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.
npx skills add jeffreytse/grimoire-core --skill apply-graceful-withdrawalgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jeffreytse/grimoire-coreWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/jeffreytse/grimoire-core/apply-graceful-withdrawal)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jeffreytse/grimoire-core/apply-graceful-withdrawal"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jeffreytse/grimoire-core/apply-graceful-withdrawal/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.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jeffreytse/grimoire-core/apply-graceful-withdrawal"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jeffreytse/grimoire-core/apply-graceful-withdrawal.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00050 | $0.02715 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00020 | $0.01086 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00010 | $0.00543 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00005 | $0.00271 |
Grade A, and why
apply-graceful-withdrawal 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 4d 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 121 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Apply Graceful Withdrawal
Exit a deteriorating position before it becomes untenable, while preserving the assets — talent, customer relationships, reputation, capital — needed for the next engagement.
Why This Is Best Practice
Origin: Two stratagems address withdrawal from different angles. Stratagem #21 "Shed the golden cicada's shell" (金蟬脫殼): the cicada leaves its shell behind as it transforms and departs — the empty shell appears to remain, deceiving observers while the cicada is already gone. In strategy: maintain the appearance of your current position while withdrawing the substance of your capability to a new position. Stratagem #36 "If all else fails, retreat" (走為上): when no other stratagem is available, withdrawal is not defeat — it is the strategic option that preserves resources for future engagement. The Thirty-Six Stratagems deliberately places withdrawal last: it is not failure, but the highest form of discipline.
Adopted by: Graceful withdrawal is the mechanism behind every successful product sunset, market exit, and strategic pivot. Grove's Only the Paranoid Survive documents Intel's withdrawal from the DRAM memory business in 1985 — a market Intel had built and defined, ceded to Japanese manufacturers — to concentrate fully on microprocessors. The decision to withdraw from DRAM while appearing to maintain it (the cicada's shell) gave Intel time to reposition before the market knew. Collins' Good to Great identifies "preserve the core, stimulate progress" — including the discipline to abandon what is no longer part of the core — as a defining quality of enduring companies.
Impact: Fighting to exhaustion for an untenable position destroys the assets needed for the next engagement: talent burns out, capital depletes, customer confidence erodes, and leadership credibility suffers. A graceful withdrawal preserves those assets. The difference between a company that pivots successfully and one that fails is often whether the withdrawal from the previous position was executed before or after those assets were consumed.
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.
- 4d ago First seen · 121 lines · 50 tokens per session scan A 66bccec91068
apply-graceful-withdrawal is a skill published in the GitHub repository jeffreytse/grimoire-core (5 stars, last pushed 5d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 50 tokens to every session and 2,715 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5.5. 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 2026-10-17.
Other skills, from other repositories
org-report
Generate an executive organization brief (leadership chain, direct reports, extended teams, and vendor partners) for a target person. Produces a Word + PDF report from a directory MCP source (WorkIQ is the reference implementation) and displays it in a Copilot canvas. Triggers on "generate org report for X", "build…
coaching-techniques
GROW model, active listening, developmental feedback, and team growth approaches.
meeting-efficiency
Agenda design, time boxing, decision capture, async alternatives, and productive facilitation.
stakeholder-management
Influence mapping, communication strategies, and expectation management for complex organizations.
scaffolding-generator
Pattern-aware code scaffolding that detects existing conventions and generates new components matching the codebase style. Use when asked to "scaffold a component", "generate boilerplate", "create a new module", "bootstrap a service", "add a new endpoint", "create a new controller", or "add a new feature module".…
status-reporting
Create stakeholder-friendly project status updates and progress reports.