prototype

A throwaway prototype used to answer a specific design or interaction question before production code is written. It can be a single HTML file for logic and state, or several switchable interface variations.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to explore a UI layout, compare variants, or sanity-check application logic and state changes. It is intended for quick demonstrations and validation, not finished product code.
Why use it?
It lets you test whether an interaction, state model, or visual direction makes sense without committing to the final implementation. Problems are cheaper to discover while the code is disposable.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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/int2t05/engineering-skills/prototype
Any agent
npx skills add int2t05/engineering-skills --skill prototype
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/int2t05/engineering-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 93 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 841 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. 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 $0.00093 $0.00841
Opus 5 $0.00046 $0.00420
Sonnet 5 $0.00019 $0.00168
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00084

Measured 2d ago against content hash e5929c80f9d1, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

prototype 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 2d 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/03-design/prototype/SKILL.md · 64 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 64 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Prototype

A prototype is throwaway code that answers a question. The question decides the shape.

When to use

  • "Does this logic / state model feel right?" → logic prototype
  • "What should this look like?" → UI prototype
  • Sanity-check a state machine or data model before committing; explore UI directions before picking one
  • Triggers on "prototype", "throwaway", "mockup", "compare layouts", "validate the interaction", "sketch out", "try this quickly", "build a demo", "原型", "试做", "试这个方案", "搭个快速 demo"

Not for: production UI implementation (use frontend-design); production code (use implement).

Steps

1. Pick a branch

The two branches produce very different artifacts; getting this wrong wastes the whole prototype.

  • Logic / state model → load references/logic.md. Single shareable HTML file with free-play buttons and tabbed guided walkthroughs a non-developer can drive.
  • What it looks like → load references/ui.md. Several radically different UI variations on one route, switchable via ?variant= and a floating bar.

If the question is ambiguous and the user isn't reachable, default to whichever branch matches the surrounding code (backend module → logic; page/component → UI) and state the assumption up top.

2. Build it throwaway from day one

  • Locate it close to where it will be used, but name it so a reader sees it's a prototype
  • Trivial to run: one command in the task runner, or a single HTML file double-clicked
  • No persistence by default — state in memory; no tests, no abstractions, no polish
  • Surface the full relevant state after every action (logic) or variant switch (UI)

3. Capture the answer when done

Fold validated decisions into the real code. Capture the prototype itself as a primary source: commit to a throwaway branch (out of main), leave a context pointer on the implementation issue, and record the verdict + question settled. Main keeps only the validated decision.

Output: docs/design/prototype-findings.md — the question tested, the verdict, and the validated decision. The prototype code itself stays on a throwaway branch; only the finding is promoted to main as a durable record.

Read the full file on GitHub · 64 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 files 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. 2d ago First seen · 64 lines · 93 tokens per session scan A e5929c80f9d1

Subscribe to this mod's changes

prototype is a skill published in the GitHub repository int2t05/engineering-skills (3 stars, last pushed 14d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 93 tokens to every session and 841 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 2026-08-31.