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Official agent skill

Principle Laziness Protocol

by cursor in cursor/plugins

Apply when refactoring, evaluating diff size, or tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading.

OfficialNo licenceAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Principle Laziness Protocol

skills CLI
$ npx skills add cursor/plugins --skill principle-laziness-protocol -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install cursor/plugins principle-laziness-protocol --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/cursor/plugins.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/pstack/skills/principle-laziness-protocol .claude/skills/principle-laziness-protocol && 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
principle-laziness-protocol
GitHub stars
10k
Used in
9 other repos
Token cost
~343 tokens
SKILL.md length
173 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
99
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
None found

At a glance

Apply when refactoring, evaluating diff size, or tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading.

  • Tasks that involve Refactoring
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Principle Laziness Protocol is an agent skill from cursor/plugins, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Apply when refactoring, evaluating diff size, or tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading. Bias toward deletion and the smallest change that solves the problem.

Its SKILL.md is about 340 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 Development, covering Refactoring. The repository describes itself as: Cursor plugin specification and official plugins.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Refactoring

Example prompts

  • “/principle-laziness-protocol”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit ccb5507. 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

Principle Laziness Protocol loads about 343 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 51 tokens; SKILL.md has 173 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~51
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~343

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

Without a licence we can't republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 173 words (~343 tokens).

“Aim for the most result with the least code and complexity.”

— opening of SKILL.md by cursor
name
principle-laziness-protocol
disable-model-invocation
true

Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub

Files

Just SKILL.md in pstack/skills/principle-laziness-protocol of cursor/plugins.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit ccb5507

Used in 9 other repositories

We found 9 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 9 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in cursor/plugins, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Principle Laziness Protocol 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.

Principle Laziness Protocol compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Principle Laziness Protocol this skillcursor/plugins10k9 repos~343Automated safety check: PassNone
Guidelinesakash-network/node1.1k22 repos~577Automated safety check: PassMIT
Component Refactoringlangflow-ai/langflow156k—~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Migrate Core Code to Submodulestinyhumansai/openhuman42k—~2.6kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Systematic Code Refactoringluongnv89/claude-howto42k—~3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Codexskills-directory/skill-codex1.5k3 repos~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Principle Laziness Protocol

What does Principle Laziness Protocol do?

Apply when refactoring, evaluating diff size, or tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading. Principle Laziness Protocol is an agent skill from cursor/plugins, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Apply when refactoring, evaluating diff size, or tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading.

When should I use Principle Laziness Protocol?

Principle Laziness Protocol fits situations like: tasks that involve Refactoring.

How do I install Principle Laziness Protocol in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add cursor/plugins --skill principle-laziness-protocol -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (pstack/skills/principle-laziness-protocol in cursor/plugins) into .claude/skills/principle-laziness-protocol in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Principle Laziness Protocol in Codex?

Run `npx skills add cursor/plugins --skill principle-laziness-protocol -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (pstack/skills/principle-laziness-protocol in cursor/plugins) into .agents/skills/principle-laziness-protocol in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Principle Laziness Protocol 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 cursor/plugins --skill principle-laziness-protocol -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/principle-laziness-protocol, .gemini/skills/principle-laziness-protocol, .github/skills/principle-laziness-protocol and .opencode/skills/principle-laziness-protocol in your project.

What does Principle Laziness Protocol need to run?

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

Does Principle Laziness Protocol 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 Principle Laziness Protocol 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 Principle Laziness Protocol use?

No licence was found for Principle Laziness Protocol or its repository. Without one, default copyright applies: ask the author before reusing or redistributing it.

How many tokens does Principle Laziness Protocol use?

About 343 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 1.4k 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 Principle Laziness Protocol?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Principle Laziness Protocol: Guidelines (akash-network/node, 1.1k stars), Component Refactoring (langflow-ai/langflow, 156k stars), Migrate Core Code to Submodules (tinyhumansai/openhuman, 42k stars) and Systematic Code Refactoring (luongnv89/claude-howto, 42k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Principle Laziness Protocol?

cursor (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in cursor/plugins, which has 10,278 GitHub stars. The repository holds 99 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 8, 2026.

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