cgs-vertical-slice

cgs-vertical-slice is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from merlinhu1/codex-game-studio. It costs 43 tokens per session (761 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide for testing a short, complete game loop at representative quality before committing to full production.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to plan and assess a three-to-five-minute playable slice containing the systems needed for one complete gameplay loop.
Why use it?
It shows whether players can experience the main game idea from start to resolution and whether the team can build it on schedule.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for Claude Code and Codex: user-invocable in frontmatter, but also agents/openai.yaml present. Also seen: model in frontmatter; reads .claude/ paths; installed under .agents/ (shared by several agents).

Good fit Use it to plan and assess a three-to-five-minute playable slice containing the systems needed for one complete gameplay loop.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/merlinhu1/codex-game-studio/cgs-vertical-slice
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 merlinhu1/codex-game-studio --skill cgs-vertical-slice
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/merlinhu1/codex-game-studio

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

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 cgs-vertical-slice

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/merlinhu1/codex-game-studio/cgs-vertical-slice/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/merlinhu1/codex-game-studio/cgs-vertical-slice)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/merlinhu1/codex-game-studio/cgs-vertical-slice"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/merlinhu1/codex-game-studio/cgs-vertical-slice/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 cgs-vertical-slice

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/merlinhu1/codex-game-studio/cgs-vertical-slice"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/merlinhu1/codex-game-studio/cgs-vertical-slice.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 43 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 761 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 $0.00043 $0.00761
Opus 5 $0.00022 $0.00380
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00152
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00076

Measured 5d ago against content hash 5d0dc5817186, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

cgs-vertical-slice 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 5d 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.

.agents/skills/cgs-vertical-slice/SKILL.md · 89 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 89 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Codex Game Studio Vertical Slice

Use this skill for vertical slice work in Template Game.

Objective

Validate whether a full game loop can be built at representative quality before production commitment.

Inputs

  • AGENTS.md
  • .codex/studio.json
  • task-relevant files named by the user or task record
  • design/gdd.md
  • production/session-state/active.md
  • tests/
  • .codex/workflows/vertical-slice.md
  • docs/architecture/README.md

Arguments

  • Objective or user request.
  • Target files, scenes, assets, or docs.
  • Constraints, deadlines, acceptance criteria, and verification command when known.

Procedure

  1. Resolve review mode and load concept, systems, architecture, UX, production timeline, and active risks.
  2. Frame the Validation Question: can a player experience the core fantasy in a representative complete loop, and can the team build that loop at production quality on schedule?
  3. Apply Scope Discipline: target 3-5 minutes of continuous polished gameplay; cut content before cutting quality; include all systems required for one start-to-challenge-to-resolution loop.
  4. Plan implementation with explicit systems, quality bar, success criteria, owner roles, and a hard time limit.
  5. Set a Recovery Checkpoint in production/session-state/active.md so multi-session slice work can resume without guessing.
  6. Run a Playtest Debrief that captures loop completion, first meaningful action timing, core fantasy, blockers, confusion, and build feasibility.
  7. Write the verdict as PROCEED / PIVOT / KILL with evidence, risks, and next action.

Write Targets

  • tests/
  • production/session-state/
  • prototypes/
  • prototypes/-vertical-slice/
  • production/session-state/active.md

Output Contract

  • Summary
  • Validation Question
  • Scope Discipline
  • Recovery Checkpoint
  • Playtest Debrief
  • PROCEED / PIVOT / KILL
  • Risks
  • Changed files or proposed files
  • Verification evidence
  • Next owner or decision

Quality Gates

  • Validation Question
  • Scope Discipline
  • Recovery Checkpoint
  • Playtest Debrief
  • PROCEED / PIVOT / KILL
  • Scope remains bounded to the current task and project stage.
  • Report labels unverified assumptions separately from evidence.

Read the full file on GitHub · 89 lines

Files

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.

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. 5d ago First seen · 89 lines · 43 tokens per session scan A 5d0dc5817186

Subscribe to this mod's changes

cgs-vertical-slice is a skill published in the GitHub repository merlinhu1/codex-game-studio (53 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 43 tokens to every session and 761 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 2026-09-03.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

smoke-check

Run the critical path smoke test gate before QA hand-off. Executes the automated test suite, verifies core functionality, and produces a PASS/FAIL report. Run after a sprint's stories are implemented and before manual QA begins. A failed smoke check means the build is not ready for QA.

striderZA/OpenCodeGameStudios · 61 tokens

qa-plan

Generate a QA test plan for a sprint or feature. Reads GDDs and story files, classifies stories by test type (Logic/Integration/Visual/UI), and produces a structured test plan covering automated tests required, manual test cases, smoke test scope, and playtest sign-off requirements. Run before sprint begins or when…

striderZA/OpenCodeGameStudios · 73 tokens

automated-smoke-test

Run an automated smoke test using the godot-mcp server. Launches the project, captures debug output, and checks for errors or crashes.

striderZA/OpenCodeGameStudios · 35 tokens

godot-testing-qa

Domain skill — Run a sequence of runtime actions and assertions. Assert runtime node existence and properties. Assert visible runtime text. Compare two PNGs using bounded pixel sampling. Sample runtime performance for a bounded frame count. Return the latest runtime test report.

dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-godot · 55 tokens

team-combat

Orchestrate the combat team: coordinates game-designer, gameplay-programmer, ai-programmer, technical-artist, sound-designer, and qa-tester to design, implement, and validate a combat feature end-to-end.

TraftG/opencode-game-studio · 50 tokens

team-polish

Orchestrate the polish team: coordinates performance-analyst, technical-artist, sound-designer, and qa-tester to optimize, polish, and harden a feature or area for release quality.

TraftG/opencode-game-studio · 45 tokens