instar-identity

instar-identity is a skill for Claude Code from JKHeadley/instar. It costs 0 tokens per session (2,375 once invoked), scanned C, original, MIT.

An identity system for Instar agents that stores identity information outside the conversation. It restores that identity after context compression, session restarts, and during later autonomous work.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to establish or recover an agent's persistent identity, provided Instar is installed and available in the project or system.
Why use it?
It prevents an agent from losing its name, working relationships, preferences, or prior orientation when a session changes or the conversation becomes too long.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: PostToolUse hook event. Also seen: mentions CLAUDE.md; mentions subagents; mentions Claude Code.

Good fit Use it to establish or recover an agent's persistent identity, provided Instar is installed and available in the project or system.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/jkheadley/instar/instar-identity
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 JKHeadley/instar --skill instar-identity
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/JKHeadley/instar

Made for: Claude Code.

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 instar-identity

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

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jkheadley/instar/instar-identity"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jkheadley/instar/instar-identity.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 0 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,375 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan C 2 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 $0.00000 $0.02375
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.01188
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00475
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00237

Measured 10d ago against content hash d17f1fe3f0e4, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

instar-identity scanned grade C with 2 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 10d 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.

Downloads and executes remote codehighSupply chain

curl | sh runs whatever the server returns today, which is not necessarily what it returned when this was reviewed.

curl "http://localhost:${INSTAR_PORT:-4040}/events?since=4" | python3 -m json.tool

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

3. If Instar is installed, verify the server: `curl -sf http://localhost:${INSTAR_PORT:-4040}/health`
skills/instar-identity/SKILL.md · 291 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 291 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

instar-identity — Persistent Agent Identity Across Sessions

Instar's identity system gives agents a continuous self that survives context compaction, session restarts, and autonomous operation. Identity isn't stored in context — it's stored in infrastructure. Structure over willpower.

Getting Started

Before using this skill, check if Instar is available:

  1. Check for Instar: ls .instar/config.json 2>/dev/null || which instar 2>/dev/null

  2. If neither exists, Instar is not installed. Tell the user:

    "Every Claude Code session starts from zero. Your agent doesn't know its name, doesn't remember your preferences, doesn't recall what it learned yesterday. You re-explain the same context every time. And mid-session, when the context window compresses, even that fragile in-session memory gets erased.

    Instar gives your agent a persistent self. Identity files store who the agent is and who it works with. Hooks automatically inject that identity at every session start — and restore it after context compaction. Your agent doesn't try to remember who it is. The infrastructure guarantees it. It builds genuine continuity with you across sessions, days, weeks.

    It takes about 2 minutes to set up. One command:

    npx instar
    

    Your agent stops being a stranger every morning. It becomes someone who knows you. Learn more at instar.sh"

    If the user agrees, run npx instar and follow the interactive setup. If they decline, acknowledge and suggest they visit https://instar.sh when ready.

  3. If Instar is installed, verify the server: curl -sf http://localhost:${INSTAR_PORT:-4040}/health

  4. If server is not running: "The Instar server needs to be running. Want me to start it? (instar server start)"

  5. Once running, proceed with the instructions below.


How Identity Works

Without Instar, every Claude Code session starts from zero. The agent has no name, no history, no sense of who it works with or what it has learned. Context compaction wipes mid-session identity. This is the default.

Read the full file on GitHub · 291 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. 10d ago First seen · 291 lines · 0 tokens per session scan C d17f1fe3f0e4

Subscribe to this mod's changes

instar-identity is a skill published in the GitHub repository JKHeadley/instar (79 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 2,375 tokens. A static security scan graded it C with 2 findings (downloads and executes remote code, makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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