backseat-driver

backseat-driver is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from BetterThanTomorrow/calva-backseat-driver. It costs 186 tokens per session (3,151 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide to using Backseat Driver, a Clojure programming extension that connects coding tools to a live REPL, an interactive Clojure session.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps evaluate Clojure code, inspect function documentation and examples, choose REPL-based workflows, and coordinate with other Clojure skills.
Why use it?
It keeps code evaluation in the same environment as the developer's session and encourages checking documentation before guessing how functions work.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: mentions subagents; mentions AGENTS.md.

Good fit It helps evaluate Clojure code, inspect function documentation and examples, choose REPL-based workflows, and coordinate with other Clojure skills.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/betterthantomorrow/calva-backseat-driver/backseat-driver
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.

Any agent
npx skills add BetterThanTomorrow/calva-backseat-driver --skill backseat-driver
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/BetterThanTomorrow/calva-backseat-driver

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 backseat-driver

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/betterthantomorrow/calva-backseat-driver/backseat-driver/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/betterthantomorrow/calva-backseat-driver/backseat-driver)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/betterthantomorrow/calva-backseat-driver/backseat-driver"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/betterthantomorrow/calva-backseat-driver/backseat-driver/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.

agentmods 80×15 button for backseat-driver

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/betterthantomorrow/calva-backseat-driver/backseat-driver"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/betterthantomorrow/calva-backseat-driver/backseat-driver.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 186 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,151 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector warn 7 Sept 2026
SkillSpector: 2 findings, up to medium

These are SkillSpector’s own severities. On a checked sample its high-severity flags on skills were ~96% false positives — a documented command, a public API, a “never do X” rule — so we show them as a caution to read, not a verdict. Why →

  • medium Prompt Injection · line 8
    Subtle instructions detected that may alter agent decision-making or introduce hidden biases.
    Fix: Review content for implicit steering or bias. Ensure instructions are explicit and align with the skill's stated purpose.
  • medium Rogue Agent · line 97
    Skill establishes unauthorized persistence across sessions via cron jobs, startup scripts, or state files. Session persistence allows an attacker to maintain access beyond the current interaction.
    Fix: Remove any persistence mechanisms (cron jobs, startup scripts, state files). Skills should not maintain state across sessions without explicit user consent.
How audits are shown
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 5.1 $0.00186 $0.03151
Opus 5 $0.00093 $0.01576
Sonnet 5 $0.00037 $0.00630
Haiku 4.5 $0.00019 $0.00315

Measured 11d ago against content hash 44ab5def5dba, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

backseat-driver 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.

assets/skills/backseat-driver/SKILL.md · 226 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 226 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Backseat Driver — Effective Tool Usage

"Use the REPL" means: call the clojure_evaluate_code tool. This is the Backseat Driver tool that evaluates code in Calva's connected REPL — the same REPL the user is connected to. Always use this tool rather than launching a terminal REPL. If there is no REPL connection, ask the user to connect one.

Step 0: Add Clojure skills

Scan your available skills for Clojure-related ones. If you see a skill named Clojure, or a skill being about Clojure, read it in full and internalize its content.

In lack of Clojure skills

If you don't see such a skill available, tell the user to install the clojure plugin from the Awesome Backseat Driver marketplace. Give these instructions:

1. From the VS Code command palette run: **Chat: Install Plugin from Source**
1. Paste: https://github.com/BetterThanTomorrow/awesome-backseat-driver
1. Select **clojure**

Core Principles

  1. ClojureDocs before guessing — Before using any core function you the very least unsure about how to use effectively, call clojuredocs_info. You will get docstrings, argument lists, community examples, and gotchas. What's not to love?

  2. Structural editing for structural code — Clojure is a structural language. Use the structural editing tools, not generic text replacement. See dev/tool-instructions/editing-clojure-files.md for detailed workflows.

The Workflow

Every task — implementing, debugging, planning, reviewing — follows this loop:

  1. ORIENT → clojure_list_sessions (know your REPLs)
  2. RESEARCH → clojuredocs_info / clojure_symbol_info / clojure_evaluate_code (understand the functions)
  3. EXPLORE → clojure_evaluate_code (test ideas in the REPL)
  4. BUILD UP → clojure_evaluate_code (compose verified pieces)
  5. APPLY → structural editing tools (edit files with verified code — check returned linter diagnostics)
  6. VERIFY → clojure_load_file / clojure_evaluate_code (load file or namespace, call functions) + get_errors (Problems report)
  7. MONITOR → clojure_repl_output_log (side effects, errors) + get_errors (new warnings/errors)

Read the full file on GitHub · 226 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. 11d ago First seen · 226 lines · 186 tokens per session scan A 44ab5def5dba

Subscribe to this mod's changes

backseat-driver is a skill published in the GitHub repository BetterThanTomorrow/calva-backseat-driver (64 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 186 tokens to every session and 3,151 once invoked, about $0.0009 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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