keep-the-why SKILL.md skillA
keep-the-why from oliver-zehentleitner/keep-the-why is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add oliver-zehentleitner/keep-the-why/keep-the-why@v0.20.2Pins v0.20.2 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- oliver-zehentleitner/keep-the-why
- Path
skills/keep-the-why/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 48
- Latest version
- v0.20.2, committed Oct 12, 2026
- First version recorded
- Sep 1, 2026
- Size
- 39,545 bytes
- Repository stars
- 232
- License
- MIT
In a project with a .keep-the-why, or when asked about Keep the Why or to set it up - extract and preserve the reasoning code cannot explain - decisions, rejected alternatives, workarounds, incidents, constraints - plus project setup and maintainer interviews. Not for what changed (see Keep a Changelog) - only why. Also the place for questions about how this skill works, complaints, feedback and settings changes about it. Anywhere else - no .keep-the-why, no such request - this skill is…
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
# Keep the Why The core job: preserve and recover the reasoning that code alone cannot explain. Because "ask Bob" is not documentation — Keep a Changelog records what changed, this preserves why it changed. ## When to use this skill Four modes, all part of the same job: 1. **Continuous capture** — record rationale as it surfaces during normal development: decisions, rejected alternatives, workarounds, incidents, constraints, and changes that *didn't* happen (starting to modify something, then stopping once a reason not to became clear — that reasoning would otherwise leave no trace). See `references/continuous-capture.md`. 2. **Retrospective recovery** — given an existing or legacy repository, reconstruct what the code cannot explain from git history, issues, existing docs, and the code itself. Before a pass, read `references/retrospective-analysis.md`. 3. **Knowledge-transfer interview** — when a maintainer's knowledge is about to become unavailable, analyze the repository first, then either ask targeted questions or let them narrate freely. Before preparing or running one, read `references/interview-playbook.md`. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add oliver-zehentleitner/keep-the-why/keep-the-why@sha256:feea34bd77cebc23The line at the top of this page pins the label v0.20.2, 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_4kjdyjnlndezis3p)
5 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 48 versions of this file, between Sep 1, 2026 and Oct 12, 2026, more than one a day.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v0.20.2 latest | 2026-10-12 | 4c14d0d | 39,545 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.20.1 | 2026-10-11 | 348db2f | 39,415 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.20.0 | 2026-10-05 | 00915de | 39,415 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.19.0 | 2026-10-05 | 0339ca6 | 39,415 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.19.0 | 2026-10-05 | b80e47f | 39,325 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.19.0 | 2026-10-05 | b77d601 | 38,806 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.19.0 | 2026-10-02 | e1f458d | 38,068 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.18.2 | 2026-10-02 | 5dd90af | 38,068 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.18.2 | 2026-10-02 | 5cea781 | 37,440 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.18.2 | 2026-10-01 | bc010a6 | 36,654 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.18.2 | 2026-09-30 | 6b5f9cd | 36,001 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.18.1 | 2026-09-29 | 6134083 | 35,692 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.18.0 | 2026-09-29 | 838c461 | 35,692 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.18.0 | 2026-09-28 | 763e789 | 35,691 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.17.1 | 2026-09-27 | 2a0bdc2 | 34,417 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.17.1 | 2026-09-27 | 3ed4fcd | 33,908 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.17.1 | 2026-09-27 | 1d4eee8 | 33,095 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.17.1 | 2026-09-27 | 236573a | 32,420 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.17.1 | 2026-09-21 | d4275d1 | 32,135 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.17.0 | 2026-09-18 | 5ccc7d8 | 32,135 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.16.3 | 2026-09-18 | d6e72b0 | 32,135 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.16.3 | 2026-09-14 | 3e24371 | 30,153 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.16.2 | 2026-09-11 | 5168e89 | 30,153 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.16.1 | 2026-09-11 | 66cdb37 | 30,153 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.16.1 | 2026-09-10 | b071f59 | 28,530 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.16.0 | 2026-09-10 | 4751f16 | 28,530 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.16.0 | 2026-09-10 | 8d8d87c | 27,649 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.16.0 | 2026-09-09 | 3a080df | 27,441 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.15.0 | 2026-09-09 | c4daa4e | 27,441 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.15.0 | 2026-09-08 | 2ef1709 | 27,181 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.14.1 | 2026-09-08 | 7b1d6c7 | 27,181 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.14.1 | 2026-09-08 | 9953a66 | 27,039 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.14.0 | 2026-09-08 | d01ed04 | 27,039 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.14.0 | 2026-09-08 | ed96deb | 26,777 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.13.3 | 2026-09-07 | 5cc2191 | 25,742 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.13.2 | 2026-09-07 | 8926d54 | 25,742 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.13.2 | 2026-09-07 | f99634b | 25,348 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.13.1 | 2026-09-07 | f47b23d | 25,348 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.13.1 | 2026-09-07 | a14f8da | 25,355 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.12.0 | 2026-09-06 | 7217f9b | 22,379 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.11.0 | 2026-09-06 | df56e75 | 22,379 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.11.0 | 2026-09-06 | 6144d3d | 22,251 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.11.0 | 2026-09-06 | dd9b6ba | 22,090 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.11.0 | 2026-09-04 | b7308ba | 21,810 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.11.0 | 2026-09-03 | cd20a4a | 21,818 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.10.1 | 2026-09-03 | c9d347c | 21,818 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.10.1 | 2026-09-02 | 15c3d46 | 18,286 B | A | view · diff |
| v0.10.1 | 2026-09-01 | 840a1d5 | 18,110 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 (39545 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
oliver-zehentleitner/keep-the-why · 232 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-20 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_4kjdyjnlndezis3p GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=oliver-zehentleitner/keep-the-why/keep-the-why GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/feea34bd77cebc233f250cc9f4c86e6da405fb6cabfcafa531528c9a0ec4e1e0
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.