nw-spike

nw-spike is a skill for Claude Code from nWave-ai/nWave. It costs 62 tokens per session (2,839 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A time-boxed way to test one risky technical assumption, then optionally turn the working experiment into a small end-to-end feature slice. An end-to-end slice connects the user-facing entry point to the underlying system.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it after discussing a feature when a new mechanism, demanding performance requirement, or unfamiliar external service needs validation. It creates a temporary probe and, if approved, a committed slice with an acceptance test.
Why use it?
It reduces the risk of spending days designing around an integration, mechanism, or performance target that does not work. It also turns a useful experiment into code that can be demonstrated and extended.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: user-invocable in frontmatter.

Good fit Use it after discussing a feature when a new mechanism, demanding performance requirement, or unfamiliar external service needs validation. It creates a temporary probe and, if approved, a committed slice with an acceptance test.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-spike
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 nWave-ai/nWave --skill nw-spike
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/nWave-ai/nWave

Made for: Claude Code.

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 nw-spike

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-spike/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-spike)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-spike"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-spike/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 nw-spike

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-spike"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nwave-ai/nwave/nw-spike.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 62 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,839 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • 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 $0.00062 $0.02839
Opus 5 $0.00031 $0.01419
Sonnet 5 $0.00012 $0.00568
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00284

Measured 2d ago against content hash ed8675fa8a8d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

nw-spike scanned grade A with 1 finding 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.

Runs shell commandslowCapability

Expected in a hook, worth knowing in a rule or an instructions file.

Phase 3: agent refactors the probe into `src/des/cli/wave_matrix.py` with a `wave-matrix` CLI command; one acceptance test exercises `subprocess.run(["wave-matrix", "--feature", "alpha"])` end-to-end and asserts the mark
nWave/skills/nw-spike/SKILL.md · 242 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 242 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

NW-SPIKE: Probe → Walking Skeleton

Wave: SPIKE (between DISCUSS and DESIGN) | Agent: Attila (nw-software-crafter) | Command: /nw-spike

Overview

Execute a two-phase wave that turns a risky assumption into visible, iterable value as fast as possible:

  1. PROBE — quick throwaway validation of one core assumption (30-60 min, code in /tmp/)
  2. PROMOTION GATE (interactive) — ask the user whether to promote the probe
  3. WALKING SKELETON — refactor the probe into an end-to-end thin slice committed to the repository (1-3 h, code in src/ + 1 acceptance test)

The PROBE answers "does the mechanism work?". The WALKING SKELETON answers "can a user see it working end-to-end?". You never throw away working validated code — you promote it and iterate.

When to use

The spike is needed when the feature introduces:

  • A new mechanism never tried in this codebase
  • A performance requirement that cannot be validated by reasoning alone
  • An external integration with unknown behaviour

If none of the above apply, skip SPIKE and go to DESIGN.

Prior Wave Consultation

  1. DISCUSS artifacts: Read docs/feature/{feature-id}/discuss/ (required)
    • user-stories.md — scope and acceptance criteria
    • wave-decisions.md — constraints and assumptions to test
  2. DIVERGE artifacts: Read docs/feature/{feature-id}/diverge/recommendation.md (if present)

Interactive decision points (Phase 1 entry)

Decision 1: Probe scope

Question: What is the ONE assumption you need to validate? Examples:

  • "Can we parse pytest output reliably in <5 seconds?"
  • "Can the CEL library evaluate 100 expressions in <1 second?"
  • "Can we write to .git/hooks/ from a subprocess without corruption?"

Decision 2: Performance budget

Question: What is the timing constraint? (Enter "none" if mechanism validation only) Examples:

  • "<5 seconds end-to-end"
  • "<100ms per operation"
  • "Handle 10K items without OOM"

Decision 3: End-to-end path preview

Question: If this probe works, what would the thinnest end-to-end slice look like? Capture the rough path: user-facing entry → business logic → persistence/services → user-visible output. This is not a commitment — it's context for the promotion gate later.

Read the full file on GitHub · 242 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. 2d ago First seen · 242 lines · 62 tokens per session scan A ed8675fa8a8d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

nw-spike is a skill published in the GitHub repository nWave-ai/nWave (610 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 62 tokens to every session and 2,839 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (runs shell commands). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-06.

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