using-systematic

Instructions for using a systematic skill process at the start of every conversation. They require checking for relevant skills before replying or taking action.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them to decide which skills to invoke, how to resolve conflicts between instructions, and when to use planning or other structured workflows.
Why use it?
They aim to prevent an agent from missing a required workflow or tool when a skill might apply to the request.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/marcusrbrown/systematic/using-systematic
Any agent
npx skills add marcusrbrown/systematic --skill using-systematic
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/marcusrbrown/systematic

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 29 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,317 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
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 $0.00029 $0.01317
Opus 5 $0.00015 $0.00659
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00263
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00132

Measured 2d ago against content hash bf696217df8e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

using-systematic 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 2d 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/using-systematic/SKILL.md · 118 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 118 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

IF A SKILL APPLIES TO YOUR TASK, YOU DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE. YOU MUST USE IT.

This is not negotiable. This is not optional. You cannot rationalize your way out of this.

Instruction Priority

Systematic skills override default system prompt behavior, but user instructions always take precedence:

  1. User's explicit instructions (CLAUDE.md, GEMINI.md, AGENTS.md, direct requests) — highest priority
  2. Systematic skills — override default system behavior where they conflict
  3. Default system prompt — lowest priority

If CLAUDE.md, GEMINI.md, or AGENTS.md says "don't use TDD" and a skill says "always use TDD," follow the user's instructions. The user is in control.

How to Access Skills

Using Skills

The Rule

Invoke relevant or requested skills BEFORE any response or action. Even a 1% chance a skill might apply means that you should invoke the skill to check. If an invoked skill turns out to be wrong for the situation, you don't need to use it.

digraph skill_flow {
    "User message received" [shape=doublecircle];
    "About to enter Plan mode?" [shape=doublecircle];
    "Already brainstormed?" [shape=diamond];
    "Invoke brainstorming skill" [shape=box];
    "Might any skill apply?" [shape=diamond];
    "Invoke the relevant skill via the active harness's skill-loading mechanism" [shape=box];
    "Announce: 'Using [skill] to [purpose]'" [shape=box];
    "Has checklist?" [shape=diamond];
    "Create todo per item" [shape=box];
    "Follow skill exactly" [shape=box];
    "Respond (including clarifications)" [shape=doublecircle];

    "About to enter Plan mode?" -> "Already brainstormed?";
    "Already brainstormed?" -> "Invoke brainstorming skill" [label="no"];
    "Already brainstormed?" -> "Might any skill apply?" [label="yes"];
    "Invoke brainstorming skill" -> "Might any skill apply?";

    "User message received" -> "Might any skill apply?";
    "Might any skill apply?" -> "Invoke the relevant skill via the active harness's skill-loading mechanism" [label="yes, even 1%"];
    "Might any skill apply?" -> "Respond (including clarifications)" [label="definitely not"];
    "Invoke the relevant skill via the active harness's skill-loading mechanism" -> "Announce: 'Using [skill] to [purpose]'";
    "Announce: 'Using [skill] to [purpose]'" -> "Has checklist?";
    "Has checklist?" -> "Create todo per item" [label="yes"];
    "Has checklist?" -> "Follow skill exactly" [label="no"];
    "Create todo per item" -> "Follow skill exactly";
}

Read the full file on GitHub · 118 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 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. 2d ago First seen · 118 lines · 29 tokens per session scan A bf696217df8e

Subscribe to this mod's changes

using-systematic is a skill published in the GitHub repository marcusrbrown/systematic (24 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 29 tokens to every session and 1,317 once invoked, about $0.0001 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 2026-08-30.