overloaded-mode

overloaded-mode is a skill for Claude Code from softcane/human-state-skills. It costs 164 tokens per session (1,264 once invoked), scanned C, original, MIT.

A response mode for when someone feels overloaded, frozen, overcommitted, or burned out. It uses seven fixed sections to reduce choices and focus on a manageable next step.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to prioritize a crowded task list, decide what to defer or remove, draft a needed message, and define the smallest acceptable version of a task.
Why use it?
It puts reducing the workload before adding more advice. It separates urgent work from tasks that can wait or be dropped, without treating burnout as a medical diagnosis.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin. Also seen: installed under .agents/ (shared by several agents).

Part of the human-state-skills plugin — 5 skills, 7 commands shipped together

Good fit Use it to prioritize a crowded task list, decide what to defer or remove, draft a needed message, and define the smallest acceptable version of a task.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/softcane/human-state-skills/overloaded-mode
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 softcane/human-state-skills --skill overloaded-mode
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/softcane/human-state-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install human-state-skills, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 5 skills, 7 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 overloaded-mode

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/softcane/human-state-skills/overloaded-mode/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/softcane/human-state-skills/overloaded-mode)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/softcane/human-state-skills/overloaded-mode"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/softcane/human-state-skills/overloaded-mode/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 overloaded-mode

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/softcane/human-state-skills/overloaded-mode"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/softcane/human-state-skills/overloaded-mode.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 164 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,264 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan C 1 finding. 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 $0.00164 $0.01264
Opus 5 $0.00082 $0.00632
Sonnet 5 $0.00033 $0.00253
Haiku 4.5 $0.00016 $0.00126

Measured 9d ago against content hash d8fd942a1e8e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

overloaded-mode scanned grade C with 1 finding 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.

Tells the agent never to refusehighAnti-refusal

Suppressing the ability to decline removes a core safety control; a later harmful request then succeeds.

This mode can be used for safe non-coding tasks. Do not refuse only because the
.agents/skills/overloaded-mode/SKILL.md · 144 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 144 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Overloaded Mode

Adapt response shape for a user who is overloaded. Reduce load before adding advice.

This skill is not diagnosis, therapy, medical care, or burnout treatment. Do not tell the user they have burnout. Treat "burnout" as a user-described state unless they ask for general information.

burnout-mode is a user-facing alias routed to this skill. There is no separate burnout skill contract. Burnout wording must not loosen the labels, action limits, or safety boundaries below.

This mode can be used for safe non-coding tasks. Do not refuse only because the task is outside software engineering.

Reliability Contract

When this skill is active, obey this contract before ordinary helpfulness:

  • Use the exact output labels below.
  • Do not announce or explain the mode in the final answer. Begin directly with Do this first.
  • Brief context is allowed inside the existing labels when it lowers uncertainty, but do not add an intro, outro, or extra section.
  • Do this first is one priority in one sentence. It is not a list.
  • Do this first must not be blank.
  • Do now has one to three top-level bullets only.
  • Do now has no numbered list, item 4, item 5, sub-bullets, templates, or scripts.
  • Always include Drop; do not omit it.
  • Put scripts only in Send/say this.
  • Put diagnostics, alert cleanup, root-cause analysis, routine inbox/message catch-up, and follow-up checks under Defer.
  • Defer, Drop, and Minimum viable version may include short reasons when useful, but not sub-bullets or extra tasks.
  • Use context to explain why work is being reduced, not to preserve it as hidden work.
  • A status or update message is allowed when it reduces load; keep it to one script or one Do now item.
  • Always include Minimum viable version; do not omit it.
  • Next action is one short sentence naming an immediate action to do now.
  • Next action must not contain a condition, branch, later check, or sequence using words like "then", "after", or "once".
  • Next action should not use "and" to join two verbs. Do not write "open and paste", "send and start", "review and reply", or similar combined actions.
  • Next action must be exactly one atomic action, such as "Post the status message." Do not combine posting, pausing, reviewing, replying, or follow-up checks in the same sentence.
  • For a pile of unrelated tasks and messages, prefer one priority update over a full plan.
  • A correct response reduces work; it does not preserve every important task.
  • Do not solve the whole situation or day in one answer.

Read the full file on GitHub · 144 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file 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. 9d ago First seen · 144 lines · 164 tokens per session scan C d8fd942a1e8e

Subscribe to this mod's changes

overloaded-mode is a skill published in the GitHub repository softcane/human-state-skills (113 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 164 tokens to every session and 1,264 once invoked, about $0.0008 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it C with 1 finding (tells the agent never to refuse). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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