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.
npx skills add tupe12334/instinct --skill pyramid-principlegit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/tupe12334/instinctWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/tupe12334/instinct/pyramid-principle)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/tupe12334/instinct/pyramid-principle"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/tupe12334/instinct/pyramid-principle.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00026 | $0.02177 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00013 | $0.01089 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00005 | $0.00435 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00003 | $0.00218 |
Grade A, and why
pyramid-principle 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 8d 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 145 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Pyramid Principle
Overview
The Pyramid Principle, developed by Barbara Minto at McKinsey, structures written and verbal communication so the main conclusion comes first, followed by grouped supporting arguments, followed by evidence beneath each argument. Readers get the answer before the rationale — saving time and reducing cognitive load.
┌─────────────────────┐
│ GOVERNING IDEA │ ← Lead with the answer
│ (recommendation │
│ or conclusion) │
└──────────┬──────────┘
┌────────────┼────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼
┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐
│ Key │ │ Key │ │ Key │ ← 3 grouped arguments
│ Point │ │ Point │ │ Point │ (MECE at this level)
│ A │ │ B │ │ C │
└────┬────┘ └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘
┌──┴──┐ ┌──┴──┐ ┌──┴──┐
│ E1 │ │ E2 │ │ E3 │ ← Data, facts, examples
│ E2 │ │ E3 │ │ E4 │
└─────┘ └─────┘ └─────┘
Every node in the pyramid must answer the "So what?" of everything beneath it. Every level must be MECE.
Core Concepts
Governing Idea
The single sentence that summarizes your entire message. If the reader reads nothing else, this is what they must take away. It is a complete assertion — not a topic. "We should exit the EU market" is a governing idea; "EU market analysis" is a topic heading, not a governing idea.
Key Lines (Supporting Arguments)
The 2–5 reasons, findings, or proofs that together make the governing idea undeniable. They sit one level below the governing idea and must be:
- Mutually Exclusive: no two key points make the same claim
- Collectively Exhaustive: together they fully support the governing idea with no logical gaps
Supporting Evidence
Data, case studies, quotes, calculations, or sub-arguments that prove each key line. Evidence lives at the base of the pyramid and should be concrete and verifiable.
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.
- 8d ago First seen · 145 lines · 26 tokens per session scan A 04400b2681b9
pyramid-principle is a skill published in the GitHub repository tupe12334/instinct (1 stars, last pushed 22d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 26 tokens to every session and 2,177 once invoked, about $0.0001 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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