efficient-tool-use

Files (7)

• SKILL.md
• call-composition.md · references/
• output-shape.md · references/
• result-interpretation.md · references/
• reuse-and-protection.md · references/
• capture-command-log.mjs · scripts/
• check-capture-command-log.mjs · tests/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Efficient tool use

One trigger, topic-grouped rules. Read only the topic that matches the moment;
the topic files are the durable rulebook, not this routing surface.

## Topics

- **`efficient-tool-use/output-shape`** -
  [output-shape.md](references/output-shape.md): ask the owning surface for
  structure, search before reading, parse records rather than words, and make
  required arguments explicit.
- **`efficient-tool-use/result-interpretation`** -
  [result-interpretation.md](references/result-interpretation.md): put the
  discriminating field in the test, bucket non-zero exits by code, keep crash
  rate separate from correctness, and split by command before blaming syntax.
- **`efficient-tool-use/call-composition`** -
  [call-composition.md](references/call-composition.md): keep payloads out of
  command strings, block on a condition instead of polling, and bound a command
  that spawns children by killing its process group rather than its parent.
- **`efficient-tool-use/reuse-and-protection`** -
  [reuse-and-protection.md](references/reuse-and-protection.md): save repeated
  operations, measure a guard's reach and activation, require identity rather
  than liveness, record the read time for live evidence, and capture raw output
  with its revision for hand-over instead of hand-typed transcripts.

Open the matching topic immediately when a result will be counted, parsed,
compared, or used as evidence. Do not rely on remembering a rule.

## Evidence

Source case: a six-transcript agent tool-use audit, 2026-10-02, based on
17,551 tool calls. The underlying report stays in its originating workspace;
this cookbook carries only the normalized rules and their bounds.

The source report and its parsers remain the first case study. Add a rule to a
topic only when it changes a future decision and its evidence is reproducible.
Replace superseded rules in place rather than keeping contradictory versions.

From emliunix/home.conf, GPL-3.0.

More from emliunix/home.conf