scope-creep-detection

scope-creep-detection is a skill for Claude Code from Vimalk0703/shipworthy. It costs 40 tokens per session (1,569 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A workflow that detects scope creep, meaning unplanned growth in a task's features, files, dependencies, or polish. It asks the developer to notice and surface additions beyond the original request.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it while implementing changes to spot expanding file counts, feature additions, refactoring, dependency upgrades, perfection work, and yak-shaving detours.
Why use it?
It helps prevent small tasks from becoming delayed, risky projects through extra features, broad refactors, dependency changes, or unrelated cleanup. The original scope stays explicit so new work can be approved deliberately.

Skill for Claude Code

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

Part of the shipworthy plugin — 66 skills, 7 commands, 3 hooks shipped together

Good fit Use it while implementing changes to spot expanding file counts, feature additions, refactoring, dependency upgrades, perfection work, and yak-shaving detours.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/vimalk0703/shipworthy/scope-creep-detection
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 Vimalk0703/shipworthy --skill scope-creep-detection
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Vimalk0703/shipworthy

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install shipworthy, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 66 skills, 7 commands, 3 hooks.

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 scope-creep-detection

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/vimalk0703/shipworthy/scope-creep-detection/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/vimalk0703/shipworthy/scope-creep-detection)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/vimalk0703/shipworthy/scope-creep-detection"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/vimalk0703/shipworthy/scope-creep-detection/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 scope-creep-detection

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/vimalk0703/shipworthy/scope-creep-detection"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/vimalk0703/shipworthy/scope-creep-detection.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 40 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,569 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 $0.00040 $0.01569
Opus 5 $0.00020 $0.00785
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00314
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00157

Measured 9d ago against content hash fcf9e5478b97, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

scope-creep-detection 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 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.

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/operations/scope-creep-detection/SKILL.md · 173 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 173 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Scope Creep Detection

Core Rule

Do what was asked. When the task grows beyond its original boundaries, stop and surface it — do not silently absorb scope. Uncontrolled scope expansion is the primary cause of missed deadlines, introduced bugs, and abandoned features.

What Is Scope Creep

Scope creep is the gradual expansion of a task beyond its original definition without explicit acknowledgment. It includes:

Type Example
Feature creep "While adding the search bar, I also added autocomplete, search history, and saved searches"
Refactoring creep "I was fixing the bug in auth.ts but the code was messy so I rewrote the entire auth module"
Dependency creep "To add this feature I need to upgrade the framework, which requires updating 12 other packages"
Perfection creep "The function works but I want to optimize it, add better error messages, and improve the types"
Yak shaving "To fix the login bug I need to update the test framework, which requires a new Node version, which requires..."

Detection Triggers

Trigger 1: File Count Expansion

If a task was scoped to modify 1-3 files and is now touching 5+, flag it:

SCOPE CHECK: This task started as a change to auth.ts and auth.test.ts
but now involves 7 files across 3 directories.

Original scope: Fix login validation bug
Current scope: Fix login validation + refactor auth module + update middleware + add tests for 4 untested functions

Proceed with expanded scope, or return to the original task?

Trigger 2: Time-Based Expansion

If a Quick Fix (expected: < 30 minutes of implementation) has not converged after significant effort, flag it:

SCOPE CHECK: This was classified as a Quick Fix but implementation
has grown substantially. This may indicate:
- The fix is more complex than expected (reclassify as Feature)
- Scope has expanded beyond the original bug
- A dependency chain is pulling in unplanned work

Recommend: Commit what works now, file follow-up tasks for the rest.

Read the full file on GitHub · 173 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 · 173 lines · 40 tokens per session scan A fcf9e5478b97

Subscribe to this mod's changes

scope-creep-detection is a skill published in the GitHub repository Vimalk0703/shipworthy (7 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 40 tokens to every session and 1,569 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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