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Agent skill

Stay Within Limits

by BuilderIO in BuilderIO/skills

A skill your agent uses when long-running or parallel agent work must respect 5-hour and weekly usage limits by checking usage between waves, pausing near the cap, and resuming only when the window…

MITAuto-check passedAgent Workflows

Install Stay Within Limits

skills CLI
$ npx skills add BuilderIO/skills --skill stay-within-limits -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install BuilderIO/skills stay-within-limits --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/BuilderIO/skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/stay-within-limits .claude/skills/stay-within-limits && 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
stay-within-limits
GitHub stars
4.5k
Token cost
~857 tokens
SKILL.md length
482 words
Files
2
Skills in repo
25
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when long-running or parallel agent work must respect 5-hour and weekly usage limits by checking usage between waves, pausing near the cap, and resuming only when the window…

  • Works in 5 steps: Run a bounded wave of work. Default to… → Wait for the wave to finish. Do not… → Check current 5-hour and weekly usage… → …
  • Parallel agent work must respect 5-hour and weekly usage limits by checking usage between waves
  • SKILL.md covers Core Loop, Usage Signals, Pausing And Resuming and Choosing The Wait Mechanism, plus 1 more section
  • Calls npx

What it does

Stay Within Limits is an agent skill from BuilderIO/skills. Use when long-running or parallel agent work must respect 5-hour and weekly usage limits by checking usage between waves, pausing near the cap, and resuming only when the window is clear.

Its SKILL.md is about 860 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 1 other file (for example `README.md`).

It sits in Agent Workflows, covering Subagents. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Parallel agent work must respect 5-hour and weekly usage limits by checking usage between waves
  • Pausing near the cap
  • Resuming only when the window is clear

Example prompts

  • “/stay-within-limits”

Requirements

  • Node.js

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Run a bounded wave of work. Default to at most 3 parallel subagents unless
  2. Wait for the wave to finish. Do not interrupt in-flight subagents just to
  3. Check current 5-hour and weekly usage with the host's usage/budget tool.
  4. If either window is at or above 95%, stop launching work and schedule a
  5. On resume, re-check the real window or block before continuing. Do not trust

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit da158ca. 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

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • npx

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use npx, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    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

Stay Within Limits loads about 857 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 52 tokens; SKILL.md has 482 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~52
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~857

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 BuilderIO/skills at commit da158ca, republished under its MIT licence (© BuilderIO). 482 words, ~857 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/stay-within-limits/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
stay-within-limits
description
Use when long-running or parallel agent work must respect 5-hour and weekly usage limits by checking usage between waves, pausing near the cap, and resuming only when the window is clear.

Stay Within Limits

Keep long-running agent work inside the current 5-hour and weekly usage windows. Check usage before launching substantial work and between waves of parallel subagents. If an active 5-hour or weekly limit is at or above 95%, pause new work until the window is clear enough to continue safely.

Core Loop

  1. Run a bounded wave of work. Default to at most 3 parallel subagents unless the user or host gives a different throttle.
  2. Wait for the wave to finish. Do not interrupt in-flight subagents just to save budget; that usually loses work.
  3. Check current 5-hour and weekly usage with the host's usage/budget tool.
  4. If either window is at or above 95%, stop launching work and schedule a self-contained resume when the relevant window should clear.
  5. On resume, re-check the real window or block before continuing. Do not trust elapsed wall-clock time alone.

Usage Signals

Prefer a first-party host usage tool when available. In Claude Code, use:

sh
npx -y ccusage@latest blocks --active --json

Use the JSON to identify the active block start, current cost or percentage, and time remaining. On wake, compare the active block start timestamp with the previous one; a new timestamp is stronger evidence than "enough time passed."

If the tool reports cost instead of a direct percentage, convert through the current account limit when known. For Claude Max-style 5-hour blocks, some users prefer an earlier caution threshold around $500-550; treat that as a user-configured guardrail, not a universal rule. The default stop rule is still 95% of the active 5-hour or weekly limit.

