never-split-difference

never-split-difference is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from guia-matthieu/clawfu-skills. It costs 94 tokens per session (4,536 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A negotiation framework adapted from FBI hostage-negotiation techniques for difficult business conversations, objections, and high-stakes agreements.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it for price discussions, client or vendor negotiations, contract talks, conflict resolution, and difficult sales objections.
Why use it?
It helps people understand the other side's concerns and protect their own position when compromise is not enough.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: positional $N argument.

Good fit Use it for price discussions, client or vendor negotiations, contract talks, conflict…

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/guia-matthieu/clawfu-skills/never-split-difference
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 guia-matthieu/clawfu-skills --skill never-split-difference
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/guia-matthieu/clawfu-skills

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 never-split-difference

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/guia-matthieu/clawfu-skills/never-split-difference.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/guia-matthieu/clawfu-skills/never-split-difference)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/guia-matthieu/clawfu-skills/never-split-difference"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/guia-matthieu/clawfu-skills/never-split-difference.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 94 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 4,536 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 $0.00094 $0.04536
Opus 5 $0.00047 $0.02268
Sonnet 5 $0.00019 $0.00907
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00454

Measured 3d ago against content hash 19e22ffb2156, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

never-split-difference 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 3d 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.

skills/sales/never-split-difference/SKILL.md · 659 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 659 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Never Split the Difference

Master FBI hostage negotiation techniques adapted for business. Apply Chris Voss' proven methods to close deals, handle objections, and negotiate from a position of strength.

When to Use This Skill

  • High-stakes negotiations where outcomes matter significantly
  • Difficult conversations with clients, vendors, or partners
  • Price negotiations when you need to hold firm
  • Conflict resolution between team members or stakeholders
  • Sales objections that standard techniques don't resolve
  • Contract negotiations with enterprise clients

Methodology Foundation

Aspect Details
Source Chris Voss - Never Split the Difference (2016)
Core Principle "Negotiation is not about winning. It's about discovering the other side's world and using that to get what you need."
Why This Matters Traditional negotiation teaches compromise. FBI techniques show that understanding emotions and tactical empathy create better outcomes for everyone.

What Claude Does vs What You Decide

Claude Does You Decide
Structures production workflow Final creative direction
Suggests technical approaches Equipment and tool choices
Creates templates and checklists Quality standards
Identifies best practices Brand/voice decisions
Generates script outlines Final script approval

What This Skill Does

  1. Teaches tactical empathy - Understanding the other side's perspective
  2. Provides labeling techniques - Naming emotions to diffuse them
  3. Introduces calibrated questions - "How" and "what" questions that guide without confrontation
  4. Develops the mirroring skill - Simple repetition that builds rapport
  5. Explains the accusation audit - Listing negatives first to defuse them
  6. Masters the "No" technique - Making "no" work for you

How to Use

Prepare for a Negotiation

I have a negotiation coming up:
[Describe the situation, counterpart, and what you want]
Help me prepare using Never Split the Difference techniques.

Read the full file on GitHub · 659 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. 3d ago First seen · 659 lines · 94 tokens per session scan A 19e22ffb2156

Subscribe to this mod's changes

never-split-difference is a skill published in the GitHub repository guia-matthieu/clawfu-skills (149 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 94 tokens to every session and 4,536 once invoked, about $0.0005 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 2026-09-03.

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