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Agent skill

Skill Cost Projections

by nyldn in nyldn/claude-octopus

Project remaining workflow cost from per-phase averages — warns on budget ceiling overruns

MITAuto-check passed

Install Skill Cost Projections

skills CLI
$ npx skills add nyldn/claude-octopus --skill skill-cost-projections -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install nyldn/claude-octopus skill-cost-projections --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/nyldn/claude-octopus.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/skill-cost-projections .claude/skills/skill-cost-projections && 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
skill-cost-projections
GitHub stars
4.2k
Used in
1 other repo
Token cost
~1.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
527 words
Files
2
Skills in repo
62
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Project remaining workflow cost from per-phase averages — warns on budget ceiling overruns

  • Works in 6 steps: Collect Completed Phase Costs → Compute Average Cost Per Step → Project Remaining Cost → …
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, Step 1: Collect Completed…, Step 2: Compute Average Cost… and Step 3: Project Remaining Cost, plus 6 more sections
  • Calls jq

What it does

Skill Cost Projections is an agent skill from nyldn/claude-octopus. Project remaining workflow cost from per-phase averages — warns on budget ceiling overruns

Its SKILL.md is about 1.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 2 other files (for example `agents/openai.yaml`).

The repository describes itself as: Run multiple AI models against the same research, design, or coding task. Surface disagreements before you ship. The licence is MIT.

Example prompts

  • “/skill-cost-projections”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Collect Completed Phase Costs
  2. Compute Average Cost Per Step
  3. Project Remaining Cost
  4. Display in HUD
  5. Budget Ceiling Warning
  6. Profile Suggestion

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit b34780d. 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:

    • jq

    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

Skill Cost Projections loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 28 tokens; SKILL.md has 527 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~28
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.7k

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 nyldn/claude-octopus at commit b34780d, republished under its MIT licence (© nyldn). 527 words, ~1,681 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/skill-cost-projections/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
skill-cost-projections
description
Project remaining workflow cost from per-phase averages — warns on budget ceiling overruns
disable-model-invocation
true

Host: Codex CLI — This skill was designed for Claude Code and adapted for Codex. Cross-reference commands use installed skill names in Codex rather than /octo:* slash commands. Use the active Codex shell and subagent tools. Do not claim a provider, model, or host subagent is available until the current session exposes it. For host tool equivalents, see skills/blocks/codex-host-adapter.md.

Cost Projections Skill

Overview

Projects remaining workflow cost based on per-phase averages from completed work. Displays cost data in the HUD/statusline and warns when projected totals exceed a configured budget ceiling.

Minimum data requirement: Needs 2+ completed steps before projecting. With fewer than 2 data points, the average is unreliable — display actual spend only and skip projection.

Step 1: Collect Completed Phase Costs

Read cost data from ~/.claude-octopus/metrics/ or from metrics-tracker.sh output. Each completed phase/step should have an associated cost entry.

bash
# Read metrics from the session metrics directory
METRICS_DIR="$HOME/.claude-octopus/metrics"
SESSION_METRICS="$METRICS_DIR/session-$(date +%Y%m%d).jsonl"

# Each line contains: {"phase": "discover", "cost": 0.42, "tokens_in": 12000, "tokens_out": 3400, "timestamp": "..."}
# Sum costs from completed steps
completed_costs=$(jq -s '[.[].cost]' "$SESSION_METRICS")
completed_count=$(jq -s 'length' "$SESSION_METRICS")
total_spent=$(jq -s '[.[].cost] | add' "$SESSION_METRICS")

Data sources (in priority order):

  1. ~/.claude-octopus/metrics/session-*.jsonl — structured per-phase cost entries
  2. metrics-tracker.sh output — fallback for legacy sessions
  3. HUD accumulated cost counters — last resort

If fewer than 2 completed steps are available, display only actual spend:

💰 Spent: 0.42 USD (1 step complete — need 2+ for projection)

Step 2: Compute Average Cost Per Step

Calculate the mean cost across all completed steps.

bash
avg_cost=$(echo "$total_spent / $completed_count" | bc -l)

Formula:

avg_cost = total_cost / completed_steps

Example: If 3 steps cost 0.30 USD, 0.50 USD, 0.40 USD → avg = 1.20 USD / 3 = 0.40 USD/step

Step 3: Project Remaining Cost

Multiply the average cost per step by the number of remaining steps.

bash
remaining_steps=$((total_steps - completed_count))
projected_remaining=$(echo "$avg_cost * $remaining_steps" | bc -l)
projected_total=$(echo "$total_spent + $projected_remaining" | bc -l)

Formula:

projected_remaining = avg_cost × remaining_steps
projected_total     = total_spent + projected_remaining

Step counts by workflow type:

WorkflowTotal StepsExample Phases
embrace4Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver
research3-7Per-agent probe count
review3Fleet, Verifier, Synthesis
debate3Opening, Rebuttal, Synthesis

Step 4: Display in HUD

Format the cost projection for the HUD/statusline display.

Standard display:

💰 Spent: 2.40 USD | Est. remaining: 3.60 USD | Total: ~6.00 USD

Format rules:

  • All dollar amounts to 2 decimal places
  • Projected total prefixed with ~ to indicate estimate
  • Use 💰 prefix for the cost line
  • Show in a single compact line for statusline integration

When insufficient data (< 2 steps):

💰 Spent: 0.42 USD (need 2+ steps for projection)

Integration: This display line is emitted by the octopus-hud hook and rendered in the statusline alongside phase progress and provider status.

