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.
npx skills add MereWhiplash/engram-cogitator --skill using-cogitationgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/MereWhiplash/engram-cogitatorWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/using-cogitation)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/using-cogitation"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/using-cogitation/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.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/using-cogitation"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/using-cogitation.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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 | $0.00032 | $0.01330 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00016 | $0.00665 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00006 | $0.00266 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00003 | $0.00133 |
Grade A, and why
using-cogitation 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 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.
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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 108 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Using Cogitation
Cogitation is an opinionated development workflow backed by Engram Cogitator (EC) persistent memory. Skills carry the discipline; EC carries the memory across sessions.
Instruction Priority
- User instructions (CLAUDE.md, direct requests) — always win.
- Cogitation skills — override default behavior where they conflict.
- Default system prompt — lowest.
If CLAUDE.md says "don't use TDD" and a skill says "always," the user wins.
How to Access Skills
Use the Skill tool — it loads the skill content for you to follow. Never Read a skill file instead of invoking it. Skills evolve; don't run from memory.
Size before routing
Before routing any build/change request, size it and announce the sizing
aloud — Sizing: <tier> — <reason>. The announcement is the license to take
a lighter path; silent skipping is the violation.
| Tier | Test | Route |
|---|---|---|
| TRIVIAL | no behavior change — typo, rename, comment, config value, doc edit | just do it, verify after |
| SMALL | behavior-preserving fix / tiny addition; two-way door (easily undone, no new behavior surface, no data/API/schema change) | tdd / debugging |
| MEDIUM | new behavior but contained — one component, no arch/data/API change | sketching (half-page combo doc) |
| FULL | new behavior surface, one-way door, arch/data/API | brainstorming → writing-plans |
- Torn between tiers → pick the heavier.
- Scope grows mid-flight (one-way door, new dependency, second component) → STOP, announce the re-size, escalate with context in hand.
- User vetoes a sizing →
ec_adda learning (area: workflow/triage) so calibration improves.
What ships with it
1 file 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.
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.
- 10d ago First seen · 108 lines · 32 tokens per session scan A 3bdbf9f5993b
using-cogitation is a skill published in the GitHub repository MereWhiplash/engram-cogitator (4 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 32 tokens to every session and 1,330 once invoked, about $0.0002 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.
Other skills, from other repositories
media-ingest
Ingest video, audio, PDF, book, screenshot, and GitHub repo content into the brain. Multi-format handling with entity extraction and backlink propagation. Covers video-ingest, youtube-ingest, and book-ingest subtypes.
mem0-oss-to-platform
Plan and then execute a migration of a project from the mem0 open-source / self-hosted SDK (the local Memory class) to the mem0 Platform / hosted / managed SDK (the MemoryClient class). Use this whenever a developer wants to move, switch, or migrate their mem0 usage off OSS/self-hosted to the hosted API — e.g.…
Cortex
Operate Cortex, the LifeOS memory system — the typed Knowledge Archive (People, Companies, Ideas, Research with typed related: links) plus recall of prior work sessions, ISAs, and conversations. Search, add, harvest, develop, ingest, distill, graph-navigate, recall. USE WHEN cortex, knowledge, knowledge base, search…
memory
Use when the user asks to remember, recall, forget, update, search, or inspect durable OpenSquilla memory, including profile facts in USER.md and long-term notes in MEMORY.md or memory//.md.
ha-data-stores
Map of Hope Agent's local data stores and safe read-only query workflow. Use when the user asks where Hope Agent stores data, wants to inspect sessions/messages/memory/logs/background jobs/knowledge indexes/settings, asks the model to query local app data, or debugging requires checking persisted state. Trigger…
establishing-project-context
Use when the user asks to establish shared project language, or project work exposes a conflicting, renamed, or deprecated domain term that needs active semantic modeling. Routine small tasks stay on the fast path.