agent-sop-author

agent-sop-author is a skill for Claude Code from strands-agents/agent-sop. It costs 41 tokens per session (3,020 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A guide for creating and checking Agent SOPs, which are Markdown instruction files that tell AI agents how to complete complex tasks. It also explains RFC 2119 terms such as MUST, SHOULD, and MAY, which give instructions different levels of requirement.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to create, update, organise, validate, and reuse multi-step workflows for AI agents.
Why use it?
It helps turn informal processes into structured, reusable instructions that different AI systems can follow.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the agent-sop plugin — 1 skill shipped together

Good fit Use it to create, update, organise, validate, and reuse multi-step workflows for AI agents.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/strands-agents/agent-sop/agent-sop-author
About the project

Agent SOP is a collection and format for writing reusable, parameterized natural-language procedures that guide AI agents through complex multi-step work. Teams use these standard operating procedures for tasks such as codebase analysis, project planning, system design, and code implementation. The catalogue add-ons distribute or apply these workflows through agent skills, plugins, and related interfaces.

strands-agents/agent-sop · 1,142 stars · on GitHub · aws.amazon.com

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 strands-agents/agent-sop --skill agent-sop-author
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/strands-agents/agent-sop

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install agent-sop, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 1 skill.

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 agent-sop-author

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/strands-agents/agent-sop/agent-sop-author/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/strands-agents/agent-sop/agent-sop-author)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/strands-agents/agent-sop/agent-sop-author"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/strands-agents/agent-sop/agent-sop-author/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 agent-sop-author

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/strands-agents/agent-sop/agent-sop-author"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/strands-agents/agent-sop/agent-sop-author.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 3,020 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 $0.00041 $0.03020
Opus 5 $0.00020 $0.01510
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00604
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00302

Measured 10d ago against content hash 5fcf4bad72fd, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

agent-sop-author 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 10d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (validate-sop.sh), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

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/agent-sop-author/SKILL.md · 406 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 406 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Agent SOP Author

Overview

Agent SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) are markdown-based instruction sets that guide AI agents through sophisticated workflows using natural language, parameterized inputs, and constraint-based execution. This skill teaches you how to create (or update), structure, and validate Agent SOPs that work across different AI systems.

Usage

When working with Agent SOPs and need to:

  • Create new workflow automation SOPs
  • Update existing workflow automation SOPs
  • Structure multi-step agent workflows
  • Apply RFC 2119 constraints (MUST, SHOULD, MAY)
  • Validate SOP format and structure
  • Convert workflows into reusable templates
  • Ensure SOPs work across AI systems (Claude, Kiro, Cursor, etc.)

Core Concepts

What is an Agent SOP?

An Agent SOP is a standardized markdown file (.sop.md) that defines:

  • Clear objectives with detailed overviews
  • Parameterized inputs for flexible reuse
  • Step-by-step instructions with RFC 2119 constraints
  • Examples and troubleshooting for reliable execution
  • Multi-modal distribution (MCP tools, Agent Skills, Python modules)

Key Features

RFC 2119 Constraints: Use standardized keywords (MUST, SHOULD, MAY) to provide precise control over agent behavior without rigid scripting.

Parameterization: Accept parameters that customize behavior for different projects, teams, or requirements.

Resumability: Document progress as agents work, making it easy to understand and resume if interrupted.

Creating Agent SOPs

File Location

You MUST check for an agent-sops/ directory in the current working directory:

  • If agent-sops/ exists, You MUST write the SOP file there
  • If agent-sops/ does not exist, You MAY write the SOP in the current directory or ask the user where to save it

File Naming

You MUST follow these naming conventions:

  • Use .sop.md file extension
  • Use kebab-case for filenames (e.g., code-assist.sop.md, idea-honing.sop.md)
  • Choose descriptive names that indicate the SOP's purpose

Read the full file on GitHub · 406 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. 10d ago First seen · 406 lines · 41 tokens per session scan A 5fcf4bad72fd

Subscribe to this mod's changes

agent-sop-author is a skill published in the GitHub repository strands-agents/agent-sop (1,142 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 41 tokens to every session and 3,020 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.