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ask-claude SKILL.md skillA

ask-claude from thoughtbot/rails-consultant is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned

mdr add thoughtbot/rails-consultant/ask-claude@git:20261106.ce8ab68

Pins git:20261106.ce8ab68 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade: A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind: SKILL.md skill
Repository: thoughtbot/rails-consultant
Path: skills/ask-claude/SKILL.md
Versions recorded: 1
Latest version: git:20261106.ce8ab68, committed Nov 6, 2026
Size: 8,065 bytes
Repository stars: 29
License: MIT

Recommend the best way to have Claude do something, checked against Anthropic's current docs, then write the prompt and run it once approved. Use when someone asks how they should prompt you, what the best way to ask for something is, or which Claude feature fits a job (CLAUDE.md, skill, hook, subagent, workflow, plan mode, /goal, MCP, headless, the API), even if they don't name a feature.

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

# Ask Claude

Two questions sound different and are the same question: how should I ask Claude to
do this?

- "Users can't sign up." The answer is a way of working (reproduce first, plan or
  don't, what proves it's fixed) and a prompt that says it.
- "Run rubocop after every edit." The answer is a feature. A line in CLAUDE.md gets
  followed most of the time. A hook runs every time. Picking wrong means it quietly
  doesn't happen.

Either way, end with a prompt the user approves before anything runs.

```
task
  |
  v
1. look ...... the code and setup the task touches
2. read ...... the docs that apply, fetched now
3. ask ....... only what neither can tell you
4. recommend . the approach, why, and the prompt, shown for approval
5. run ....... here, as written
```

Two ways this fails. The answer comes from memory, and recommends a feature that's
been renamed, or misses the one released last month that fits better. Or the prompt
restates the task in more words and adds nothing the agent couldn't have guessed.

## 1. Look

The task is `$ARGUMENTS`, or ask for one.

Skim the README, the routes, the area the task names, recent commits there. You're
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint

mdr add thoughtbot/rails-consultant/ask-claude@sha256:ffc413f31bbb3ab8

The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261106.ce8ab68, 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.

Badge

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_5msc66djadpmra7d.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_5msc66djadpmra7d)

2 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.

Versions

The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Nov 6, 2026.

version	committed	commit	size	audit
git:20261106.ce8ab68 latest	2026-11-06	ce8ab68	8,065 B	A	view

Audit of the latest version

A 17 of 17 checks passed. Fixed automatic checks with no AI involved, so the same checks give the same answer every run.

pass: Frontmatter block present
pass: Frontmatter declares a name
pass: Frontmatter declares a description
pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (8065 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

GitHub

thoughtbot/rails-consultant · 29 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-11-07 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_5msc66djadpmra7d
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=thoughtbot/rails-consultant/ask-claude
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/ffc413f31bbb3ab8adfb7c92cef4fd0fef0db782673390bfd1f12c65de6cfd2f

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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