techniques

techniques is a skill for Claude Code from cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server. It costs 79 tokens per session (487 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of techniques, Apache-2.0.

A reference library of reusable patterns for controlling how MCP servers return data and how clients retrieve it. MCP is a standard way for AI tools to call external programs.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to choose response and retrieval patterns across multiple MCP tools or servers. One example gives an outline and a way to request the remaining sections when a document-shaped result is too large to include at once.
Why use it?
It helps when a tool response is too large, awkwardly structured, or costly to retrieve. The patterns provide a documented approach instead of designing a new response format each time.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the openalex-mcp-server plugin — 32 skills, 1 MCP server shipped together

Good fit Use it to choose response and retrieval patterns across multiple MCP tools…

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/techniques
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 cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server --skill techniques
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install openalex-mcp-server, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 32 skills, 1 MCP server.

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 techniques

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/techniques.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/techniques)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/techniques"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server/techniques.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 79 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 487 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 100% copy Near-identical to another mod 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 $0.00079 $0.00487
Opus 5 $0.00039 $0.00244
Sonnet 5 $0.00016 $0.00097
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00049

Measured 6d ago against content hash 8f01d620e53c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

techniques 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 6d 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.

Origin

This is a copy

100% identical to techniques — 0 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

skills/techniques/SKILL.md · 33 lines

What it actually says

Overview

A directory of cross-cutting techniques for shaping what a handler returns and how a client retrieves it — patterns that don't belong to a single API surface. Each entry is a self-contained reference under references/: the problem it solves, when to reach for it (and when not to), and how to apply it with current framework primitives.

These are patterns, not new primitives — they compose tool(), output/format() shaping, ctx.state, and the existing helpers. Where a technique has (or will have) a dedicated helper, its reference says so and links the tracking issue.

Techniques

Technique Path Use when
Outline-on-overflow references/outline-on-overflow.md A single tool call returns one document-shaped payload too big to inline (e.g. a ~130KB record), and you want an honest section outline + a re-call contract instead of truncating.

Adding a technique

One file under references/, one row above. A technique earns a place here when it's a reusable response/retrieval pattern that (a) spans more than one tool or server and (b) isn't already covered by an api-* reference. Keep the reference concise: problem → when-to-use → how-to with current primitives → helper status. Bump metadata.version on any change (skill-versioning policy).

  • design-mcp-server — choosing the tool surface and output shapes up front.
  • add-tool — the tool() builder, format()structuredContent parity, matching response density to context budget.
  • api-canvasspillover(), the row-collection sibling of outline-on-overflow.
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. 6d ago First seen · 33 lines · 79 tokens per session scan A 8f01d620e53c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

techniques is a skill published in the GitHub repository cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server (14 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 79 tokens to every session and 487 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to techniques, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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