side-project-planning

side-project-planning is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from jamestorrevillas/dev-skills. It costs 67 tokens per session (781 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide for testing and narrowing a side-project idea before building it. It covers the problem, solution, willingness to pay, alternatives, audience, and the smallest useful first version.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to evaluate product ideas, define an MVP, decide which features to cut, and plan early user research.
Why use it?
It helps avoid spending time building something people do not need or will not pay for.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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

Good fit Use it to evaluate product ideas, define an MVP, decide which features to cut, and plan early user research.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/jamestorrevillas/dev-skills/side-project-planning
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 jamestorrevillas/dev-skills --skill side-project-planning
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jamestorrevillas/dev-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 side-project-planning

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jamestorrevillas/dev-skills/side-project-planning/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/jamestorrevillas/dev-skills/side-project-planning)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jamestorrevillas/dev-skills/side-project-planning"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jamestorrevillas/dev-skills/side-project-planning/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 side-project-planning

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jamestorrevillas/dev-skills/side-project-planning"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jamestorrevillas/dev-skills/side-project-planning.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 67 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 781 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 $0.00067 $0.00781
Opus 5 $0.00034 $0.00391
Sonnet 5 $0.00013 $0.00156
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00078

Measured 9d ago against content hash 6d60cc205de7, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

side-project-planning 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 9d 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.

.github/skills/side-project-planning/SKILL.md · 98 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 98 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Side Project Planning

The MVP Mindset

Build the smallest thing that proves the core assumption.

Most side projects fail not because of bad execution but because of unvalidated assumptions. The goal of an MVP is to test the riskiest assumption with the least effort.


Idea Validation Framework

Before writing a line of code:

1. PROBLEM: Is this a real problem people have?
   - Talk to 5 potential users — do they describe this problem unprompted?

2. SOLUTION FIT: Does your solution actually solve it?
   - Can you describe it in one sentence they immediately understand?

3. WILLINGNESS TO PAY: Will people pay for it?
   - "Would you pay $X/month for this?" is very different from "Would you use this?"

4. DIFFERENTIATION: Why this, not the existing alternatives?
   - What's 10x better than what exists?

5. REACHABILITY: Can you reach the target users?
   - Do you know where they are? Reddit, Slack, conferences, Twitter?

MVP Scoping Rules

For each feature, ask:

  • Is this required for the core value proposition? If no → cut it
  • Can this be manual/fake before automating? If yes → fake it first
  • Does the user notice if this isn't perfect? If no → ship it rough

The Concierge MVP

Before building the full system, manually do what the software would do:

  • Validate demand before automating
  • Understand the real workflow before encoding it
  • Much faster to iterate on a manual process

Monetization Models for Developer Tools/AI

Model Best When Risk
Freemium High volume, viral potential Need large base for conversion
Subscription Recurring value, ongoing use Churn management
Usage-based Variable usage patterns Revenue unpredictability
One-time Simple tools, no ongoing cost No recurring revenue
B2B SaaS Enterprise buyers, high value Long sales cycles

Build vs Buy Decision

Build when:

  • This is your core differentiator
  • No existing solution fits well enough
  • Building it teaches you something critical

Read the full file on GitHub · 98 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. 9d ago First seen · 98 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 6d60cc205de7

Subscribe to this mod's changes

side-project-planning is a skill published in the GitHub repository jamestorrevillas/dev-skills (3 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 67 tokens to every session and 781 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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