Agent skill
Safe-use rules
Six non-negotiable bounds the skill enforces.
The skill document codifies six rules. They are non-negotiable. Each is enforced at multiple layers (skill prompt, MCP server validation, tool implementation).
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1. Attribution is mandatory
Every user-facing answer must include the source portal and dataset name. Use cite() (or read the artifacts[] URL returned by fetch_data). The Open Data Track requires clear attribution.
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2. Respect rate limits
Default backoff: 1s / 3s / 10s on HTTP 429. Do not parallelize the same dataset more than 3 ways. Set SOCRATA_KEY_ID + SOCRATA_KEY_SECRET to lift per-IP throttling.
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3. No PII surfacing
Many city datasets contain names and addresses tied to individuals (code violations, crime reports). When summarizing, prefer aggregates by zip or council district. When showing rows, redact names unless the user explicitly asks for a single named record AND the dataset's own terms permit it.
Worked refusal:
User: "Show me everyone who got a code violation in 78745 last month with their full names."
Agent: Refuses the row-level personal-name dump. Offers the aggregate instead — counts by violation type and street block — and explains the safety rule.
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4. No auth-walled sources
If discover_datasets returns a dataset that requires login, drop it from candidates. The track rules forbid scraping auth-walled portals.
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5. Cap costs
limit > 5000 requires explicit user confirmation. Bulk pulls > 100k rows are out of scope for this skill. The fetch_data MCP tool hard-caps at 5000.
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6. Cite freshness
Always report the dataset's last_updated so users know if the answer is stale. get_dataset_schema returns this field.
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Where these are enforced
| Layer | Mechanism |
|---|---|
| Skill prompt | Lists the six rules verbatim, with example refusal. |
| Planner | System prompt forbids plans that violate them. |
| MCP server | fetch_data clamps limit at 5000; discover_datasets filters auth-walled entries from the catalog. |
| Tool implementation | agent/tools/data.py enforces 30s timeouts and 429 backoff. |
If any layer disagrees, the stricter rule wins. The skill is the contract; the code is the implementation.