# Script The Deterministic Work > Re-anchor the discipline that purely deterministic sub-work — counting, diffing, sorting, transforming, matching, sweeping, arithmetic — gets a script that runs and returns real output, and the model reasons only afterward over that output — then audit the work in flight for transforms executed by hand and re-derive them from a script's result. Use when: 'script the deterministic work', 'you shou… - **Type:** Skill - **Install:** `agentstack add skill-melodic-software-claude-code-plugins-script-the-deterministic-work` - **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior - **Seller:** [melodic-software](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/melodic-software) - **Installs:** 0 - **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills) - **Latest version:** 0.1.0 - **License:** MIT - **Upstream author:** [melodic-software](https://github.com/melodic-software) - **Source:** https://github.com/melodic-software/claude-code-plugins/tree/main/plugins/discipline/skills/script-the-deterministic-work ## Install ```sh agentstack add skill-melodic-software-claude-code-plugins-script-the-deterministic-work ``` Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent. ## About # Script the deterministic work A drift corrector for the discipline of offloading deterministic sub-work to a script instead of performing it in your head. The method — re-anchor, audit the work in flight, correct forward, report, and the tone that firing this is not an accusation — lives in [`${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/context/re-anchor-audit-correct.md`](../../context/re-anchor-audit-correct.md). Read it; this file adds only what is specific to scripting deterministic work. ## The discipline this re-anchors When a sub-task is purely deterministic — its answer follows mechanically from its input with no judgement in the middle — write a script (or invoke a tool) that produces the answer, run it, read the output, and reason only **after**, over that output. Counting, diffing, sorting, transforming, matching, sweeping across files, and arithmetic are the recurring shapes. The model is a poor calculator and a worse line-counter; a hand-tallied count or an eyeballed diff carries a silent error the script would not. The boundary of *what* to script is not "anything tedious" — it is set by which enforcement tier the sub-work belongs to. ### The tier vocabulary — a standards convention owns this The source of truth for the tier distinction is the consuming organization's enforceability-tiers convention, which classifies work by who can decide it. Resolve it per the method doc's ladder — the consumer's own instruction layer first, then that standards convention, then the portable baseline below — and re-anchor the distinction rather than restating the doc's criteria: - **Deterministic** — the answer is pass/fail, exact, or countable with no judgement. **Script it, run it, reason over the output.** This is the core of the discipline. - **Detect-then-judge** — a mechanical pass narrows the candidates, but the verdict needs meaning or context. **Script only the detect half**; the judgement stays with the model. A script's flag is a candidate, never the ruling. - **Reasoning-only** — meaning, intent, fit, abstraction quality. **Never script it.** A script here manufactures false confidence — it dresses a judgement call as a computed fact. When the consuming project declares no such convention, re-anchor that same three-tier shape as the portable baseline: script the deterministic, script only the detection of the detect-then-judge, and leave the reasoning-only to reasoning. ### The in-task application — no standards doc yet (flagged gap) The enforceability-tiers convention classifies *conventions* by tier and routes a *recurring* finding to the mechanism its tier permits; it does not speak to the in-task move this skill re-anchors — "this task needs a count or a diff **now**, so script it now." That application has **no dedicated standards convention** to cite. When the consuming project's standards source declares one, route through it; when it does not, treat that as a flagged gap (a candidate upstream standards addition), not license to invent a rubric here beyond the portable baseline above. ### Generation, not just analysis The discipline runs in both directions. Analysis feeds input to a script and reasons over its output; generation emits deterministic *structure* from a script or template and fills only the judgment slots by hand. A PR body, an issue body, a report, a skill skeleton, or config boilerplate is mostly fixed scaffold — the model's output belongs in the slots that need judgment, not in re-typing the frame each time. Prefer a native mechanism where one exists: a repo's pull-request or issue templates, for instance, already emit the scaffold with no generation cost. Same rule as the analysis side — reserve model output for judgment; the structure is deterministic. ## Audit — what to look for Name concrete, located findings (per the method doc's