simplify-spec

A workflow for rewriting a design specification so it describes user-visible behavior rather than internal implementation. It reads the specification and relevant source code before simplifying it.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to simplify a specification in the Specs directory, keeping interfaces, options, examples, compatibility notes, and future plans while condensing internal details.
Why use it?
It removes engineering details that make a specification harder for users and stakeholders to understand while preserving how the feature is used.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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/wolframresearch/agenttools/simplify-spec
Any agent
npx skills add WolframResearch/AgentTools --skill simplify-spec
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/WolframResearch/AgentTools

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 84 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 837 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 $0.00084 $0.00837
Opus 5 $0.00042 $0.00418
Sonnet 5 $0.00017 $0.00167
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00084

Measured 2d ago against content hash 8d85fe43ba62, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

simplify-spec 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 2d 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.

.claude/skills/simplify-spec/SKILL.md · 71 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 71 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Simplify a Design Specification

Rewrite a design specification to focus on user-facing behavior, removing or condensing internal implementation details. The goal is a spec that clearly communicates what the feature does and how users interact with it, without prescribing how it's built internally.

Spec to simplify: $ARGUMENTS

If no specific spec is given, ask the user which spec in Specs/ they'd like simplified.

Process

1. Read the Spec

Read the full spec file from Specs/. Identify every section and classify it:

  • User-facing: Things a user of the paclet would see or interact with (function signatures, options, usage examples, option tables with types/defaults/descriptions, backward compatibility notes, future plans)
  • Internal: Things only a developer implementing the feature would need (file modification lists, internal function signatures, internal symbol declarations, serialization details, parsing logic, private API code, environment variable plumbing, verification/test checklists)

2. Understand the Feature

Before rewriting, read the relevant source files to understand what the feature actually does. This is important because the spec may describe planned behavior that differs from what was implemented, or use terminology that's clearer in context.

Use the Explore agent or read files directly to understand:

  • How users interact with the feature (the public API)
  • What the actual defaults and option values are
  • Which parts of the spec correspond to internal plumbing vs user-visible behavior

3. Rewrite the Spec

Apply these guidelines:

Remove entirely:

  • File modification tables ("Files Modified")
  • Internal symbol declarations (e.g., "Add to CommonSymbols.wl")
  • Internal function implementations (e.g., full toolOptionValue code with Enclose/ConfirmBy)
  • Serialization/storage mechanism details (e.g., JSON format, environment variable names, parsing logic)
  • Verification/test step checklists
  • "Goals" sections that describe internal engineering goals rather than user value
  • Strikethrough notes about removed plans (e.g., "Deprecate the existing... (removed — ...)")

Read the full file on GitHub · 71 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. 2d ago First seen · 71 lines · 84 tokens per session scan A 8d85fe43ba62

Subscribe to this mod's changes

simplify-spec is a skill published in the GitHub repository WolframResearch/AgentTools (82 stars, last pushed 6d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 84 tokens to every session and 837 once invoked, about $0.0004 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 2026-08-30.

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