principle-the-algorithm SKILL.md skillA
principle-the-algorithm from cursor/plugins is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add cursor/plugins/principle-the-algorithm@git:20260930.fae2c6ePins git:20260930.fae2c6e in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- cursor/plugins
- Path
dyl-stack/skills/principle-the-algorithm/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260930.fae2c6e, committed Sep 30, 2026
- Size
- 2,403 bytes
- Repository stars
- 15,586
- License
- none declared
Apply to any non-trivial change before designing it. Make the requirement less dumb, delete, optimize, accelerate, automate, in that order, then run it again on the result. The reply names the requirement you questioned and what you deleted.
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
# The Algorithm Five steps, in order, for any change bigger than an edit you can see at a glance. The order is the principle. Each step is cheap only after the one before it, and the common failure is doing a late step on something an early step would have removed. Adapted from Elon Musk's five-step engineering process. 1. **Make the requirements less dumb.** Assume the requirement is wrong and make it less wrong. It comes from a person, not a department. "The ticket", "the linter", "the reviewer", or "the old code did it" is a source, not a reason; find the person and their reasoning. If you do not agree with the reasoning, do not accept the requirement, however smart the person who gave it, the human included. No is a valid outcome. 2. **Delete the part or process step.** Try hardest to delete the part, flag, layer, retry, or step entirely before touching step 3. Optimizing something that should not exist is the biggest mistake smart people make. If you never add anything back, you did not delete enough. Leaf: pstack `principle-subtract-before-you-add`. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add cursor/plugins/principle-the-algorithm@sha256:a15929a44ddd3b85The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260930.fae2c6e, 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.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_3whpkbryz5o2qqgg)
3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Sep 30, 2026.
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 (2403 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
cursor/plugins · 15,586 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-11-06 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_3whpkbryz5o2qqgg GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=cursor/plugins/principle-the-algorithm GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/a15929a44ddd3b856092513eade5ac884516723937c5fe2667e2f95806f27f7f
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.