scout before new tool

The problem

Agents often install redundant CLI tools or complex dependencies when a simpler native solution or existing session already exists. This bloat increases attack surface, creates configuration conflicts, and wastes compute time on "permission theater."

What it does

• Enforces a "one-line capability check" before any new tool installation or CLI execution.
• Identifies existing working sessions and OAuth tokens to prevent redundant authentication flows.
• Selects the smallest safe path by prioritizing reuse and configuration over new installs.
• Logs concise tool-error-intent triples when a task fails to ensure the next attempt is optimized.
• Limits the agent to a single tool upgrade per run to prevent environment drift.

Why this beats prompting it yourself

Standard agents are biased toward action and will install anything to solve a prompt, often breaking environments. This skill builds a technical gate that forces the agent to prove necessity, preventing dependency hell and unnecessary API costs without requiring manual oversight for every command.

Use cases

• Preventing redundant CLI tool installs during environment setup.
• Recovering from tool failures by finding a "smallest safe path" alternative.
• Avoiding duplicate OAuth logins by reusing active working sessions.
• Maintaining a lean development environment during long-running agentic tasks.

Known limitations

Requires the agent to have visibility into the current environment and active sessions. Does not bypass hard spend gates for paid APIs or hosted browsers.