shape-up

shape-up is a skill for Claude Code from pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management. It costs 85 tokens per session (565 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A product-development method that sets a fixed amount of time for a project and shapes the work to fit that limit. The amount of time is called the appetite.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to define project scope, run shaping sessions, prepare work for fixed cycles, and decide what can be shipped within the available time.
Why use it?
It replaces unreliable time estimates with a clear time boundary and a deliberately limited version of the solution.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the pmprompt plugin — 28 skills, 9 commands shipped together

Good fit Use it to define project scope, run shaping sessions, prepare work for fixed cycles, and decide what can be shipped within the available time.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management/shape-up
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 pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management --skill shape-up
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install pmprompt, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 28 skills, 9 commands.

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 shape-up

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management/shape-up/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management/shape-up)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management/shape-up"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management/shape-up/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 shape-up

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management/shape-up"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management/shape-up.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 85 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 565 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
  • Socket pass 18 Mar 2026
  • Snyk pass 8 Mar 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 $0.00085 $0.00565
Opus 5 $0.00043 $0.00282
Sonnet 5 $0.00017 $0.00113
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00056

Measured 9d ago against content hash 75aee8332714, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

shape-up 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 9d 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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

  • shape-up — 100% identical, 0 lines differ
skills/shape-up/SKILL.md · 59 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 59 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Domain Context

This skill implements a proven product management framework. The approach combines best practices from industry leaders and is designed for practical application in day-to-day PM work.

Input Requirements

  • Context about your product, feature, or problem
  • Relevant data, research, or constraints (recommended but optional)
  • Clear articulation of what you're trying to achieve

Shape Up

What It Is

Shape Up is a product development methodology built on one core insight: you cannot estimate your way to shipping—you must shape your way there.

Traditional approaches ask "How long will this take?" and then try to hit that estimate. Shape Up flips this: decide upfront how much time you're willing to spend (the appetite), then shape a version of the solution that fits within that constraint.

The methodology emerged from 17 years of building Basecamp, where the founding team faced an unusual constraint: their only engineer (DHH) worked just 10 hours per week. This forced extreme clarity about what to build and ruthless scoping to ensure every hour counted.

The key shift: Move from "What's the estimate for this?" to "What version of this can we confidently ship in the time we're willing to spend?"

When to Use It

Use Shape Up when you need to:

  • Stop projects from dragging — work that should take weeks is taking months
  • Escape the estimate trap — you're tired of estimates that are always wrong
  • Give teams real autonomy — not just ticket execution
  • Reduce meeting overhead — Scrum rituals are consuming your time
  • Ship meaningful chunks — not just incremental tickets
  • Align product and engineering — there's a wall between them today
  • Maintain startup speed — as you scale past 30-50 people

When Not to Use It

  • You're 3 people or fewer — just talk to each other
  • There's no real complexity
  • You can't get engineering into shaping
  • Leadership isn't bought in
  • You're doing pure maintenance

Resources

Read the full file on GitHub · 59 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. 9d ago First seen · 59 lines · 85 tokens per session scan A 75aee8332714

Subscribe to this mod's changes

shape-up is a skill published in the GitHub repository pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management (49 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 85 tokens to every session and 565 once invoked, about $0.0004 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 2026-08-30.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

utility-pm-skill-builder

Guides contributors from a PM skill idea to a complete Skill Implementation Packet aligned with pm-skills conventions. Runs gap analysis, validates through a Why Gate, classifies by type and phase, generates draft files, and writes to a staging area for review before promotion.

product-on-purpose/pm-skills · 60 tokens

utility-pm-skill-iterate

Applies targeted improvements to an existing pm-skills skill based on feedback, validation reports, or convention changes. Reads current files, previews proposed changes, writes on confirmation, and suggests a version bump. Use when improving a skill after validation or feedback.

product-on-purpose/pm-skills · 58 tokens

tool-note-and-vote

Structured group-decision mechanic that captures silent ideation, voting summaries, and Decider sign-off in a single bundled artifact. Use when a small team needs to make a fast decision with diverse input, when groupthink is a risk, or when a workshop moment demands silent contribution before discussion. Applicable…

product-on-purpose/pm-skills · 79 tokens

utility-pm-workflow-builder

Guides a contributor from a workflow idea to a complete Workflow Implementation Packet (draft workflow file, draft workflow command, cross-cutting update checklist) in a staging area for review. Runs overlap analysis against the existing workflows with a Why Gate, then helps select and sequence skills with authored…

product-on-purpose/pm-skills · 126 tokens

foundation-prioritized-action-plan

Produce a comprehensive, evidence-grounded prioritized action plan from any PM input (notes, transcripts, drafts, executive asks, Slack threads, or a raw situation). Outputs one saveable document with an executive summary, input mirror, situation classification (Cynefin), the binding constraint (Theory of…

product-on-purpose/pm-skills · 142 tokens

deliver-prd

Creates a comprehensive Product Requirements Document that aligns stakeholders on what to build, why, and how success will be measured. Use when specifying features, epics, or product initiatives for engineering handoff.

product-on-purpose/pm-skills · 43 tokens