build-argument

build-argument is a skill for Claude Code from OC-NeuralSense/reader-first-writing-skills. It costs 183 tokens per session (1,729 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A method for turning notes, claims, or a topic into an answer-first outline built around one main question and one main answer.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to group claims, choose the central question, write the lead answer, and create a summary-before-detail structure.
Why use it?
It gives unstructured material a clear order and checks that each claim is relevant and placed under the right idea, instead of leaving the reader to assemble the argument.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter.

Runs only inside its plugin — its command needs a path that Claude Code sets for a plugin’s own hooks and for nothing else. Install the plugin, not this.

Part of the reader-first-writing plugin — 12 skills, 3 agents shipped together

Good fit Use it to group claims, choose the central question, write the lead answer, and create a summary-before-detail structure.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install

Getting it into your agent

This one installs as part of its plugin. Adding the marketplace and installing the plugin brings it with everything else the plugin ships.

Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add OC-NeuralSense/reader-first-writing-skills
Claude Code
/plugin install reader-first-writing

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install reader-first-writing, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 12 skills, 3 agents.

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-argument

README.md
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Your own site
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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-argument

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/oc-neuralsense/reader-first-writing-skills/build-argument"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/oc-neuralsense/reader-first-writing-skills/build-argument.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 183 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,729 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 $0.00183 $0.01729
Opus 5 $0.00092 $0.00864
Sonnet 5 $0.00037 $0.00346
Haiku 4.5 $0.00018 $0.00173

Measured 10d ago against content hash d80d949f1dc1, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

build-argument 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/build-argument/SKILL.md · 152 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 152 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

build-argument

Purpose

Convert raw material into a validated logical skeleton: one governing question, one lead answer, and a summary-before-detail hierarchy of grouped, screened claims. This is a generative skill. Grouping and ordering are its subroutines, handled in one activation.

When to use

  • A reader-frame exists and the material is unstructured or unordered.
  • The writer wants an answer-first outline, a governing question, clusters, or an ordering: all served here.

When NOT to use (routing non-triggers)

  • Only wants an existing structure's soundness checked -> test-argument.
  • Wants continuous prose from an approved outline -> draft-prose.
  • Wants apparatus density or the ending chosen -> shape-and-close.

Inputs

  • reader-frame contract (required: run frame-the-brief first if absent)
  • notes_or_claims_or_topic (required)

Workflow

  1. Reduce to one governing question, scaled to the reader's gap.
  2. State the controlling idea as a one-line answer, separating subject from point.
  3. Inventory and screen claims for soundness and relevance; every input note is placed under a parent or moved to a labeled drop list; nothing vanishes silently.
  4. Assemble the hierarchy so each parent genuinely summarizes its children.
  5. Group (subroutine): one logical kind per group, non-overlapping, judged complete; each parent carries a substantive label, never a bare count/category.
  6. Order (subroutine): sequence each group by its formation logic (time, part-structure, or degree), reconciled with reader load.
  7. Place the answer. Answer-first by default; invert to reasoning-first only on an expected-disagreement trigger.
  8. Build the opening backward from the settled answer: context, tension, question, answer.
  9. Validate and emit the argument-blueprint.

Decision rules

  • Exactly one governing question and one controlling idea, subject and point split.
  • No orphan claims; every claim has a parent or is on the drop list.
  • Empty toppers are banned regardless of stakes; MECE rigor scales with stakes.
  • Ties between valid orderings break toward lower reader effort.

Read the full file on GitHub · 152 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. 10d ago First seen · 152 lines · 183 tokens per session scan A d80d949f1dc1

Subscribe to this mod's changes

build-argument is a skill published in the GitHub repository OC-NeuralSense/reader-first-writing-skills (1 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 183 tokens to every session and 1,729 once invoked, about $0.0009 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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