check-span-and-layers

check-span-and-layers is a skill for Claude Code from daddia/claude-for-strategy. It costs 58 tokens per session (1,039 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A diagnostic for an organization's management spans and layers. A span is the number of people a manager oversees, while layers are the reporting levels between senior leaders and frontline staff.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to assess organizational data by function and level, identify over- or under-management, and qualify findings when the data is incomplete.
Why use it?
It helps reveal excessive management levels, managers with too few reports, or teams that are too broad for effective coaching.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions CLAUDE.md.

Part of the operating-model plugin — 5 skills shipped together

Good fit Use it to assess organizational data by function and level, identify over- or under-management, and qualify findings when the data is incomplete.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/daddia/claude-for-strategy/check-span-and-layers
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 daddia/claude-for-strategy --skill check-span-and-layers
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/daddia/claude-for-strategy

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install operating-model, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 5 skills.

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 check-span-and-layers

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/daddia/claude-for-strategy/check-span-and-layers/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/daddia/claude-for-strategy/check-span-and-layers)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/daddia/claude-for-strategy/check-span-and-layers"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/daddia/claude-for-strategy/check-span-and-layers/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 check-span-and-layers

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/daddia/claude-for-strategy/check-span-and-layers"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/daddia/claude-for-strategy/check-span-and-layers.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 58 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,039 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 $0.00058 $0.01039
Opus 5 $0.00029 $0.00519
Sonnet 5 $0.00012 $0.00208
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00104

Measured 12d ago against content hash dd491d46916d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

check-span-and-layers 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 12d 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.

operating-model/skills/check-span-and-layers/SKILL.md · 108 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 108 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Check Span and Layers

When to use

Diagnose span of control and layer count — both over-management (narrow spans, excess layers) and under-management (wide spans where coaching needed).

What this skill does not do

  • Does not redesign decision rights — route to /operating-model:design-decision-rights.
  • Does not assess strategic structure fit — route to /operating-model:diagnose-structure-fit.
  • Does not recommend blanket flattening — changes tied to role-type reasoning.

Preconditions

Input If missing
Span by function/level Ask user for org data or HRIS export
Layer count top to frontline Ask; estimate with [review] if partial
Practice profile targets Use industry norms; flag [PROVISIONAL]

Provisional mode

Partial org data: assess available spans/layers; flag incomplete coverage in output header.

Trust spine

  • Confidence bands (structured-aggregation):
    • High: Spans assessed by role type; layers justified or flagged; latency estimated.
    • Medium: Some functions missing; recommendations qualified.
    • Low: No span data — halt.
  • Failure modes:
    • Strategic advice vs. support: Recommendations are draft for exec/HR review.
    • Client confidentiality: Headcount data sensitive — CONFIDENTIAL header.
    • Accountability gap: Flags tied to role types, not generic "reduce layers."
    • Analytical Rigor: Every function/level in scope assessed.
    • Incentive Gaming: N/A for this shape.
  • Escalation triggers: Layer count with no complexity justification — flag decision latency cost.

Workflow

  1. Read practice profile for span/layer data and targets.
  2. Assess span by function/level against role type (coaching vs. independent work).
  3. Count layers top to frontline; justify by complexity or flag accumulation.
  4. Estimate practical cost of excess layers — decision latency, distortion.
  5. Recommend specific changes with role-type rationale.
  6. Completeness check before output.

Read the full file on GitHub · 108 lines

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. 12d ago First seen · 108 lines · 58 tokens per session scan A dd491d46916d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

check-span-and-layers is a skill published in the GitHub repository daddia/claude-for-strategy (2 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 58 tokens to every session and 1,039 once invoked, about $0.0003 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 2026-08-31.

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