boy-scout-rule SKILL.md skillA
boy-scout-rule from amey-thakur/ai-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add amey-thakur/ai-skills/boy-scout-rule@git:20260728.fac4544Pins git:20260728.fac4544 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- amey-thakur/ai-skills
- Path
skills/code-quality/boy-scout-rule/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 2
- Latest version
- git:20260728.fac4544, committed Jul 28, 2026
- First version recorded
- Jul 18, 2026
- Size
- 2,505 bytes
- Repository stars
- 14
- License
- MIT
Leave every file you touch marginally cleaner without expanding the change beyond its purpose. Use when editing code for one task and you notice small decay worth fixing in passing.
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
# Boy Scout rule The rule borrows a camping maxim: leave the campground cleaner than you found it. Applied to code, each commit improves the lines it already touches. The failure mode is not neglect but its mirror: a one-line fix swells into a refactor no reviewer signed up for, and the original change drowns. ## Method 1. **Scope cleanup to the diff you already own.** Improve only lines the primary change forces you to read or edit. A function three screens away may be ugly, but if you did not touch it, leave it and note it elsewhere. 2. **Cap the tax at a few minutes.** Rename one unclear variable, extract one magic number to a named constant, delete one dead branch. The moment the cleanup wants its own tests, stop and split it into a separate change. 3. **Separate cleanup commits from behavior commits.** Commit the rename or the reflow on its own, then the bug fix on top. A reviewer skims the mechanical diff and reads the real one closely, instead of untangling both. 4. **Prefer reversible, low-risk edits.** Formatting, naming, extracting a constant, tightening a type: yes. Reordering call sequences, changing error …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add amey-thakur/ai-skills/boy-scout-rule@sha256:486e25bde079c464The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260728.fac4544, 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_4dt2z6lgdz5bajti)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Jul 18, 2026 and Jul 28, 2026, about one every 10 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260728.fac4544 latest | 2026-07-28 | fac4544 | 2,505 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260718.7c1285c | 2026-07-18 | 7c1285c | 2,499 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 (2505 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
amey-thakur/ai-skills · 14 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-09-06 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_4dt2z6lgdz5bajti GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=amey-thakur/ai-skills/boy-scout-rule GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/486e25bde079c4641adbf7b1b5e316e33b1d19082105422f8557fcf0bc15a851
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.