flow-define

flow-define is a skill for Claude Code from nyldn/claude-octopus. It costs 56 tokens per session (6,158 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A requirements-scoping workflow that uses multiple AI providers during the Define stage of a Double Diamond project process.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to turn discovery results into defined requirements, update the project phase state, and consult available external AI providers.
Why use it?
It structures early requirements work and checks the project’s saved phase state before definition begins.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: disable-model-invocation in frontmatter. Also seen: agent in frontmatter; reads .claude/ paths; names the AskUserQuestion tool.

Part of the octo plugin — 70 skills, 108 commands, 10 agents, 18 hooks shipped together

Good fit Use it to turn discovery results into defined requirements, update the project phase state, and consult available external AI providers.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/nyldn/claude-octopus/flow-define
About the project

Claude Octopus is an orchestration project that sends research, design, and coding tasks to Claude Code and other AI model providers so their results can be compared. Developers use it for multi-model work, disagreement detection, reviews, persistent context, and an optional workflow that moves from discovery through delivery. The catalogue entries are its commands, skills, agents, instructions, hooks, plugins, and settings.

nyldn/claude-octopus · 4,300 stars · on GitHub · reddit.com

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 nyldn/claude-octopus --skill flow-define
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/nyldn/claude-octopus

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install octo, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 70 skills, 108 commands, 10 agents, 18 hooks.

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 flow-define

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nyldn/claude-octopus/flow-define/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/nyldn/claude-octopus/flow-define)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nyldn/claude-octopus/flow-define"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nyldn/claude-octopus/flow-define/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 flow-define

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/nyldn/claude-octopus/flow-define"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/nyldn/claude-octopus/flow-define.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 56 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 6,158 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
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector warn 7 Sept 2026
SkillSpector: 2 findings, up to high

These are SkillSpector’s own severities. On a checked sample its high-severity flags on skills were ~96% false positives — a documented command, a public API, a “never do X” rule — so we show them as a caution to read, not a verdict. Why →

  • high Privilege Escalation · line 617
    Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.
    Fix: Remove references to credential paths. Use environment variables or secrets managers. For docs, use placeholder paths (e.g., /path/to/config). Never load .env or token files in production code paths.
  • medium Rogue Agent · line 501
    Skill establishes unauthorized persistence across sessions via cron jobs, startup scripts, or state files. Session persistence allows an attacker to maintain access beyond the current interaction.
    Fix: Remove any persistence mechanisms (cron jobs, startup scripts, state files). Skills should not maintain state across sessions without explicit user consent.
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 $0.00056 $0.06158
Opus 5.5 $0.00022 $0.02463
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00011 $0.01232
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00616

Measured 25d ago against content hash c50d43371c9c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

flow-define 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 25d 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.

.claude/skills/flow-define/SKILL.md · 784 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 784 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

{{PREAMBLE}}

Load skills/blocks/engineering-method-selection.md from the installed plugin and apply only the methods relevant to this task. Preserve this entry point's execution contract and output format. Read referenced skills as instructions; do not invoke the current command recursively or add provider calls from a seat.

Shared definitions

Load the project's existing glossary and decisions when they apply. If none exists, use skills/blocks/domain-modeling.md and add a short definitions section to the current design artifact. Do not create a parallel context or memory file. Keep installation, authentication, entitlement, readiness, billing, quota, seat, contribution, and vote distinct.

Pre-Definition: State Check

Before starting definition:

  1. Read .octo/STATE.md to verify Discover phase complete
  2. Update STATE.md:
    • current_phase: 2
    • phase_position: "Definition"
    • status: "in_progress"
# Verify Discover phase is complete
if [[ -f ".octo/STATE.md" ]]; then
  discover_status=$("${HOME}/.claude-octopus/plugin/scripts/octo-state.sh" get_phase_status 1)
  if [[ "$discover_status" != "complete" ]]; then
    echo "⚠️ Warning: Discover phase not marked complete. Consider running discovery first."
  fi
fi

# Update state for Definition phase
"${HOME}/.claude-octopus/plugin/scripts/octo-state.sh" update_state \
  --phase 2 \
  --position "Definition" \
  --status "in_progress"

Execution Contract

This skill uses ENFORCED execution mode. You MUST follow this exact sequence.

STEP 1: Display Visual Indicators

MANDATORY: You MUST use the Bash tool to run this provider check BEFORE displaying the banner. Do NOT skip it. Do NOT assume availability.

provider_check_output=$(bash "${HOME}/.claude-octopus/plugin/scripts/helpers/check-providers.sh")
provider_status_lines=$(printf '%s\n' "$provider_check_output" | awk '
  /^PROVIDER_CHECK_START$/ { capture=1; next }
  /^PROVIDER_CHECK_END$/ { capture=0 }
  capture && /^[a-z0-9-]+:(available|missing|degraded)$/ { print }
')

if [[ -z "$provider_status_lines" ]]; then
  echo "Provider availability check returned no usable status lines."
  exit 1
fi

# Exclude providers intentionally disabled by environment, session, or global
# allowlist policy; show every allowed provider, including missing/degraded.
source "${HOME}/.claude-octopus/plugin/scripts/lib/provider-allowlist.sh"
provider_availability=""
available_provider_count=0
while IFS=: read -r provider status; do
  octo_provider_allowed "$provider" || continue
  case "$status" in
    available)
      provider_availability="${provider_availability}🟢 ${provider}: Available ✓"$'\n'
      available_provider_count=$((available_provider_count + 1))
      ;;
    degraded)
      provider_availability="${provider_availability}🟠 ${provider}: Degraded ⚠"$'\n'
      ;;
    missing)
      provider_availability="${provider_availability}🔴 ${provider}: Missing/unavailable ✗"$'\n'
      ;;
  esac
done <<< "$provider_status_lines"

if [[ "$available_provider_count" -eq 0 ]]; then
  printf '%s' "$provider_availability"
  echo "No external provider is available. Run /octo:setup and retry."
  exit 1
fi

# Task status for the banner's Tasks line, if the session has one.
task_status=$("${HOME}/.claude-octopus/plugin/scripts/orchestrate.sh" get-task-status 2>/dev/null || echo "")

Read the full file on GitHub · 784 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. 25d ago Changed c50d43371c9c
  2. 1mo ago Changed · +8 lines · +56 tokens per session 744e89859d73
  3. 1mo ago First seen · 776 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 4640e9f4b756

Subscribe to this mod's changes

flow-define is a skill published in the GitHub repository nyldn/claude-octopus (4,300 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 56 tokens to every session and 6,158 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5.5. 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.