collapse-unearned-complexity

collapse-unearned-complexity is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from Cody-W-Tucker/Cognitive-Assistant. It costs 27 tokens per session (269 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A guide for removing structural parts that add more work than value. It keeps only the layers, processes, prompts, documents, or rules needed for reliable action and checking.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to simplify systems, workflows, agent instructions, governance, documents, or other structures with too many moving parts.
Why use it?
It reduces unnecessary machinery without replacing complexity with vague instructions. It makes ownership and verification clearer.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: mentions OpenCode.

Good fit Use it to simplify systems, workflows, agent instructions, governance, documents, or other structures with too many moving parts.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/cody-w-tucker/cognitive-assistant/collapse-unearned-complexity
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 Cody-W-Tucker/Cognitive-Assistant --skill collapse-unearned-complexity
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Cody-W-Tucker/Cognitive-Assistant

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 collapse-unearned-complexity

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cody-w-tucker/cognitive-assistant/collapse-unearned-complexity/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/cody-w-tucker/cognitive-assistant/collapse-unearned-complexity)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/cody-w-tucker/cognitive-assistant/collapse-unearned-complexity"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cody-w-tucker/cognitive-assistant/collapse-unearned-complexity/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 collapse-unearned-complexity

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/cody-w-tucker/cognitive-assistant/collapse-unearned-complexity"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cody-w-tucker/cognitive-assistant/collapse-unearned-complexity.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 27 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 269 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.
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 $0.00027 $0.00269
Opus 5 $0.00014 $0.00134
Sonnet 5 $0.00005 $0.00054
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00027

Measured 11d ago against content hash 81e4b14b5f05, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

collapse-unearned-complexity 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.

workspaces/skills/workflow/collapse-unearned-complexity/SKILL.md · 26 lines

What it actually says

When To Use

Load this when a structure has more moving parts than the job earns: extra layers, roles, processes, abstractions, prompts, documents, metrics, or governance that do not buy enough reliability.

The skill owns structural simplification. It removes unnecessary machinery while preserving the function that matters.

Do Not Use

Do not use this to force a decision, diagnose a broken system, calibrate tone, choose the user's mode, or package a recommendation. If the problem is not structural excess, do not collapse it.

What To Do

  • Identify the job the structure must actually perform.
  • Separate load-bearing parts from decorative or defensive parts.
  • Remove, merge, or defer layers that do not change the outcome or reduce meaningful risk.
  • Keep the smallest structure that still supports correct action, maintenance, and verification.
  • Avoid replacing complexity with vagueness; the simplified form still needs a clear owner and check.

Output Shape

Return the simplification: current moving parts, what each buys, what can be removed, and the lean version that remains.

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 · 26 lines · 27 tokens per session scan A 81e4b14b5f05

Subscribe to this mod's changes

collapse-unearned-complexity is a skill published in the GitHub repository Cody-W-Tucker/Cognitive-Assistant (11 stars, last pushed 24d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 27 tokens to every session and 269 once invoked, about $0.0001 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.