critical-chain

critical-chain is a skill for Claude Code from VoxTechnologies/anty-framework. It costs 53 tokens per session (1,076 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A project-management method for finding the main bottleneck, managing schedule time, and limiting unfinished work. It uses the Theory of Constraints, a method that focuses effort on the factor limiting progress.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to identify bottlenecks, track schedule risk with green/yellow/red buffer zones, set work-in-progress limits, and plan when tasks should start.
Why use it?
It helps decide what to work on next when progress is slow, deadlines are at risk, or several tasks compete for attention.

Skill for Claude Code

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

Part of the anty plugin — 24 skills, 11 commands, 4 agents shipped together

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/voxtechnologies/anty-framework/critical-chain
Any agent
npx skills add VoxTechnologies/anty-framework --skill critical-chain
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/VoxTechnologies/anty-framework

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install anty, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 24 skills, 11 commands, 4 agents.

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 critical-chain

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/voxtechnologies/anty-framework/critical-chain.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/voxtechnologies/anty-framework/critical-chain)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/voxtechnologies/anty-framework/critical-chain"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/voxtechnologies/anty-framework/critical-chain.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 53 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,076 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
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 $0.00053 $0.01076
Opus 5 $0.00026 $0.00538
Sonnet 5 $0.00011 $0.00215
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00108

Measured 6d ago against content hash 2313848922a8, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

critical-chain 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 6d 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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

skills/critical-chain/SKILL.md · 87 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 87 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Critical Chain & Buffer Management

When to Apply

  • Managing Goal execution pace and timeline
  • Buffer zone changes (GREEN/YELLOW/RED)
  • Detecting and resolving bottlenecks
  • Prioritizing which Actions to execute next
  • When the founder asks "are we on track?"

Core Framework

TOC 5 Focusing Steps

Applied to the KPI tree. The Crux Driver (highest importance x tractability) is the constraint:

  1. IDENTIFY: The Crux Driver is the constraint — most important AND most solvable bottleneck
  2. EXPLOIT: Maximize that Driver's throughput. Execute its Actions first, eliminate waste, remove blockers. Never let constraint Actions wait.
  3. SUBORDINATE: All other Drivers serve the constraint. Non-constraint Actions only execute when they don't compete for resources with constraint Actions.
  4. ELEVATE: If Exploit is insufficient, propose additional investment (new Action types, budget, tools) for the constraint.
  5. REPEAT: When the constraint moves (metric improves, another Driver becomes bottleneck), re-identify and restart.

Buffer Management (3-Zone Traffic Light)

Buffer sizing: Project Buffer = 50% of estimated time to achieve Goal.

Feeding buffers: Each non-constraint Driver has a small feeding buffer protecting the constraint. If a non-constraint Action delays, the feeding buffer absorbs it.

Zone Buffer Consumed Agent Behavior
GREEN (0-33%) On track Normal execution. Continue planned Actions. Light monitoring.
YELLOW (33-67%) Falling behind Investigate root cause. Generate recovery Actions. Notify user. Increase scan frequency.
RED (67-100%) Significantly behind Auto-propose high-impact recovery. Escalate to user. Deprioritize low-impact Drivers. Consider scope adjustment.
Buffer consumed: 45%  [========----------]
Goal progress:   34%  [======------------]
Status: YELLOW — buffer consumption outpacing progress

Buffer as early warning: Unlike milestone tracking (detects problems after deadline miss), buffer management provides continuous visibility. YELLOW at 20% progress gives weeks of lead time.

Read the full file on GitHub · 87 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. 6d ago First seen · 87 lines · 53 tokens per session scan A 2313848922a8

Subscribe to this mod's changes

critical-chain is a skill published in the GitHub repository VoxTechnologies/anty-framework (6 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 53 tokens to every session and 1,076 once invoked, about $0.0003 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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