principle-redesign-from-first-principles
An agent skill by cursor, from cursor/plugins. Tags: analysis, architecture, design, product-strategy, strategy.
What it does
Apply when integrating a new requirement into an existing design. Redesign as if the requirement had been a foundational assumption from day one, instead of bolting it on.
Install
With the skills CLI, which installs into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents:
npx skills add cursor/plugins --skill principle-redesign-from-first-principles
Or copy the skill folder into Claude Code's skills directory by hand (~/.claude/skills for every project, or .claude/skills inside one):
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cursor/plugins
cp -r plugins/pstack/skills/principle-redesign-from-first-principles ~/.claude/skills/principle-redesign-from-first-principles
Safety box score
Grade A, minimal risk: 0 of 100 risk points, rated 2026-09-29. The grade rates what the skill and its scripts can reach on the machine of whoever installs it, across eight categories from shell execution to secrets access. How the score works.
This is a documentation-only workflow skill that tells the agent to redesign changes from first principles and propagate them through related code, docs, and examples. It ships no scripts or networked components, so the main effect is broader project edits rather than machine or account risk.
| Category | Level | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Code & shell execution | 0 (none) | No shell commands, scripts, or code evaluation are present; only markdown guidance in `SKILL.md`. |
| Network access | 0 (none) | The skill contains no download, upload, API, or remote-host instructions. |
| Filesystem reach | 0 (none) | It does not name any paths outside the project or instruct writes/deletes beyond general redesign guidance. |
| Secrets & credentials | 0 (none) | There is no mention of tokens, passwords, key stores, `.env` files, or login sessions. |
| Privilege & persistence | 0 (none) | No sudo, global install, service registration, shell startup changes, or OS-level configuration is requested. |
| Instruction hijack surface | 0 (none) | The text does not ask the agent to ignore instructions, hide content, or follow remote prompt text; `disable-model-invocation: true` is a benign metadata flag. |
| Irreversible actions | 0 (none) | It does not deploy, publish, send messages, pay, book, or otherwise take external actions; it only changes how edits are reasoned about. |
| Transparency | 0 (none) | All shipped content is plain readable markdown; there are no binaries, encoded blobs, or unpinned downloads. |
Before installing
- Read `SKILL.md` to confirm it is only process guidance and has no scripts or external dependencies.
- No special machine-safety checks are needed beyond your normal review of the files this skill will edit.
Rated 2026-09-29 by an automated review of 1 file from the skill's repository.
Source
- Repository
- cursor/plugins (all skills from this repository)
- Path
- pstack/skills/principle-redesign-from-first-principles/SKILL.md
- Branch
- main
- Collection
- cursor
- Updated
- 2026-09-23
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