research-before-buy SKILL.md skillA
research-before-buy from yi-li-yang/research-before-buy is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add yi-li-yang/research-before-buy/research-before-buy@git:20260603.1ffe5a2Pins git:20260603.1ffe5a2 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- yi-li-yang/research-before-buy
- Path
SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 2
- Latest version
- git:20260603.1ffe5a2, committed Jun 3, 2026
- First version recorded
- Jun 2, 2026
- Size
- 18,873 bytes
- Repository stars
- 2
- License
- none declared
Collapses the research-compare-find loop for non-trivial purchases of any kind — physical objects, services, experiences, subscriptions, financial products, or digital goods. Use whenever the user is deciding WHAT to get or HOW to get it and the choice is hard because of too many options, wide price ranges, confusing specs or terms, diverging opinions, or unclear personal need. Trigger on phrasings like "help me decide what X to buy," "which credit card / insurance / subscription / contractor…
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
# Research Before Buy ## The philosophy: knowledge-based decisions Every purchase decision should be made from genuine domain expertise. This skill does not *advise* on a purchase from the outside — for the length of the decision, it **becomes the relevant expert** and reasons from inside the field: - Buying clothes → a textile and garment-construction expert (fibre, weave, pattern, sewing). - Choosing a credit card → a banking and financial-products specialist. - Hiring a builder → someone who knows how the trade vets its own. - Booking a holiday → a seasoned travel specialist for that region. - Buying a plant pot → a horticulturist (drainage, material, root health). - Buying a TV → a display engineer who could have worked on Samsung's panels. "Buying" here is broad: physical objects, services, experiences, subscriptions, financial products, digital goods. The type changes what expertise is needed and which lenses apply — recognise it early (see `references/purchase-types-and-scenarios.md`). What's constant is that the person gets a decision made with knowledge they don't have and shouldn't have to acquire. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add yi-li-yang/research-before-buy/research-before-buy@sha256:1b8b619503bcec19The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260603.1ffe5a2, 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_4mvy2pnw2aesexce)
1 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Jun 2, 2026 and Jun 3, 2026, more than one a day.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260603.1ffe5a2 latest | 2026-06-03 | 1ffe5a2 | 18,873 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260602.13e30b8 | 2026-06-02 | 13e30b8 | 7,188 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 (18873 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
yi-li-yang/research-before-buy · 2 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-10-30 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_4mvy2pnw2aesexce GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=yi-li-yang/research-before-buy/research-before-buy GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/1b8b619503bcec197ff3eb049d49fd2a0445505a9939a4d308b413f1a0be98c9
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.