Show full SKILL.md (225 more words)Show less

Pausing And Resuming

When a wake/resume tool is available, schedule a wakeup for:

txt
min(3600, secondsUntilWindowClears)

If the runtime clamps wake delays to 60-3600 seconds, chain wakeups for longer waits. Each wakeup should re-check usage, reschedule if still over budget, and continue only when the window is safely below the threshold.

Make wake prompts self-contained. Include:

  • The remaining plan.
  • The check-then-reschedule rule.
  • The 95% threshold and wave throttle.
  • The exact usage command or host usage tool to run.
  • The previous block/window identifier when available.
  • The next verification steps.
  • The next wave's handoff packets, including scope, verification commands, and stop conditions, if delegation will resume.

Choosing The Wait Mechanism

  • Use a wake/resume tool when the agent needs instructions attached to the future resume.
  • Use a background sleep or watcher for fixed timers and things a process can observe directly.
  • Use cron or recurring schedules only for recurring fresh-session work.

Avoid short-interval polling for things the host will notify you about, such as background task or subagent completion. For budget pauses, a prompt-cache miss after a long sleep is acceptable; preserving the limit matters more.

Reporting

If you pause, tell the user which window is over threshold, the observed usage, when you scheduled or expect the next check, and what work remains. Keep enough state in the wake prompt that the next turn can resume without relying on conversation momentum.

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

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file in skills/stay-within-limits of BuilderIO/skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • README.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit da158ca

Compare with similar skills

Stay Within Limits 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.

Stay Within Limits compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Stay Within Limits this skillBuilderIO/skills4.5k—~857Automated safety check: PassMIT
Claude Code Agent Developmentanthropics/claude-plugins-official38k8 repos~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Subagent Driven DevelopmentAsvarox/allkaraoke26138 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Dispatching Parallel Agentsultralisp/ultralisp25841 repos~1.5kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Paseo Advisor Second Opiniongetpaseo/paseo20k1 repos~756Automated safety check: PassCustom licence
Task Observerrebelytics/one-skill-to-rule-them-all3.2k1 repos~12kAutomated safety check: PassCC-BY-4.0

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Categories

Questions about Stay Within Limits

What does Stay Within Limits do?

A skill your agent uses when long-running or parallel agent work must respect 5-hour and weekly usage limits by checking usage between waves, pausing near the cap, and resuming only when the window…. Stay Within Limits is an agent skill from BuilderIO/skills. Use when long-running or parallel agent work must respect 5-hour and weekly usage limits by checking usage between waves, pausing near the cap, and resuming only when the window is clear.

When should I use Stay Within Limits?

Stay Within Limits fits situations like: parallel agent work must respect 5-hour and weekly usage limits by checking usage between waves; pausing near the cap; resuming only when the window is clear.

How do I install Stay Within Limits in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add BuilderIO/skills --skill stay-within-limits -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/stay-within-limits in BuilderIO/skills) into .claude/skills/stay-within-limits in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Stay Within Limits in Codex?

Run `npx skills add BuilderIO/skills --skill stay-within-limits -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/stay-within-limits in BuilderIO/skills) into .agents/skills/stay-within-limits in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Stay Within Limits 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 BuilderIO/skills --skill stay-within-limits -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/stay-within-limits, .gemini/skills/stay-within-limits, .github/skills/stay-within-limits and .opencode/skills/stay-within-limits in your project.

What does Stay Within Limits need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Stay Within Limits needs the command-line tools its instructions call (npx). Our summary lists: Node.js.

Does Stay Within Limits access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use npx, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Stay Within Limits 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 Stay Within Limits use?

Stay Within Limits is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Stay Within Limits use?

About 857 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.4k 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 Stay Within Limits?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Stay Within Limits: Claude Code Agent Development (anthropics/claude-plugins-official, 38k stars), Subagent Driven Development (Asvarox/allkaraoke, 261 stars), Dispatching Parallel Agents (ultralisp/ultralisp, 258 stars) and Paseo Advisor Second Opinion (getpaseo/paseo, 20k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Stay Within Limits?

BuilderIO (a GitHub organization) maintains it in BuilderIO/skills, which has 4,541 GitHub stars. The repository holds 25 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 7, 2026.

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