steal-like-an-artist-kleon

steal-like-an-artist-kleon is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from simbajigege/book2skills. It costs 35 tokens per session (2,045 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A creative-practice guide based on Austin Kleon's book Steal Like an Artist. It helps people study influences, transform them into original work, begin projects, share progress, and work within useful limits.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when developing ideas, finding a personal style, deciding whether inspiration crosses into copying, setting constraints, or sharing creative work.
Why use it?
It addresses creative blocks, uncertainty about originality, and difficulty maintaining a regular practice. It frames originality as thoughtful remixing rather than copying.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it when developing ideas, finding a personal style, deciding whether inspiration crosses into copying, setting constraints, or sharing creative work.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/simbajigege/book2skills/steal-like-an-artist-kleon
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 simbajigege/book2skills --skill steal-like-an-artist-kleon
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/simbajigege/book2skills

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 steal-like-an-artist-kleon

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/simbajigege/book2skills/steal-like-an-artist-kleon/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/simbajigege/book2skills/steal-like-an-artist-kleon)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/simbajigege/book2skills/steal-like-an-artist-kleon"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/simbajigege/book2skills/steal-like-an-artist-kleon/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 steal-like-an-artist-kleon

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/simbajigege/book2skills/steal-like-an-artist-kleon"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/simbajigege/book2skills/steal-like-an-artist-kleon.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 35 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,045 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
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 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 $0.00035 $0.02045
Opus 5 $0.00017 $0.01022
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00409
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00204

Measured 12d ago against content hash 367fb7954328, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

steal-like-an-artist-kleon 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.

skills/steal-like-an-artist-kleon/SKILL.md · 210 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 210 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Steal Like an Artist — Creative Practice Skill

Knowledge source: Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon.

Overview

Use this skill to help creators start, unblock, remix influences ethically, build a daily practice, and share work without waiting for identity, originality, or perfect readiness. It supports writers, designers, founders, artists, and makers turning influences into original work.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user asks:

  • "I don't know what to create."
  • "How do I find my style?"
  • "Is this inspiration or copying?"
  • "How should I share my work?"
  • "How do I stay creative while busy?"
  • "Give me constraints for this project."

Core Principle

Originality is not purity; it is selective collection, transformation, and recombination through consistent work. Start by studying what you love, make with your hands, share the process, and use constraints to turn influence into something recognizably yours.

Workflow Inventory

Workflow User question pattern Inputs Steps Output Independent trigger? Distinct references? Triage score Should be subskill? Reason
Influence map "What should I study?" Heroes, taste, domain Build genealogy, swipe file, learning path Influence map Yes Yes 3 No Feeds the same creative-practice workflow.
Ethical remix diagnosis "Am I copying?" Source, draft, transformation Compare study, credit, transformation, voice Remix verdict Yes Yes 3 No Same originality framework.
Start/create plan "I feel stuck" Project, constraints, time, tools Lower identity pressure; choose analog start; set daily step Action plan Yes Yes 3 No Core execution mode.
Share process "How do I get discovered?" Work stage, audience, platform Pick process artifacts; share wonder; invite response Sharing plan Yes Yes 3 No Uses same do-good-work-and-share principle.

Architecture Justification

Read the full file on GitHub · 210 lines

Files

What ships with it

4 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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 · 210 lines · 35 tokens per session scan A 367fb7954328

Subscribe to this mod's changes

steal-like-an-artist-kleon is a skill published in the GitHub repository simbajigege/book2skills (163 stars, last pushed 17d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 35 tokens to every session and 2,045 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 2026-08-30.

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