attic-fail skillA
attic-fail is agent-read markdown (skill) from nishikantaray/attic: Record an approach that was tried and did not work, so nobody repeats it. Use when the user says "that didn't work", "this approach failed", "record this failure", "don't try this again", "note what we ruled out", or when an attempt in this session was abandoned for a reason worth keeping. Also use for a temporary workaround that should not be mistaken for a real fix..
Indexed from public GitHub and served as immutable, content-addressed versions. Install it pinned to an exact SHA-256 with the mdr CLI, and every file is verified against the hash recorded here before it reaches your agent. The deterministic audit below grades the latest version, and the same file always earns the same grade.
What the file says
# Record a failed approach
Argument: `$ARGUMENTS` (a title, or empty to use the last failed attempt).
A failed approach is worth more than it looks. The next session will consider
the same idea for the same reasons, and the record of why it did not work is
what stops the second attempt from costing what the first one did.
## What to capture
Four things, in this order. The third is the one that matters — an approach
recorded without its reason just reads as defeatism and gets re-tried anyway.
1. **What was tried** — concretely enough to recognise the idea again.
2. **What happened** — the actual failure, error text copied verbatim.
3. **Why it failed** — the underlying reason, not the symptom.
4. **What to do instead**, if known.
## Recording it
```bash
node "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../attic/scripts/attic.js" stash \
--slug <slug> --kind finding --type failed-approach \
--title "<what was tried>" \
--hook "<the approach, and the one-line reason it failed>" \
--files "<files that show why>" \
[--commands "<command that demonstrated the failure>"] \
[--confidence verified] \
--body-file <tmpfile>
```
`--type failed-approach` is what keeps it out of the way of active
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add nishikantaray/attic/attic-fail@v1.6.1mdr add nishikantaray/attic/attic-fail@sha256:38bdd8839c0b9691Pin to a label to follow the author's releases, or to a sha256 to freeze the exact bytes forever. Either way the resolved hash is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install reproduces it on any machine.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_3lipixgiv5wu3myz)
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Versions
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.6.1 latest | 2026-09-23 | ec26888 | 2,755 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.6.0 | 2026-09-18 | e3fa82c | 2,755 B | A | view |
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (2755 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
nishikantaray/attic · 5 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-09-23 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_3lipixgiv5wu3myz GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=nishikantaray/attic/attic-fail GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/38bdd8839c0b96910965e898673bb6dd5f5be38220a4bf22259a9a7ce2863b79
Your agent 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.
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