Type System Discipline Agent Skill

Apply when designing types, reviewing a function signature, or writing code in any statically-typed language.

Context cost
950 tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 3.8 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
GPL-3.0the author’s own terms
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Apply when designing types, reviewing a function signature, or writing code in any statically-typed language. Make illegal states unrepresentable, brand semantic primitives, parse external data at boundaries, refuse to lie to the compiler, exhaust variants, derive from authoritative schemas.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

developer toolswriting

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md3.8 kB · preview
--- name: principle-type-system-discipline user-invocable: false ---
7# Type System Discipline
8
9The type checker is a proof assistant. Use it to eliminate impossible states, mismatched primitives, and unhandled variants at compile time. Anything you let through as runtime data becomes a runtime failure the compiler could have stopped.
10
11Applies to any typed language. Skills like typescript-best-practices ground it in specific syntax.
12
13**The patterns:**
14
15- **Make illegal states unrepresentable.** Model variants as sum types: discriminated unions in TypeScript, enums with payloads in Rust/Swift/Kotlin, sealed classes in Scala, ADTs in Haskell/OCaml. Don't model state as a bag of optional fields where contradictory combinations compile. A subtle anti-pattern worth naming: { completed: boolean; completedAt?: Date } admits completed: true; completedAt: undefined, which is meaningless. Derive the boolean from a single source like completedAt !== null, or model the variants explicitly as { kind: 'open' } | { kind: 'done'; at: Date }. If a bug forces the question "wait, can this combination actually happen?", the type is too loose.
16- **Brand semantic primitives.** UserId and OrderId are strings underneath but should not be interchangeable. Newtypes in Rust, opaque types in Swift, value classes in Kotlin, phantom types in Haskell, branded intersections in TypeScript. Validate once at creation, trust the type downstream.
17- **External data is untyped until parsed.** RPC payloads, JSON, IPC messages, CLI args, config files, environment variables, database rows. Have a parse function at every boundary that turns unstructured input into the typed model. See the **boundary-discipline** principle skill for where to put validation.
18- **Don't lie to the type system.** Casts, unsafe coercions, and assertion functions that bypass the compiler are runtime crashes waiting to happen. If the compiler can't prove a fact, prove it (validate, narrow, refine the model) or accept that the cast is a hazard. The cast you bury today is the postmortem you write next week.
19- **Exhaustive matching is the compiler's job.** When you match on a sum type, the compiler must fail compilation if a new variant is added without handling. Use the idiom your language provides: never-typed binding in TypeScript, unannotated match in Rust, -Wincomplete-patterns in Haskell, sealed-class match exhaustiveness in Kotlin.
20- **Derive types from authoritative schemas.** When a protocol buffer, OpenAPI spec, GraphQL schema, database migration, or design-system token file defines a shape, derive from it instead of hand-rolling a parallel type. Manual duplication drifts. See the **encode-lessons-in-structure** principle skill.
21- **Prefer compile-time over runtime.** Every runtime assertion, null check, and instanceof is admitting the type system isn't carrying its weight. Push the check up to the type.
22
23**The tests:**
24
25- "Can I write a comment explaining when this combination of fields is valid?" If yes, the type is too loose. Split it into a sum type.
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md571 words
Files1
LicenceGPL-3.0
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈90
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
860
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
0.47%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 5% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

950 tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Small enough to keep loaded permanently without thinking about it.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 3.8 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md3.8 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing. The GPL-3.0 licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Type System Discipline · 950 tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/type-system-discipline/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/type-system-discipline" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/type-system-discipline ] || { mv .claude/skills/type-system-discipline "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/type-system-discipline" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/type-system-discipline"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add geiserx/type-system-discipline

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/type-system-discipline/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/type-system-discipline/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/type-system-discipline" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/type-system-discipline ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/type-system-discipline "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/type-system-discipline" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/type-system-discipline" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/type-system-discipline/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where. It appears as principle-type-system-discipline in Gemini CLI, Codex, Copilot and Grok (its own name); Claude Code lists it by the folder name, type-system-discipline.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencegeiserx/type-system-discipline

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

Reviews

—no reviews yet

Nobody has reviewed this skill yet. The rating is the mean of the reviews written here, so there is none until somebody writes the first.

Sign in to review it

A review is tied to an account so it can be answered, edited and taken down by the person who wrote it.

Sign in
Who can post

Anybody with an account, one review each. It carries the version that was current when you wrote it, and the publisher may reply once.

Publisher
Servers9
Claim this skill