Show full SKILL.md (197 more words)Show less

Step 5: Budget Ceiling Warning

If the OCTO_BUDGET_CEILING environment variable is set, compare the projected total against it and warn on overrun.

bash
if [[ -n "${OCTO_BUDGET_CEILING:-}" ]]; then
  ceiling="$OCTO_BUDGET_CEILING"
  if (( $(echo "$projected_total > $ceiling" | bc -l) )); then
    overage=$(echo "$projected_total - $ceiling" | bc -l)
    echo "⚠️ Budget ceiling: ${ceiling} USD — projected to exceed by ${overage} USD"
  fi
fi

Display when over budget:

💰 Spent: 2.40 USD | Est. remaining: 3.60 USD | Total: ~6.00 USD
⚠️ Budget ceiling: 5.00 USD — projected to exceed by 1.00 USD

Display when within budget:

💰 Spent: 2.40 USD | Est. remaining: 3.60 USD | Total: ~6.00 USD
✅ Within budget ceiling: 10.00 USD

Note: OCTO_BUDGET_CEILING is optional. When unset, no ceiling check is performed.

Step 6: Profile Suggestion

If the projected total is high relative to the task, suggest switching to the budget profile to reduce costs.

bash
# Suggest budget profile when projected total exceeds 5.00 USD (configurable)
COST_THRESHOLD="${OCTO_COST_THRESHOLD:-5.00}"
if (( $(echo "$projected_total > $COST_THRESHOLD" | bc -l) )); then
  echo "💡 Tip: Switch to OCTO_PROFILE=budget to reduce costs"
fi

Display:

💰 Spent: 2.40 USD | Est. remaining: 3.60 USD | Total: ~6.00 USD
💡 Tip: Switch to OCTO_PROFILE=budget to reduce costs

The budget profile (OCTO_PROFILE=budget) routes to cheaper models and reduces agent count to minimize spend.

Complete Display Examples

Normal — within budget, moderate cost:

💰 Spent: 2.40 USD | Est. remaining: 3.60 USD | Total: ~6.00 USD

Over budget ceiling:

💰 Spent: 2.40 USD | Est. remaining: 3.60 USD | Total: ~6.00 USD
⚠️ Budget ceiling: 5.00 USD — projected to exceed by 1.00 USD
💡 Tip: Switch to OCTO_PROFILE=budget to reduce costs

Early in workflow (insufficient data):

💰 Spent: 0.42 USD (need 2+ steps for projection)

Low cost — no warnings:

💰 Spent: 0.80 USD | Est. remaining: 0.80 USD | Total: ~1.60 USD

Integration

With octopus-hud hook

The cost projection line is rendered as part of the HUD statusline output, updated after each phase completes.

With metrics-tracker.sh

Reads per-phase cost data written by the metrics tracker. Each completed phase logs cost, token counts, and provider details.

With OCTO_PROFILE

When OCTO_PROFILE=budget is active, the projection accounts for reduced per-step costs from cheaper model routing.

Error Handling

No metrics directory:

💰 Cost projection unavailable — no metrics data found

Corrupted metrics data: Skip malformed entries and project from valid data only. If no valid entries remain, show unavailable message.

Zero remaining steps: When all steps are complete, show final total only:

💰 Final cost: 4.80 USD (4 steps)

© nyldn, 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/skill-cost-projections of nyldn/claude-octopus.

  • SKILL.md
  • agents/openai.yaml

Open the folder on GitHubat commit b34780d

Used in 1 other repository

We found 2 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in nyldn/claude-octopus, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Skill Cost Projections 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.

Skill Cost Projections compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Skill Cost Projections this skillnyldn/claude-octopus4.2k1 repos~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Cost Projectionruvnet/ruflo74k—~702Automated safety check: NotesMIT
Cost Trackingaffaan-m/ECC276k1 repos~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Cost Conversationruvnet/ruflo74k—~407Automated safety check: NotesMIT
Cost Healthruvnet/ruflo74k—~901Automated safety check: NotesMIT
Cost Reportruvnet/ruflo74k—~830Automated safety check: NotesMIT

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    Composite CI gate — runs cost-budget-check + cost-burn + cost-anomaly + cost-projection in parallel and surfaces a single combined health status with max exit code.

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Questions about Skill Cost Projections

What does Skill Cost Projections do?

Project remaining workflow cost from per-phase averages — warns on budget ceiling overruns. Skill Cost Projections is an agent skill from nyldn/claude-octopus.

How do I install Skill Cost Projections in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add nyldn/claude-octopus --skill skill-cost-projections -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/skill-cost-projections in nyldn/claude-octopus) into .claude/skills/skill-cost-projections in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Skill Cost Projections in Codex?

Run `npx skills add nyldn/claude-octopus --skill skill-cost-projections -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/skill-cost-projections in nyldn/claude-octopus) into .agents/skills/skill-cost-projections in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Skill Cost Projections 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 nyldn/claude-octopus --skill skill-cost-projections -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/skill-cost-projections, .gemini/skills/skill-cost-projections, .github/skills/skill-cost-projections and .opencode/skills/skill-cost-projections in your project.

What does Skill Cost Projections need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Skill Cost Projections needs the command-line tools its instructions call (jq).

Does Skill Cost Projections 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 Skill Cost Projections 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 Skill Cost Projections use?

Skill Cost Projections 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 Skill Cost Projections use?

About 1.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.7k 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 Skill Cost Projections?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Skill Cost Projections: Cost Projection (ruvnet/ruflo, 74k stars), Cost Tracking (affaan-m/ECC, 276k stars), Cost Conversation (ruvnet/ruflo, 74k stars) and Cost Health (ruvnet/ruflo, 74k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Skill Cost Projections?

nyldn (a GitHub user) maintains it in nyldn/claude-octopus, which has 4,198 GitHub stars. The repository holds 62 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

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