cot — step-by-step, and only where the tier does not already do it

name: cot
mode: prefix
passes: 1
cost: ~1x
applies_to: light-tier
prompt_prefix: |
  Work through the task step by step before answering. The report carries the load-bearing
  steps, not the transcript.

A light-tier lever, a reasoning-tier waste. Reasoning models chain their own thought; prefixing them with "think step by step" buys tokens and nothing else — so the applicability lives here as data (applies_to: light-tier) rather than as advice, and the selector reads it: on a reasoning tier this strategy is never auto-applied, and an explicit setting that names it there is honoured but noted on the run as paid noise the owner chose.