phase-init

phase-init is a skill for Claude Code from SteveGJones/ai-first-sdlc-practices. It costs 41 tokens per session (658 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A command that creates a requirements, design, or test document from a project template under docs/specs/. It refuses to replace an existing document.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps initialise requirements, design, and test artefacts for a named feature.
Why use it?
It gives each feature a consistent starting document and protects existing specifications from accidental overwrite.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: disable-model-invocation in frontmatter. Also seen: positional $N argument.

Runs only inside its plugin — its command needs a path that Claude Code sets for a plugin’s own hooks and for nothing else. Install the plugin, not this.

Part of the sdlc-programme plugin — 5 skills shipped together

Good fit It helps initialise requirements, design, and test artefacts for a named feature.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install

Getting it into your agent

This one installs as part of its plugin. Adding the marketplace and installing the plugin brings it with everything else the plugin ships.

Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add SteveGJones/ai-first-sdlc-practices
Claude Code
/plugin install sdlc-programme

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install sdlc-programme, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 5 skills.

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 phase-init

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/phase-init/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/phase-init)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/phase-init"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/phase-init/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 phase-init

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/phase-init"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/phase-init.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 41 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 658 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.
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 $0.00041 $0.00658
Opus 5.5 $0.00016 $0.00263
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00008 $0.00132
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00066

Measured 1mo ago against content hash fa573ea86ef8, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

phase-init 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 1mo 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/sdlc-programme/skills/phase-init/SKILL.md · 81 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 81 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Initialise a Phase Artefact

Instantiate a phase artefact from the Programme bundle's template.

Arguments

  • <phase> — one of requirements, design, test
  • <feature-id> — short slug for the feature (e.g., oauth-flow, cross-library-query)

Steps

PHASE="$1"
FEATURE_ID="$2"

if [ -z "$PHASE" ] || [ -z "$FEATURE_ID" ]; then
    echo "Usage: phase-init <phase> <feature-id>" >&2
    exit 1
fi

case "$PHASE" in
    requirements|design|test) ;;
    *)
        echo "phase must be one of: requirements, design, test" >&2
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

# Validate feature-id format (lowercase alphanumeric + hyphens, starting with alpha-numeric)
if ! echo "$FEATURE_ID" | grep -qE '^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*$'; then
    echo "feature-id must match /^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*$/" >&2
    exit 1
fi

FEATURE_DIR="docs/specs/$FEATURE_ID"
SPEC_PATH="$FEATURE_DIR/$PHASE-spec.md"

if [ -f "$SPEC_PATH" ]; then
    echo "$SPEC_PATH already exists; refusing to overwrite" >&2
    exit 1
fi

mkdir -p "$FEATURE_DIR"

# Locate the template — try project-installed first (./.sdlc/templates/), then fallback to plugin
if [ -f ".sdlc/templates/$PHASE-spec.md" ]; then
    TEMPLATE=".sdlc/templates/$PHASE-spec.md"
elif [ -f "$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/templates/$PHASE-spec.md" ]; then
    TEMPLATE="$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/templates/$PHASE-spec.md"
else
    echo "template for phase '$PHASE' not found (looked in .sdlc/templates/ and \$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/templates/)" >&2
    exit 1
fi

# Copy template; substitute the feature-id placeholder
sed "s/<feature-id>/$FEATURE_ID/g" "$TEMPLATE" > "$SPEC_PATH"

echo "Created $SPEC_PATH from $TEMPLATE"
echo "Edit the file, then run: phase-gate $PHASE $FEATURE_ID"

Done

Report:

  • File created: docs/specs/<feature-id>/<phase>-spec.md
  • Source template: shown in output
  • Next step: edit the file, then phase-gate <phase> <feature-id>

Model selection

This skill is mechanical (file copy + sed substitution). Smaller models are sufficient.

Read the full file on GitHub · 81 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. 1mo ago First seen · 81 lines · 41 tokens per session scan A fa573ea86ef8

Subscribe to this mod's changes

phase-init is a skill published in the GitHub repository SteveGJones/ai-first-sdlc-practices (41 stars, last pushed 15d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 41 tokens to every session and 658 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5.5. 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 2026-09-03.

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