design-log

design-log is a skill for Claude Code from LiozShor/claude-code-skills. It costs 187 tokens per session (5,097 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A planning workflow for non-trivial coding work, such as a feature, broad bug fix, refactor, or change across several files. It records research, assumptions, edge cases, and acceptance criteria before implementation.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to research and document a plan before making architectural, workflow, UI, automation, or multi-file changes.
Why use it?
It helps prevent coding against an incomplete understanding of the request or existing project, while leaving a written design record for review.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter. Also seen: model in frontmatter; reads .claude/ paths; mentions subagents.

Good fit Use it to research and document a plan before making architectural, workflow, UI, automation, or multi-file changes.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/liozshor/claude-code-skills/design-log
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 LiozShor/claude-code-skills --skill design-log
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/LiozShor/claude-code-skills

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 design-log

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/liozshor/claude-code-skills/design-log/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/liozshor/claude-code-skills/design-log)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/liozshor/claude-code-skills/design-log"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/liozshor/claude-code-skills/design-log/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 design-log

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/liozshor/claude-code-skills/design-log"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/liozshor/claude-code-skills/design-log.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 187 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 5,097 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 $0.00187 $0.05097
Opus 5 $0.00093 $0.02549
Sonnet 5 $0.00037 $0.01019
Haiku 4.5 $0.00019 $0.00510

Measured 8d ago against content hash d8c3b842c9cc, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

design-log 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 8d 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.

design-log/SKILL.md · 185 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 185 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Design Log Skill

Generic "Stop & Think" protocol that combines research-driven design with Claude Code's plan mode. Research first, then code. One workflow, one approval gate, persistent documentation. Project-specific rules belong in repo docs or in clearly labeled adaptation notes inside this skill.

How This Integrates With Plan Mode

Research (domain knowledge) comes BEFORE plan-mode codebase exploration; the design log file persists what plan mode would lose; both share a single approval gate via ExitPlanMode — no double-approval.

When this triggers

Use when the user explicitly invokes /design-log, asks for stop-and-think planning, or asks for documented design before a non-trivial feature, fix, refactor, workflow/UI change, automation, or architecture decision. Implicit use only when the task clearly needs persistent design documentation.

When this does not trigger

Skip for: single-line fixes and small tweaks; fully-specified unambiguous tasks where the user didn't invoke /design-log; pure research questions (use tech-researcher or consult); work already covered by an existing [APPROVED] log (extend that log instead). For these, just do the work — though a quick 2-minute research check is still wise for non-trivial domains.

Required Inputs

Before writing the design log, identify: project root + branch/worktree state; the requested change and success criteria; relevant prior logs and prior research (research index); the domain(s) needing research; reusable code paths/helpers/tests/docs/diagrams; whether to implement after approval or stop at the plan. If an input is missing, ask via AskUserQuestion unless logs, instructions, or pre-scan findings already answer it.

Decision Gates

Stop and wait when:

  • The Phase A relevance grep (Pre-Phase-A step 1 / A1) has not been run and related prior DLs surfaced to the user — do not proceed to A3 clarifying questions without it.
  • The user has not answered required Phase A questions.
  • Tavily research is incomplete.
  • EnterPlanMode has not been called before Phase C exploration.
  • The design log has not been saved with [DRAFT] status.
  • ExitPlanMode approval has not been granted.
  • The next action would merge to main, delete a branch, change secrets, perform destructive operations, or run an undocumented production-impacting command.

Read the full file on GitHub · 185 lines

Files

What ships with it

7 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 8d ago First seen · 185 lines · 187 tokens per session scan A d8c3b842c9cc

Subscribe to this mod's changes

design-log is a skill published in the GitHub repository LiozShor/claude-code-skills (2 stars, last pushed 20d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 187 tokens to every session and 5,097 once invoked, about $0.0009 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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