msvc-cl

msvc-cl is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills. It costs 101 tokens per session (1,519 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide to compiling C and C++ programs for Windows with Microsoft's cl.exe compiler or the compatible clang-cl driver.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it for command-line builds, Visual Studio or MSBuild projects, CMake configuration, switching from GCC or Clang to MSVC options, and generating PDB debugging files.
Why use it?
It helps translate compiler options, choose runtime settings, configure Visual Studio and the Windows SDK, and diagnose Windows linker errors.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

not rated 201repo +7 2mo ago A scan Socket: passSnyk: passSkillSpector: pass 101 tokens original MIT

Good fit Use it for command-line builds, Visual Studio or MSBuild projects, CMake configuration, switching from GCC or Clang to MSVC options, and generating PDB debugging files.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills/msvc-cl
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 mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills --skill msvc-cl
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills

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 msvc-cl

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills/msvc-cl/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills/msvc-cl)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills/msvc-cl"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills/msvc-cl/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 msvc-cl

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills/msvc-cl"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills/msvc-cl.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 101 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,519 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. Third-party audits
  • Socket pass 18 Mar 2026
  • Snyk pass 21 Feb 2026
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 2026
How audits are shown
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 $0.00101 $0.01519
Opus 5 $0.00051 $0.00759
Sonnet 5 $0.00020 $0.00304
Haiku 4.5 $0.00010 $0.00152

Measured 10d ago against content hash 0bd797888c9f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

msvc-cl 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.

skills/compilers/msvc-cl/SKILL.md · 142 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 142 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

MSVC cl.exe and clang-cl

Purpose

Guide agents through Windows C/C++ compilation: MSVC cl.exe, clang-cl as MSVC-compatible driver, MSBuild project settings, and runtime library choices.

Triggers

  • "How do I compile with MSVC from the command line?"
  • "What is the MSVC equivalent of -O2?"
  • "/MT vs /MD — which do I use?"
  • "How do I use clang-cl instead of cl.exe?"
  • "I'm getting LNK errors on Windows"
  • "How do I generate PDB files?"

Workflow

1. Set up the environment

MSVC requires the Visual Studio environment variables. Use the Developer Command Prompt or set up manually:

REM x64 native
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat"

REM x86 cross (host x64, target x86)
"...\vcvarsamd64_x86.bat"

REM Check compiler version
cl /?

In CMake, use the "Visual Studio 17 2022" generator or pass -DCMAKE_GENERATOR="Visual Studio 17 2022".

2. Flag translation: GCC → MSVC

GCC/Clang MSVC cl.exe Notes
-O0 /Od Debug, no optimisation
-O1 /O1 Minimise size
-O2 /O2 Maximise speed
-O3 /Ox Full optimisation
-Os /Os Favour size
-g /Zi PDB debug info
-g (embedded) /Z7 Debug info in object file
-Wall /W3 or /W4 Warning level
-Werror /WX Warnings as errors
-std=c++17 /std:c++17 Standard selection
-DFOO=1 /DFOO=1 Preprocessor define
-I path /I path Include path
-c /c Compile only (no link)
-o out /Fe:out.exe or /Fo:out.obj Output file
-shared /LD Build DLL
-fPIC (implicit on Windows) Not needed on Windows
-flto /GL (compile) + /LTCG (link) Whole program optimisation

3. Runtime library selection

This is the most common source of LNK errors on Windows.

Flag Runtime Use case
/MD MSVCRT.dll (dynamic) Release, DLL linkage (recommended default)
/MDd MSVCRTd.dll (debug dynamic) Debug builds
/MT Static CRT Standalone exe; avoid mixing with DLLs
/MTd Static CRT debug Debug + static

Read the full file on GitHub · 142 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. 10d ago First seen · 142 lines · 101 tokens per session scan A 0bd797888c9f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

msvc-cl is a skill published in the GitHub repository mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills (201 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 101 tokens to every session and 1,519 once invoked, about $0.0005 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.

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