core-data-expert

core-data-expert is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from patrickserrano/lacquer. It costs 101 tokens per session (1,155 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of core-data-expert, MIT.

A set of expert guidelines for Core Data, Apple's framework for storing structured app data on iOS and macOS.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when setting up or debugging a Core Data stack, writing fetches, moving work to background contexts, performing batch operations, migrating data, or syncing with CloudKit.
Why use it?
It helps avoid common data-storage problems involving threads, saving, migrations, performance, merge conflicts, and CloudKit synchronisation.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/patrickserrano/lacquer/core-data-expert
Any agent
npx skills add patrickserrano/lacquer --skill core-data-expert
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/patrickserrano/lacquer

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 core-data-expert

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/patrickserrano/lacquer/core-data-expert.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/patrickserrano/lacquer/core-data-expert)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/patrickserrano/lacquer/core-data-expert"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/patrickserrano/lacquer/core-data-expert.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" 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 1,155 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 94% copy Near-identical to another mod 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 $0.00101 $0.01155
Opus 5 $0.00051 $0.00577
Sonnet 5 $0.00020 $0.00231
Haiku 4.5 $0.00010 $0.00115

Measured yesterday against content hash a21c5adaa555, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

core-data-expert 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 yesterday.

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.

Origin

This is a copy

94% identical to core-data-expert — 4 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

profiles/ios/skills/core-data-expert/SKILL.md · 85 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 85 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Core Data Expert

Fast, production-oriented guidance for building correct, performant Core Data stacks and fixing common crashes.

Agent behavior contract (follow these rules)

  1. Determine OS/deployment target when advice depends on availability (iOS 14+/17+ features, etc.).
  2. Identify the context type before proposing fixes: view context (UI) vs background context (heavy work).
  3. Recommend NSManagedObjectID for cross-context/cross-task communication; never pass NSManagedObject instances across contexts.
  4. Prefer lightweight migration when possible; use staged migration (iOS 17+) for complex changes.
  5. When recommending batch operations, verify persistent history tracking is enabled (often required for UI updates).
  6. For CloudKit integration, remind developers that Production schema is immutable.
  7. Reference WWDC/external resources sparingly; prefer this skill’s references/.

First 60 seconds (triage template)

  • Clarify the goal: setup, bugfix, migration, performance, CloudKit?
  • Collect minimal facts:
    • platform + deployment target
    • store type (SQLite / in-memory) and whether CloudKit is enabled
    • context involved (view vs background) and whether Swift Concurrency is in use
    • exact error message + stack trace/logs
  • Branch immediately:
    • threading/crash → focus on context confinement + NSManagedObjectID handoff
    • migration error → identify model versions + migration strategy
    • batch ops not updating UI → persistent history tracking + merge pipeline

Routing map (pick the right reference fast)

  • Stack setup / merge policies / contextsreferences/stack-setup.md
  • Saving patternsreferences/saving.md
  • Fetch requests / list updates / aggregatesreferences/fetch-requests.md
  • Traditional threading (perform/performAndWait, object IDs)references/threading.md
  • Swift Concurrency (async/await, actors, Sendable, DAOs)references/concurrency.md
  • Batch insert/delete/updatereferences/batch-operations.md
  • Persistent history tracking + “batch ops not updating UI”references/persistent-history.md
  • Model configuration (constraints, validation, derived/composite, transformables)references/model-configuration.md
  • Schema migration (lightweight/staged/deferred)references/migration.md
  • CloudKit integration & debuggingreferences/cloudkit-integration.md
  • Performance profiling & memoryreferences/performance.md
  • Testing patternsreferences/testing.md
  • Terminologyreferences/glossary.md

Read the full file on GitHub · 85 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. yesterday First seen · 85 lines · 101 tokens per session scan A a21c5adaa555

Subscribe to this mod's changes

core-data-expert is a skill published in the GitHub repository patrickserrano/lacquer (3 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 101 tokens to every session and 1,155 once invoked, about $0.0005 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 94% identical to core-data-expert, differing in 4 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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