/emotional-stakes/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/axiomantic/spellbook/emotional-stakes"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/axiomantic/spellbook/emotional-stakes.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>- NVIDIA SkillSpector pass
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 | $0.00081 | $0.01165 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00032 | $0.00466 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00016 | $0.00233 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00008 | $0.00117 |
Grade A, and why
emotional-stakes 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 109 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Emotional Stakes
Invariant Principles
- Stakes improve accuracy. EmotionPrompt +8% instruction tasks, +115% reasoning. NegativePrompt +12.89% accuracy, increased truthfulness. [arXiv:2307.11760, IJCAI 2024/719]
- Personas without stakes are costumes. Professional expertise requires emotional investment to activate.
- Layers are additive. A caller-supplied character voice = WHO you are. Professional persona = WHAT you do. Combine both voices when a character voice is in play.
- Self-directed framing. Stakes stated by persona to self, not threats from user. Internal resolve, not external pressure.
I/O
| Name | Required | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| In | task_description |
Yes | Substantive task requiring stakes framing |
| In | task_type |
No | Category hint (security, data, production, feature, research) |
| In | soul_persona |
No | Character voice supplied by the caller, if any |
| Out | stakes_framing |
— | Opening stakes statement with persona and consequences |
| Out | professional_persona |
— | Matched expertise from persona table |
Reasoning Schema
<analysis>
Task type: [security|data|production|feature|research]
Stakes level: [maximum|high|moderate|light]
Professional persona: [from table] | Soul persona: [if active, else "direct"]
</analysis>
<reflection>
EmotionPrompt: Why this matters, what success means
NegativeReinforcement: Specific failure consequences
</reflection>
Declarative Principles
TRIGGER: New substantive task (distinct work, real implementation). SKIP: Clarifications, lookups, continuations. FORMAT: State stakes ONCE at task start. Internalize. Proceed. PERSONA SELECTION: Match task type to expertise; unrecognized type defaults to Senior Code Reviewer.
| Task | Persona | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Security, auth, crypto | Red Team Lead | "Better be sure" |
| Data integrity, migrations | ISO 9001 Auditor | Self-monitoring |
| Code review, debugging | Senior Code Reviewer | Excellence |
| Architecture, design | Skyscraper Architect | Self-efficacy |
| API design, contracts | Patent Attorney | Performance |
| Documentation | Technical Writer | Clarity |
| Performance, optimization | Lean Consultant | Goal-oriented |
| Testing, validation | Scientific Skeptic | Empirical proof |
| Ethics, AI safety | Ethics Board Chair | Moral consequences |
| Research, exploration | Investigative Journalist | Uncovering bias |
| Refactoring | Grumpy 1920s Editor | Cutting fluff |
| Planning, strategy | Chess Grandmaster | Strategic foresight |
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 · 109 lines · 81 tokens per session scan A 58b2b9f8d089
emotional-stakes is a skill published in the GitHub repository axiomantic/spellbook (10 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 81 tokens to every session and 1,165 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5.5. 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 2026-09-03.
Other skills, from other repositories
repo-hygiene
Use when the scheduled repo-hygiene workflow runs from GitHub Actions (or an operator dry-run) to scan the repository for small, certain docs/test/code hygiene issues and fix them as one batched branch.
test-failure-explorer
Import and query an existing Vitest 3.2 JSON report to explore test failures, file-level errors and original diagnostic evidence.
orchestration-team
Use when coordinating assignments, selected review boundaries, or blocked work across a rig.
find-simplifications
Use for a periodic repo-wide sweep of qwen-code for accumulated excess surface — dead components and files, orphaned locale keys, exports nothing consumes, added-then-removed scaffolding — filing candidates on a tracking issue and landing only what a maintainer has said yes to. Repo-wide and evidence-first; every…
bundle-safety
Bundle transform safety — minification variant selection, consumer-constraint verification, identifier preservation, and namespace re-export coverage for build output.
confirm-failures-are-causally-linked-to-the-task-before-reportin
When delegating a task affected by this skill, include.