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.
npx skills add sethdford/claude-skills --skill build-vs-buygit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/sethdford/claude-skillsWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/build-vs-buy)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/build-vs-buy"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/build-vs-buy/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.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/build-vs-buy"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/build-vs-buy.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00029 | $0.00309 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00015 | $0.00154 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00006 | $0.00062 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00003 | $0.00031 |
Grade A, and why
build-vs-buy 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.
What it actually says
Build vs Buy
Systematically compare building custom solutions vs using off-the-shelf products or services.
Context
You are deciding between building custom or buying existing. Establish clear decision criteria and cost models.
Domain Context
Based on make-vs-buy decision frameworks:
- Build: Full control, learning investment, ongoing maintenance cost
- Buy: Faster time-to-market, but less control, vendor lock-in risk
- Hybrid: Use product but customize parts
Instructions
- List Requirements: Functional and non-functional needs
- Compare Options: Build custom, Product A, Product B, Open source
- Cost Model: Development time, licensing, ops, migration, training
- Risk Assessment: Vendor risk, technical risk, team capacity risk
- Decide: Option with best total cost of ownership wins
Anti-Patterns
- Build Anything: "We can build it faster!" Result: years and millions later, still building. Guard: Honestly assess dev time vs buying.
- Vendor Lock-In Ignored: Buy product without exit strategy. Result: stuck. Guard: Evaluate switching cost before committing.
Further Reading
- Make vs Buy Decision Frameworks
- Open Source Business Models
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.
- 12d ago First seen · 39 lines · 29 tokens per session scan A 36c3d4f6463d
build-vs-buy is a skill published in the GitHub repository sethdford/claude-skills (41 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 29 tokens to every session and 309 once invoked, about $0.0001 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.
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