using-zimster

using-zimster is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from wazimmerman/zimster. It costs 23 tokens per session (1,896 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide for choosing how an AI assistant should organize and review software-development work. It matches tasks such as bug fixes, larger changes, and parallel work to workflows like test-first development and independent review.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to select a workflow for a coding task, decide when several AI roles are useful, choose a risk level, and define how completion should be verified.
Why use it?
It prevents small tasks from receiving unnecessary process while ensuring complex or risky work gets planning, testing, review, and suitable separation of responsibilities.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for Claude Code and Codex: shipped in a Claude Code plugin, but also agents/openai.yaml present. Also seen: mentions subagents; mentions Claude Code; mentions Codex.

Part of the zimster plugin — 12 skills, 1 command, 4 agents, 1 hook shipped together

Good fit Use it to select a workflow for a coding task, decide when several AI roles are useful, choose a risk level, and define how completion should be verified.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/wazimmerman/zimster/using-zimster
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 wazimmerman/zimster --skill using-zimster
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wazimmerman/zimster

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install zimster, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 12 skills, 1 command, 4 agents, 1 hook.

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 using-zimster

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/wazimmerman/zimster/using-zimster/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/wazimmerman/zimster/using-zimster)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/wazimmerman/zimster/using-zimster"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/wazimmerman/zimster/using-zimster/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 using-zimster

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/wazimmerman/zimster/using-zimster"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/wazimmerman/zimster/using-zimster.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 23 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,896 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 $0.00023 $0.01896
Opus 5 $0.00012 $0.00948
Sonnet 5 $0.00005 $0.00379
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00190

Measured 9d ago against content hash a22f08cb5fb8, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

using-zimster 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.

plugins/zimster/skills/using-zimster/SKILL.md · 217 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 217 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Using Zimster

One capable agent normally owns planning, implementation, RED-GREEN-REFACTOR, debugging, independent review, worktree isolation, and evidence-based completion.

Select the smallest workflow

Do not load every skill; plan or dispatch only when it materially helps.

Situation Load
Exact low-risk behavior change test-driven-development, then verification
Bug or unexplained failure systematic-debugging, then TDD
Multi-file change with consequential choices designing-work, then writing-plans
Approved plan or coherent implementation request owner-driven-development
Two genuinely independent workstreams dispatching-parallel-agents
Reviewed seam or integration range risk-adaptive-review
Branch completion or handoff finishing-a-development-branch

User and repository instructions override Zimster defaults.

Deterministic execution profile

Classify the six dimensions in risk-adaptive-review, then select one profile. Always report the selected profile and its risk rationale before implementation.

Micro

Use Micro only when all dimensions are Low and all of these are true:

  • single coherent slice;
  • local blast radius;
  • no public compatibility contract;
  • no meaningful concurrency, security, destructive-data, external-service, native-OS, or hardware boundary;
  • deterministic automated proof;
  • no independent review.

The owner implements, runs focused/affected proofs, and performs fresh final verification.

Standard

Use Standard for subsystem or cross-component work with Medium dimensions but no High dimension or hard trigger. The owner implements vertical slices and reviews the concentrated seam or integration.

High risk

Use High risk when any dimension is High or any hard trigger exists:

  • authentication, authorization, secrets, or trust boundaries;
  • destructive data change, migration, or rollback risk;
  • races, cancellation, lock ordering, or resource ownership;
  • public API/protocol compatibility;
  • native OS, hardware, unstable external service, or live-only evidence;
  • new architecture with broad blast radius.

Read the full file on GitHub · 217 lines

Files

What ships with it

5 files 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. 9d ago First seen · 217 lines · 23 tokens per session scan A a22f08cb5fb8

Subscribe to this mod's changes

using-zimster is a skill published in the GitHub repository wazimmerman/zimster (2 stars, last pushed 8d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 23 tokens to every session and 1,896 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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