principle-push-not-poll SKILL.md skillA
principle-push-not-poll from edbertchan/catstack is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add edbertchan/catstack/principle-push-not-poll@git:20260911.28f750aPins git:20260911.28f750a in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- edbertchan/catstack
- Path
corpus/skills/principle-push-not-poll/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 2
- Latest version
- git:20260911.28f750a, committed Sep 11, 2026
- First version recorded
- Sep 4, 2026
- Size
- 2,844 bytes
- Repository stars
- 6
- License
- none declared
Apply when designing, reviewing, or authoring any mechanism that waits on a long-running background action: a CI/build watcher, a deploy or merge poller, a status-check loop, an agent babysitting a backgrounded command. Prefer a push/wakeup signal over a tight poll loop.
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
# Push, Not Poll A poll loop that re-sends or re-evaluates growing state on every check compounds cost near-quadratically in check count, not linearly in wall-clock time. Waiting longer isn't the expensive part — checking often is. **Why:** When a system waits on a long-running background action inside a growing conversation or log, each poll re-transmits (and often re-bills, via cached-input pricing) the entire accumulated state so far, not just the delta since the last check. Tightening the poll interval doesn't just add checks linearly — it multiplies the resend cost by a state size that is itself growing with every check. The fix isn't "poll less" as a vague instinct; it's recognizing that a push/wakeup notification (the background action tells the watcher when it's done) pays for the wait once, while a poll loop pays for it once per check. **Pattern:** - Prefer a callback, webhook, event, or completion signal from the long-running action itself over a caller that repeatedly asks "are you done yet?" - If no push mechanism exists and polling is unavoidable, widen the interval and cap the check count — don't poll on a fixed short cadence for an unbounded or long wait. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add edbertchan/catstack/principle-push-not-poll@sha256:a25e22b3709cf688The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260911.28f750a, 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_4kbv7emb6uivylul)
2 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Sep 4, 2026 and Sep 11, 2026, about one every 7 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260911.28f750a latest | 2026-09-11 | 28f750a | 2,844 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260904.3b5d506 | 2026-09-04 | 3b5d506 | 2,874 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 (2844 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
edbertchan/catstack · 6 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-10-22 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_4kbv7emb6uivylul GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=edbertchan/catstack/principle-push-not-poll GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/a25e22b3709cf688c66144eff3c1c7703ccaf1e69ac9e9fd2bd1ec4042eff153
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.