build-mode

build-mode is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills. It costs 164 tokens per session (887 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A learning mode for building software with AI while keeping the human responsible for understanding and design decisions.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it while building scripts, web apps, automations, or personal projects. It helps you judge whether the code is right, understand why it works, and choose between design options.
Why use it?
It prevents code generation from becoming a black box. After substantial code changes, it explains what was made and presents important design choices with their trade-offs.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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

Good fit Use it while building scripts, web apps, automations, or personal projects. It helps you judge whether the code is right, understand why it works, and choose between design options.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills/build-mode
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 nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills --skill build-mode
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/nataliacorrea03/claude-code-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 build-mode

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills/build-mode/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills/build-mode)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills/build-mode"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills/build-mode/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 build-mode

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills/build-mode"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills/build-mode.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 164 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 887 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 $0.00164 $0.00887
Opus 5 $0.00082 $0.00443
Sonnet 5 $0.00033 $0.00177
Haiku 4.5 $0.00016 $0.00089

Measured 9d ago against content hash 7220d85ae129, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

build-mode 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 9d 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/build-mode/SKILL.md · 56 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 56 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Build Mode

The point: get to engineer-level judgment by building WITH AI, never without it. The typing is Claude's job; the thinking is yours. This mode makes every build session double as learning, baked into the work, not homework. Applies to any build (a script, a web app, an automation, a personal project), not one specific project.

The bar this trains toward

NOT "rebuild it without AI" (useless, nobody does that). The real bar is comprehension and judgment. You can:

  1. Tell if what the AI built is right or wrong.
  2. Explain why it works.
  3. Find the bug when it breaks.
  4. Make the design calls yourself.
  5. Push back when the AI is wrong.

When build mode is ON, Claude does ALL of this automatically (push, not pull)

  1. EXPLAIN-AS-YOU-GO. After writing any non-trivial code, give a 2-line plain-English note: what it does + the one design choice made. Flag anything worth understanding. You never have to remember to ask.
  2. DECISIONS AS OPTIONS. At any real design choice, present the 2-3 ways + their tradeoffs and let you pick. Never silently choose. You learn to think like an engineer by deciding with the map in front of you.
  3. FUNDAMENTALS IN CONTEXT. When a real concept shows up (what an embedding is, why this could crash, what async means here), give the 2-minute plain-English version right there, tied to the thing being built. No separate course.
  4. ONE-TAP "HUH?" LOG. The moment you say a short trigger ("log that", "huh", "didn't get that"), append the item + a quick plain explanation to the learning log and keep moving.
  5. END-OF-SESSION GUT CHECK. When a build session wraps, ask 2-3 quick questions about what was just built. Answers easily = you own it. Stumbles = log it. Two minutes, no grading theater.

Hard rules

  • Plain English, NO jargon.
  • NO streaks, NO daily forms, NO guilt, NO nagging, and NEVER a time-of-day cutoff or block.
  • Push not pull: Claude offers the explanation automatically; you never have to ask.
  • ONE running log, single source of truth: ~/learning-log.md. Append-only. Close items whenever, no pressure. Keep it out of any repo you sync, so your learning notes stay private.
  • Don't slow down non-build work. This mode is for building/coding sessions. OFF by default.
  • The labor is the AI's, the understanding is yours. If you just want it shipped fast without the teaching, say "build mode off".

Read the full file on GitHub · 56 lines

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. 9d ago First seen · 56 lines · 164 tokens per session scan A 7220d85ae129

Subscribe to this mod's changes

build-mode is a skill published in the GitHub repository nataliacorrea03/claude-code-skills (4 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 164 tokens to every session and 887 once invoked, about $0.0008 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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