instar-dev SKILL.md skillA
instar-dev from jkheadley/instar is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add jkheadley/instar/instar-dev@git:20261022.976268dPins git:20261022.976268d in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- jkheadley/instar
- Path
skills/instar-dev/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 6
- Latest version
- git:20261022.976268d, committed Oct 22, 2026
- First version recorded
- Jun 4, 2026
- Size
- 25,977 bytes
- Repository stars
- 85
- License
- MIT
Instar-specific development skill used by the instar-developing agent (Echo, or any agent assigned instar-dev responsibilities). Wraps /build with mandatory side-effects review, signal-vs-authority principle check, and artifact generation. Structural enforcement via pre-commit/pre-push hooks — the instar repo refuses commits and pushes that didn't come through this skill. NOT a user-facing skill — end users should never invoke it.
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
# /instar-dev
**Audience:** this skill is for the instar-developing agent (Echo, or any agent assigned instar-dev responsibilities). It is NOT a user-facing skill. End users of instar should never invoke `/instar-dev` and will never see it in their workflow — it runs at the infrastructure-developer layer, not the per-user application layer. The enforcement hooks on the instar repo ensure the instar-developing agent goes through this skill for every change, but end users never encounter it.
Throughout this document, "the agent," "the instar-dev agent," or the imperative voice ("do this," "produce that") refer to the instar-developing agent, not the end user.
---
The skill for changing anything in the instar source tree.
Generic `/build` is the right tool for most projects. This skill is what the instar-developing agent uses when changing **instar itself** — the infrastructure every instar-powered agent inherits. Because those changes propagate to every agent and every user the moment they ship, the blast radius is structurally larger than any single project. This skill exists to make "careful" the default, not the exception.
## When the instar-dev agent uses this skill
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add jkheadley/instar/instar-dev@sha256:9a75c36ba5217604The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261022.976268d, 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_4qamt5afq7ufqy2z)
3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 6 versions of this file, between Jun 4, 2026 and Oct 22, 2026, about one every 28 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261022.976268d latest | 2026-10-22 | 976268d | 25,977 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260823.eef1fb4 | 2026-08-23 | eef1fb4 | 23,650 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260612.606455a | 2026-06-12 | 606455a | 22,947 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260610.fd3a059 | 2026-06-10 | fd3a059 | 22,362 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260605.73bc39a | 2026-06-05 | 73bc39a | 20,380 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260604.21cf7a3 | 2026-06-04 | 21cf7a3 | 19,250 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 (25977 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
jkheadley/instar · 85 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-11-05 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_4qamt5afq7ufqy2z GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=jkheadley/instar/instar-dev GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/9a75c36ba5217604ef10bbb8eba8558c76675b519128d79c946a9242836bc665
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.