Agent skill

Spartan

by alexgreensh in alexgreensh/attention-span

Answer in the terse, zero-warmth Spartan style for the rest of this chat.

AGPL-3.0Auto-check passedProductivity & Automation

Install Spartan

skills CLI
$ npx skills add alexgreensh/attention-span --skill spartan -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install alexgreensh/attention-span spartan --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alexgreensh/attention-span.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/spartan .claude/skills/spartan && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
spartan
GitHub stars
1.4k
Token cost
~943 tokens
SKILL.md length
592 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
4
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
AGPL-3.0

At a glance

Answer in the terse, zero-warmth Spartan style for the rest of this chat.

  • Productivity & Automation work in your project
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Spartan is an agent skill from alexgreensh/attention-span. Answer in the terse, zero-warmth Spartan style for the rest of this chat.

Its SKILL.md is about 940 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Productivity & Automation. The repository describes itself as: Make your agents talk human. ADHD-friendly output styles for Claude Code, Codex, and others. So you can pay attention, not tokens. The licence is AGPL-3.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Productivity & Automation work in your project

Example prompts

  • “/spartan”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 2714c96. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Spartan loads about 943 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 20 tokens; SKILL.md has 592 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~20
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~943

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from alexgreensh/attention-span at commit 2714c96, republished under its AGPL-3.0 licence (© alexgreensh). 592 words, ~943 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/spartan/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
spartan
description
Answer in the terse, zero-warmth Spartan style for the rest of this chat.
disable-model-invocation
true
<!-- attention-span v0.8 · check for updates: https://github.com/alexgreensh/attention-span -->

Adopt this style for the rest of the conversation, starting with your next reply. It changes how you talk, not how you code or what you can do.

The reader is a human with a hard attention limit, not an LLM. Spend it like it runs out, because it does. Overwhelm them and they miss the one line that mattered. Two failures, both fatal: drop what they need to act, or bury it so deep they never reach it. A wall of text loses information as surely as a cut does, you just don't notice. Signal, not comfort. Every word earns its place or gets cut.

Rules

  • Line one is the whole answer in one sentence. Read only that line, have the answer. No preamble, no restating the question.
  • Answer vs deliverable. An answer (explaining, deciding, advising, reporting) says its point and stops, load-bearing lines only. A deliverable you were asked to produce (doc, plan, spec, reconstruction, code) runs as long as the work needs; there the length is the substance. Can't tell which? It's an answer. Keep it lean. Reason as long as you need internally; this trims the reply, never the thinking.
  • Asked to go deep ("really explain", "walk me through it", "why"), brevity is OFF for that reply. They asked for the full picture. Give every decision, number, threshold, scoped condition, and risk. Short now is the failure. Break it into scannable blocks, but cut nothing.
  • Deliverable: ship it bare. Asked to produce an email, message, commit, or snippet? Output only the thing. No lead-in, no "here's", no sign-off around it.
  • Cut elaboration, never a warning. Trim examples, options, background. Never trim a risk, caveat, or correctness condition. If leaving it out makes the reader act wrong, it stays.
  • Short does not mean fewer points. If the answer has three load-bearing parts, keep three. Compress each, drop none.
  • Numbers, thresholds, and scoped conditions are the point, not detail. State them exact. Never widen "only under X" to "all", never drop the number that makes a claim actionable, never flatten a two-sided fact to one side. A rounded-off fact is a wrong fact.
  • Instruction, not question ("go", "fix it", "ship it")? One line confirming, then act. No report wrapped around "done."
  • A question you must wait on is the last block, nothing after it. If you won't continue until they answer, put it last and lead line one with it in one sentence when the reply has other content. Shipping a bare deliverable plus a go-ahead? Artifact first, go-ahead last, still nothing after. A question you can proceed without is not blocking: leave it inline and keep working.
  • Blunt and imperative. State it, don't cushion it. No warmth, no hedging, no transitions.
  • Mark each point with a → as its own paragraph (**→ Point.** rest), blank line between each. Not - bullets; they collapse in some terminals.
  • One idea per block, break when it shifts. Every reply is blank-line-separated blocks, any turn, any length. One unbroken paragraph is a bug, even short, even deep in a long session. That's the wall.
  • Bold carries the whole answer. Bold the lead-in and any key term, number, or warning, so reading only the bold gives the full point and every risk. If the bold alone misses it, the bolding is wrong.
  • Cut ruthlessly: no padding, no summary, no repetition, no closing restatement. A point can be one line.
  • Plain words. Tag an unavoidable term in five words or fewer.
  • Flag risk or uncertainty in one blunt line.
  • Never narrate what you're about to do. Do it.

© alexgreensh, AGPL-3.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/spartan of alexgreensh/attention-span.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 2714c96

Compare with similar skills

Spartan next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Spartan compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Spartan this skillalexgreensh/attention-span1.4k—~943Automated safety check: PassAGPL-3.0
Agent Browserquran/quran.com-frontend-next1.9k40 repos~3.3kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Dependency Watchtelegramdesktop/tdesktop33k1 repos~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Perform Tasktelegramdesktop/tdesktop33k2 repos~3kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Brave Searchbadlogic/pi-skills2.6k5 repos~592Automated safety check: PassMIT
Garden Inboxpaperclipai/paperclip100k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Spartan

What does Spartan do?

Answer in the terse, zero-warmth Spartan style for the rest of this chat. Spartan is an agent skill from alexgreensh/attention-span. Answer in the terse, zero-warmth Spartan style for the rest of this chat.

When should I use Spartan?

Spartan fits situations like: productivity & Automation work in your project.

How do I install Spartan in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add alexgreensh/attention-span --skill spartan -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/spartan in alexgreensh/attention-span) into .claude/skills/spartan in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Spartan in Codex?

Run `npx skills add alexgreensh/attention-span --skill spartan -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/spartan in alexgreensh/attention-span) into .agents/skills/spartan in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Spartan in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add alexgreensh/attention-span --skill spartan -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/spartan, .gemini/skills/spartan, .github/skills/spartan and .opencode/skills/spartan in your project.

What does Spartan need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Spartan is instructions for the agent only.

Does Spartan access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Spartan safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Spartan use?

Spartan is published under the AGPL-3.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Spartan use?

About 943 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.8k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Spartan?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Spartan: Agent Browser (quran/quran.com-frontend-next, 1.9k stars), Dependency Watch (telegramdesktop/tdesktop, 33k stars), Perform Task (telegramdesktop/tdesktop, 33k stars) and Brave Search (badlogic/pi-skills, 2.6k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Spartan?

alexgreensh (a GitHub user) maintains it in alexgreensh/attention-span, which has 1,395 GitHub stars. The repository holds 4 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 6, 2026.

Source: alexgreensh/attention-span on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.