constitution-lite

constitution-lite is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from tmusser/ai-engineering-skills. It costs 38 tokens per session (819 once invoked), scanned C, original, MIT.

A small set of lasting rules that define what a coding agent may decide or do across repeated or delegated tasks.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps set rules for human approval, protected production data or credentials, required tests, and decisions an agent cannot make alone.
Why use it?
It keeps authority limits clear without mixing them with project instructions or one-off task requirements.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: mentions CLAUDE.md; mentions AGENTS.md.

Good fit It helps set rules for human approval, protected production data or credentials, required tests, and decisions an agent cannot make alone.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/constitution-lite
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 tmusser/ai-engineering-skills --skill constitution-lite
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills

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 constitution-lite

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/constitution-lite/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/constitution-lite)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/constitution-lite"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/constitution-lite/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 constitution-lite

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/constitution-lite"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/constitution-lite.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 38 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 819 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 $0.00038 $0.00819
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00409
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00164
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00082

Measured 9d ago against content hash b8ba2475926d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

constitution-lite 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.

Instruction-override phrasinghighPrompt injection

Text telling the model to disregard its earlier instructions or safety rules is the shape of a prompt injection, whoever wrote it.

`CONSTITUTION.md` is a workflow artifact. It does not override system instructions,
skills/constitution-lite/SKILL.md · 96 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 96 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Constitution Lite

Purpose

Record only the durable rules that constrain what an agent may decide or do across multiple tasks. This is an authority boundary, not a project handbook.

Project instructions are not constitution rules. Architecture notes, repo layout, commands, coding style, naming conventions, framework choices, and ordinary team preferences belong in native project instructions such as CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md. Task-specific requirements belong in SPEC.md, scope-freeze, or SHIP.md.

When to use

Use when repeated, delegated, scheduled, or autonomous work needs a small set of stable constraints that should survive across tasks, such as:

  • human approval before destructive or external side effects
  • protected production, data, credential, or customer boundaries
  • tests or evidence that an agent may not weaken to make work pass
  • decisions an agent is never authorized to make alone

Skip this skill when the need is only project onboarding, commands, architecture, style, a temporary implementation constraint, or one task's acceptance criteria.

Inputs

  • Existing CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, or equivalent project instructions if present
  • Stable risk and authority boundaries
  • Protected resources, environments, data, or interfaces
  • Human approval requirements
  • Existing task or shipping controls that should not be duplicated

Workflow

  1. Read existing project instructions first. Do not copy their conventions into the constitution.
  2. List candidate cross-task rules.
  3. Keep a candidate only when violating it should require a human decision, explicit review, or a hard stop across more than one task.
  4. Classify each retained rule as MUST, MUST NOT, or HUMAN GATE.
  5. Make each rule observable where possible: name the protected resource, forbidden action, approval event, or evidence requirement.
  6. Remove architecture preferences, commands, style guidance, framework choices, and task-local constraints.
  7. If the constitution conflicts with live project instructions or a task contract, stop and ask for a human decision. Do not silently choose an authority winner.
  8. Name who may amend the constitution and how the amendment is approved.
  9. Keep the artifact short enough to scan before delegated work.

Read the full file on GitHub · 96 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. 9d ago First seen · 96 lines · 38 tokens per session scan C b8ba2475926d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

constitution-lite is a skill published in the GitHub repository tmusser/ai-engineering-skills (4 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 38 tokens to every session and 819 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it C with 1 finding (instruction-override phrasing). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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