program-writer

A guided writing tool that creates a PROGRAM.md file through questions, drafts, and user approval. The file describes the goal, current situation, work items, constraints, and success checks for a development project.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it before an automated workflow to clarify the intended outcome, existing problems, restrictions, risks, and ways to verify the result.
Why use it?
It helps turn a broad request into a clear plan before implementation begins, reducing misunderstandings about scope and completion.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/stellarshenson/claude-code-plugins/program-writer
Any agent
npx skills add stellarshenson/claude-code-plugins --skill program-writer
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/stellarshenson/claude-code-plugins

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 42 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,073 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
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 $0.00042 $0.01073
Opus 5 $0.00021 $0.00536
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00215
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00107

Measured 2d ago against content hash bbc509ff5c25, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

program-writer 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 2d 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.

plugins/autobuild/skills/program-writer/SKILL.md · 108 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 108 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Program Writer

Write PROGRAM.md via dialogue. NEVER produce full document on first attempt. Build incrementally via questions and proposals.

Process

Round 1: Extract the intention

Read seed prompt (text after /autobuild). Goal: understand INTENTION (what + why), not HOW. ASK all in ONE message:

  1. End state? What does "done" look like? Outcome, not implementation
  2. What exists today? Current state. Gap to end state?
  3. Why does this matter? Problem solved? Cost of not doing? Shapes priority
  4. Off-limits? Files, behaviors, APIs that MUST NOT change
  5. How do we know it works? Test suite, benchmark, manual check?
  6. Biggest risk? What could waste iterations?

Users know WHAT but describe HOW. Separate intention from implementation. Follow up when unclear: "You mentioned refactoring X - goal = reduce complexity, improve testability, or enable a new feature?"

Do NOT proceed until intention crystal clear.

Round 2: Propose the program

Write first draft with:

  • Objective (1-3 sentences, measurable)
  • Current State (what exists, broken, baseline numbers)
  • Work Items (flat list: scope, acceptance, priority)
  • Exit Conditions (see below)
  • Constraints (what not to change)

ASK about exit conditions: "When should orchestrator stop?

  1. Score stagnation (recommended) - stop if no improvement 2 consecutive iterations
  2. Score target - stop when score hits value (e.g. score < 5)
  3. Scope completion - stop when all work items meet acceptance
  4. Combined - whichever first: target OR stagnation OR scope complete

Specific, or default (stagnation + scope completion)?"

Present full program. Ask: "What's missing, wrong, over-scoped?"

Round 3+: Refine

User may:

  • Add forgotten work items
  • Remove out-of-scope items
  • Change priorities
  • Tighten acceptance
  • Add constraints

Each round: update, show diff, ask if ready.

Final: User approval

Explicit approval only. Phrases: "looks good", "approved", "let's go", "run it", "start", "yes".

Read the full file on GitHub · 108 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. 2d ago First seen · 108 lines · 42 tokens per session scan A bbc509ff5c25

Subscribe to this mod's changes

program-writer is a skill published in the GitHub repository stellarshenson/claude-code-plugins (3 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 42 tokens to every session and 1,073 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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