What is simplify-jules?

A review tool for cleaning up the files an agent reads when it starts work. It checks those instructions and profile files for repeated, outdated, vague, or explanatory material, and it proposes changes for approval.

Use it to inventory cold-start files, count their lines, classify sections, identify duplicates and stale content, and prepare a report of suggested edits.

It helps reduce unnecessary startup content and makes the instructions easier to maintain without changing files automatically.

How jonathanmalkin/jules configures Claude Code

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to jonathanmalkin/jules. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jonathanmalkin/jules/main/.claude/skills/simplify-jules/SKILL.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jonathanmalkin/jules

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.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jonathanmalkin/jules/simplify-jules/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/jonathanmalkin/jules/simplify-jules)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jonathanmalkin/jules/simplify-jules"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jonathanmalkin/jules/simplify-jules/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.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jonathanmalkin/jules/simplify-jules"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jonathanmalkin/jules/simplify-jules.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 22 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.

When invoked 1,284 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.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00022	$0.01284
Opus 5.5	$0.00009	$0.00514
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00004	$0.00257
Haiku 4.5	$0.00002	$0.00128

Measured 2mo ago against content hash f63f3bb28ca5, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

simplify-jules 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 2mo 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.

.claude/skills/simplify-jules/SKILL.md · 168 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 168 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

/simplify-jules

On-demand config hygiene tool. Analyzes the full cold-start file bundle for waste, duplication, stale content, and consolidation opportunities. All proposals require [Your Name]'s approval — never auto-edit any file.

Phase 1 — INVENTORY

Read and count lines in every cold-start file:

~/.claude/CLAUDE.md and all @-imported files it references
Active-Work/CLAUDE.md and all @-imported files it references
All .claude/rules/*.md files
All @-tagged profile files (Profiles/*.md)

For each file, record: file path, line count.

Report:

Cold-Start Budget: X lines
Files scanned: N
Largest files: [top 5 by line count]

Phase 2 — SECTION ANALYSIS

For each file, read every section (heading or logical block) and classify it:

Classification	Definition
ACTIONABLE	Directly changes agent behavior — keep as-is
DOCUMENTATION	Describes or explains but doesn't change behavior — propose move to `Documents/`
REDUNDANT	Already said elsewhere — propose cut, cite exact duplicate (file:line)
VAGUE	Too abstract to change behavior — propose cut or rewrite

Output one table per file:

### ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md
| Section | Lines | Classification | Notes |
|---------|-------|----------------|-------|
| User Preferences | 1-3 | DOCUMENTATION | Says "see project CLAUDE.md" |
...

Cite line numbers for every section.

Phase 3 — CROSS-FILE DEDUP

After reading all files, scan for:

Duplicate instructions — same rule stated in multiple files. List both locations.
Conflicting instructions — contradictory rules. Flag both locations, describe the conflict.
Consolidation opportunities — related content spread across files that could merge without loss.

Format:

### Duplicates
- "Stage specific files for commits" — rules/safety.md:12 AND CLAUDE.md:47

### Conflicts
- "Use Opus for complex analysis" (CLAUDE.md:89) vs "Default to Sonnet" (rules/models.md:5) — unclear precedence

### Consolidation
- Agent delegation rules split across CLAUDE.md:82-95 and rules/request-routing.md:44-60 — could merge

Read the full file on GitHub · 168 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.

2mo ago First seen · 168 lines · 22 tokens per session scan A f63f3bb28ca5

Subscribe to this mod's changes

simplify-jules is a skill published in the GitHub repository jonathanmalkin/jules (67 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 22 tokens to every session and 1,284 once invoked, about $0.0001 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 2026-08-30.

Building agents

simplify-jules next to 6 skills from other repositories
Mod	Type	Stars	Last push	Licence	Scan	Tokens	Works with
simplify-julesjonathanmalkin/jules	Skill	67	5mo ago	MIT	A	22	Claude Code
imagegenopenai/codex	Skill	133k	yesterday	Apache-2.0	A	113	Codex
playwright-climicrosoft/playwright	Skill	99k	yesterday	Apache-2.0	A	19	Claude Code
local-ai-agentsmicrosoft/ai-agents-for-beginners	Skill	79k	4d ago	MIT	A	200	Claude Code, Codex
systematic-debuggingobra/superpowers	Skill	313k	3d ago	MIT	A	21	Claude Code
next-cache-components-adoptionvercel/next.js	Skill	143k	today	MIT	A	95	Claude Code
next-partial-prefetching-adoptionvercel/next.js	Skill	143k	today	MIT	A	103	Claude Code

jules: Skill for Claude Code