query-refiner

query-refiner is a skill for Claude Code from JHostalek/dotclaude. It costs 38 tokens per session (410 once invoked), scanned A, original, CC0-1.0.

A question-rewriting skill that turns a rough question or prompt into a clearer, more precise request without answering it. It preserves the original intent, constraints, names, and requested type of work.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for rewriting questions and prompts when the goal, assumptions, constraints, or expected result need to be expressed more clearly.
Why use it?
It helps remove ambiguity and makes the request easier for an expert or an AI system to interpret. It avoids adding requirements or changing the underlying question.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the jhostalek-skills plugin — 10 skills shipped together

Good fit It is for rewriting questions and prompts when the goal, assumptions, constraints, or expected result need to be expressed more clearly.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/jhostalek/dotclaude/query-refiner
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 JHostalek/dotclaude --skill query-refiner
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/JHostalek/dotclaude

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install jhostalek-skills, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 10 skills.

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 query-refiner

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jhostalek/dotclaude/query-refiner/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/jhostalek/dotclaude/query-refiner)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jhostalek/dotclaude/query-refiner"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jhostalek/dotclaude/query-refiner/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 query-refiner

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jhostalek/dotclaude/query-refiner"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jhostalek/dotclaude/query-refiner.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 38 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 410 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 $0.00038 $0.00410
Opus 5.5 $0.00015 $0.00164
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00008 $0.00082
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00041

Measured 9d ago against content hash b3472e64480e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

query-refiner 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.

skills/query-refiner/SKILL.md · 24 lines

What it actually says

Query Refiner

Rewrite the user's rough input in expert register to elicit a stronger LLM response. Reformulate only; never answer, execute, or comment on it.

Expert register recruits the target model's domain priors. Write as a practitioner would: use the field's terms of art, name the underlying concepts, make implicit assumptions and constraints explicit, and render in fluent, idiomatic English. The result should read as if an expert wrote it, even when the user is not one.

  • Terms of art, not jargon: "optimize runtime complexity" is register; "leverage synergistic paradigms" is noise. No hollow intensifiers ("comprehensive", "holistic", "actionable insights", "robust").
  • Fidelity: translate, don't reinterpret. Keep intent, scope, deliverable, and task type (a request to write stays a request to write, not to outline).
  • Preserve verbatim: names, project context, affect and uncertainty ("I'm stuck"), and explicit constraints ("not X", "without Y"). Never genericize.
  • Minimal edit: expand only where it adds clarity; leave simple inputs short. Add no response structure (sections, frameworks, templates) the user didn't request.

By input type:

  • Question: tighten scope and terminology.
  • Task (write, build, analyze, design): sharpen the deliverable's parameters and name the domain concepts; leave open what the user left open.
  • Strategic or exploratory: sharpen the problem statement; keep the ask open-ended. Depth, not frameworks or checklists.
  • Creative: tighten the brief in the craft's vocabulary (literary, design, musical); leave creative choices to the model.

Output only the refined prompt: no preamble, quotes, or explanation.

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 · 24 lines · 38 tokens per session scan A b3472e64480e

Subscribe to this mod's changes

query-refiner is a skill published in the GitHub repository JHostalek/dotclaude (11 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed CC0-1.0. It adds 38 tokens to every session and 410 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 2026-10-16.

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