retainer-architecture

retainer-architecture is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from peterod99/consultant-skills. It costs 39 tokens per session (1,074 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A framework for turning one-off client projects into ongoing monthly advisory agreements called retainers.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to identify recurring client needs, define a retainer around access to your time, and set a monthly price and term.
Why use it?
It helps replace irregular project work with a clearer recurring arrangement, when the client has a need that returns each month.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: positional $N argument.

Good fit Use it to identify recurring client needs, define a retainer around access to your time, and set a monthly price and term.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/peterod99/consultant-skills/retainer-architecture
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 peterod99/consultant-skills --skill retainer-architecture
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/peterod99/consultant-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.

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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 retainer-architecture

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/peterod99/consultant-skills/retainer-architecture"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/peterod99/consultant-skills/retainer-architecture.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 39 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,074 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 $0.00039 $0.01074
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00537
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00215
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00107

Measured 12d ago against content hash 995e607ba33b, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

retainer-architecture 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 12d 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.

retainer-architecture/SKILL.md · 36 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 36 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Retainer Architecture

When to use

Your clients hire you for one-off projects (3–6 month engagements). You finish. They come back 6 months later with a new project. You want to turn this into recurring monthly revenue, so you're not starting from zero every 6 months. You need a framework for converting project-to-project chaos into stable, predictable income.

The framework

  1. Identify the recurring need: What problem does your client face every month that you solve every time they hire you? (e.g., sales funnel optimization, content calendar planning, team coaching). Not every project work converts; only work with a clear monthly heartbeat.
  2. Define retainer scope as ongoing access, not deliverables: A project gives 3 reports. A retainer gives 2–3 hours of your availability per month. Scope is "advising on sales strategy" not "deliver 2 emails + 1 audit." Availability beats deliverables.
  3. Price as 1.5–2x the equivalent project rate, monthly: A $10K project typically requires 4 months of your time at $2.5K/month. A retainer offering the same value costs $4K–5K/month because it's recurring, predictable, and requires lighter infrastructure. Never price retainer = project fee ÷ months. That's underselling.
  4. Anchor the retainer to an outcome, not a task list: "Grow your email list" or "Optimize your sales process" beats "Monthly strategy call + email feedback." Outcomes allow you to pivot tactics within the scope. Tasks lock you in.
  5. Lock in longer-term commitments: Retainers work at 3–12 months minimum, not month-to-month. Shorter terms destroy value: you spend Month 1 onboarding, Month 2–3 delivering, Month 4 they cancel. Require 6+ month minimums. This is non-negotiable for stability.

How to apply it

A fractional sales director works with 3-person SAAS startups. Each founder hires her for a 4-month "Sales Playbook" engagement: she audits pipeline, designs rep workflow, trains the team, hands off. The project is $8K. She finds that 60% rehire her 6 months later for "help us scale to 2 reps" or "our open rate dropped, audit our messaging." Patterns emerge.

Read the full file on GitHub · 36 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. 12d ago First seen · 36 lines · 39 tokens per session scan A 995e607ba33b

Subscribe to this mod's changes

retainer-architecture is a skill published in the GitHub repository peterod99/consultant-skills (2 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 39 tokens to every session and 1,074 once invoked, about $0.0002 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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