pack SKILL.md skillA

pack from smol-machines/smolvm is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned
mdr add smol-machines/smolvm/pack@git:20261016.432b170

Pins git:20261016.432b170 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade
A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind
SKILL.md skill
Repository
smol-machines/smolvm
Path
docs/pack/SKILL.md
Versions recorded
2
Latest version
git:20261016.432b170, committed Oct 16, 2026
First version recorded
Oct 6, 2026
Size
21,238 bytes
Repository stars
6,776
License
Apache-2.0

Turns an image, or a machine already provisioned, into a single self-contained artifact that runs on another compatible host. Use when shipping a prepared environment as one file, when a packed artifact runs but the state installed into it is missing, when pack create fails because the VM it boots to pull or export could not start, when an older release refuses to export a branched machine, or when deciding whether to pack from an image or from a machine. Do not use it to keep a machine you…

Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.

What the file says

# Packing a machine into a portable artifact

Verified on **smolvm v1.29.0** on macOS arm64, 2026-10-15, and on **v1.14.6** on Linux aarch64,
2026-09-11; the Linux host could not run the packing steps on v1.18.2 or v1.22.2, for the reason in
"Platform arms". Done means the artifact runs a command in a real VM and, for a machine pack, **the state you installed is still
inside it**.
The Linux runs used the scripts of their date; this version's preflight and cleanup scripts ran
on Linux aarch64 on v1.22.2 on 2026-10-03.

**The assertion that matters is a value, not a boot.** A pack that lost its rootfs still boots,
still prints a guest kernel and still exits zero. The only thing that separates a good artifact
from an empty one is a marker written into the source machine before packing and read back out of
the artifact afterwards, which is what `pack-machine.sh` and `verify-pack.sh` do between them.

## Procedure

**1. Preflight.** Read-only: starts no VM, packs nothing.

```bash
scripts/preflight.sh
```

The lines to read are `exporter_memory_ok` and `image_vm_memory_ok`: both pack paths boot a helper VM before they
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint
mdr add smol-machines/smolvm/pack@sha256:63c41d8ad2697efc

The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261016.432b170, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.

Badge

mdr badge

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_22ytucibdnif3ggf.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_22ytucibdnif3ggf)

1 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.

Versions

The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Oct 6, 2026 and Oct 16, 2026, about one every 10 days.

versioncommittedcommitsizeaudit
git:20261016.432b170 latest2026-10-16 432b170 21,238 BA view · diff
git:20261006.0331a7a2026-10-06 0331a7a 20,573 BA view

Audit of the latest version

A  17 of 17 checks passed. Fixed automatic checks with no AI involved, so the same checks give the same answer every run.
  • pass: Frontmatter block present
  • pass: Frontmatter declares a name
  • pass: Frontmatter declares a description
  • pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (21238 bytes)
  • pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
  • pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
  • pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
  • pass: No credential-shaped string
  • pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
  • pass: No text hidden with inline styles
  • pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
  • pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
  • pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
  • pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
  • pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
  • pass: No link to a raw IP address
  • pass: No script tag

Source

GitHub

smol-machines/smolvm · 6,776 stars · license Apache-2.0 · pushed 2026-10-20 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_22ytucibdnif3ggf
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=smol-machines/smolvm/pack
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/63c41d8ad2697efcf3be11f158342c5559f13cbb8f128dc65152fa58b140c4c6

Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.

Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.

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