step 2): - a count, total, or tally produced by reading and adding in prose rather than by a command whose output was read back; - two files, lists, or versions compared by eye where a diff or a set operation would be exact; - a sort, dedupe, filter, or reformat performed inline in the answer instead of by a tool, so the result cannot be reproduced or trusted; - a sweep — "every file that matches", "all call sites of X" — asserted from memory of what was read rather than from a search that enumerated them; - arithmetic or a mechanical transform worked through by hand mid-answer; - a deterministic scaffold — a PR body, an issue, a report, config boilerplate — hand-typed frame and all, where a script or a native template would emit the structure and leave only the judgment slots to fill; - **the reverse over-reach** — an existing script or tool that *decides a judgement call*: a detect-then-judge script's flag consumed as the verdict, or reasoning-only work (meaning, intent, fit, abstraction quality) handed to a script — so a judgement is dressed as a computed fact. This is the same boundary crossed in the other direction; the audit hunts both ways, not just hand-work that should have been scripted. Correct each forward now: write and run the script or tool, read its real output, and re-derive the conclusion from that output — do not keep the hand-computed figure alongside it. Where the sub-work is detect-then-judge, script the detection and keep the verdict; where it is reasoning-only, leave it un-scripted and say why. Where an **existing** script already over-reaches into judgement, correct in the other direction — **de-script it**: demote a detect-then-judge flag back to a candidate the model rules on, and return reasoning-only work to reasoning rather than letting the script's output stand as the answer. ## Distinct from standing automation The enforceability-tiers convention's own routing sends a **recurring** deterministic finding to a **standing** mechanism — a linter, analyzer, or commit hook that fires on every change. That is the territory of an automation-gaps capability (`/claude-config:audit-automation-gaps` when that plugin is installed; prose guidance otherwise): institutionalize the check so it never reaches review again. This skill owns the complementary case: the **one-off, session-time** need. The current task needs a count, a diff, or a transform right now; the answer is to make a script *now* — often throwaway — feed it the input, and reason over its output. Recurring → a standing hook; one-off in flight → script it this turn. ## What this skill does NOT do - **Does not script a judgement call.** Scripting reasoning-only work, or treating a detect-then-judge script's flag as the verdict, is over-application — it converts a judgement into a false computed fact. The tiers set the boundary; honour it in both directions. - **Does not demand a permanent tool for a one-off.** A short throwaway script that runs and returns real output satisfies the discipline; building standing automation is the other capability's job. - **Does not fabricate a finding.** Work whose deterministic parts were already scripted audits clean; say so rather than inventing hand-work to correct. ## Gotchas - "Reason after over results" here means *where the computation happens* — let the tool compute, then reason over what it returned. It is a different sense of "reason" from `/discipline:reason-dont-recite`, which is about interrogating inherited content. Same word, unrelated axis. - The subtle miss is the detect-then-judge trap: a script that flags candidates is doing the deterministic half correctly, but its output is a shortlist for judgement, not the answer. Reading the flag as the ruling re-hides the judgement the tier split exists to protect. - A script that was never actually run is worse than hand-work: it looks rigorous while its output is imagined. The discipline is script **and run** — reason over real output, not over what the script would presumably print. ## Source & license This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code. - **Author:** [melodic-software](https://github.com/melodic-software) - **Source:** [melodic-software/claude-code-plugins](https://github.com/melodic-software/claude-code-plugins) - **License:** MIT Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above. ## Pricing - **Free** — Free ## Security capabilities Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access: - **Network access:** no - **Filesystem access:** no - **Shell / process execution:** no - **Environment & secrets:** no - **Dynamic code execution:** no *"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.* ## Versions - **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source. ## Links - Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-melodic-software-claude-code-plugins-script-the-deterministic-work - Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/melodic-software - Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse --- Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.