design-first SKILL.md skillA
design-first from techygarg/lattice is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add techygarg/lattice/design-first@git:20260903.83fa756Pins git:20260903.83fa756 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- techygarg/lattice
- Path
source/atoms/design-first/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260903.83fa756, committed Sep 3, 2026
- Size
- 9,140 bytes
- Repository stars
- 206
- License
- MIT
Guide structured design thinking through 5 progressive levels before any code is written. Levels: Capabilities, Components, Interactions, Contracts, Implementation. Use when building new features, refactoring significant code, designing modules, or when the user says 'design this', 'architect this', 'let's think before coding', 'walk me through the design', or 'whiteboard this'. For simple utilities enter at Level 4 (Contracts), for single-component tasks at Level 2 — see Complexity Calibration.
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
# Design-First (Progressive Design Facilitation) ## The 5 Levels ### Level 1: Capabilities (The "What") **Purpose**: Confirm scope. Surface the user-facing outcomes the system must deliver. Shared vocabulary check — ensure the human and the AI are talking about the same feature with the same boundaries. **Output format**: Numbered list of user-facing capabilities, max 5. Each capability is a plain-language outcome, not an implementation detail. **Boundary**: No components, no architecture, no technical detail. If a capability mentions a specific technology, class, or data structure, it belongs at a later level. This level answers only "what does the user get?" **Checkpoint**: "Does this Level 1 (Capabilities) look correct? Should I proceed to Level 2 (Components)?" ### Level 2: Components (The "Who") **Purpose**: Identify the building blocks. What major pieces does the system have, and what is each one responsible for? **Output format**: 3-5 components, each with a single responsibility and a one-line description. Include an ASCII or Mermaid diagram showing how they relate. Note integration points with existing infrastructure. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add techygarg/lattice/design-first@sha256:0b6259296b0b3ee5The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260903.83fa756, 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_4otcllnwnx7vnvv7)
3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Sep 3, 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 (9140 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
techygarg/lattice · 206 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-10 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_4otcllnwnx7vnvv7 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=techygarg/lattice/design-first GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/0b6259296b0b3ee5c0e9abba807ae53c4a5d7911178ca8943e85542330fb6218
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.
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