exploration-protocol

exploration-protocol is a skill for Claude Code from dwmkerr/claude-toolkit. It costs 60 tokens per session (625 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A structured process for exploring a software feature before building it. It organizes goals, acceptance criteria, architecture, prototypes, verification, research, and results in a task folder.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to start a feature exploration, define how success will be checked, document design options, build a verifiable prototype, and record what was learned.
Why use it?
It helps turn an uncertain idea into tested decisions and written requirements before production development begins.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: user-invocable in frontmatter.

Part of the protocols plugin — 1 skill, 1 agent shipped together

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/dwmkerr/claude-toolkit/exploration-protocol
Any agent
npx skills add dwmkerr/claude-toolkit --skill exploration-protocol
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/dwmkerr/claude-toolkit

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install protocols, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 1 skill, 1 agent.

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 exploration-protocol

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/dwmkerr/claude-toolkit/exploration-protocol.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/dwmkerr/claude-toolkit/exploration-protocol)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/dwmkerr/claude-toolkit/exploration-protocol"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/dwmkerr/claude-toolkit/exploration-protocol.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 60 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 625 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
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 $0.00060 $0.00625
Opus 5 $0.00030 $0.00313
Sonnet 5 $0.00012 $0.00125
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00063

Measured 6d ago against content hash c57363b04c98, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

exploration-protocol scanned grade A with 1 finding 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.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

| API returns 401 on bad auth | `curl -H "Auth: bad"` shows 401 |
plugins/protocols/skills/exploration-protocol/SKILL.md · 85 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 85 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Exploration Protocol

A structured approach to explore features before production development. The goal is to learn, build acceptance criteria, experiment with verifiable prototypes, and codify learnings.

Task Folder Structure

tasks/NNN-taskname/
├── 01-objectives.md
├── 02-acceptance-criteria.md
├── 03-architecture.md
├── 04-verifiable-prototype.md
├── 05-verification.md
├── 06-outcome.md
├── 99-research/
└── 99-findings/

Document Templates

You MUST read the template files in ./references/001-example-task/ before scaffolding a task folder. These templates show the exact structure and format to use:

Key Patterns

Stub Markers

For sections to be filled in later:

> Stub - to be filled in after objectives and acceptance criteria are approved.

Criteria Tables

Always pair criteria with verification method:

| Criterion | Verification Method |
|-----------|---------------------|
| User can log in | Manual test: complete flow, see logged-in state |
| API returns 401 on bad auth | `curl -H "Auth: bad"` shows 401 |

Checkpoint Lists

For prototypes, use checkboxes:

**Checkpoint 1:**
- [ ] Auth0 application configured
- [ ] PKCE enabled

ASCII Diagrams

Keep simple:

┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│   Popup     │────▶│  Background │────▶ API
└─────────────┘     └─────────────┘

Phase Flow

  1. Objectives → user reviews
  2. Acceptance Criteria → user approves before work begins
  3. Architecture → stub until criteria approved
  4. Prototype → incremental with checkpoints
  5. Verification → evidence for each criterion
  6. Outcome → learnings and follow-on work

Read the full file on GitHub · 85 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. 6d ago First seen · 85 lines · 60 tokens per session scan A c57363b04c98

Subscribe to this mod's changes

exploration-protocol is a skill published in the GitHub repository dwmkerr/claude-toolkit (23 stars, last pushed 11d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 60 tokens to every session and 625 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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