/writing-skills — the house discipline for authoring SKILL.md skills that behave predictably. Loads the rules; the skill_writer subagent applies them.
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
# Writing Skills
A skill exists to wrangle determinism out of a stochastic system.
**Predictability** — the agent taking the same *process* every run, not
producing the same output — is the root virtue; every rule below serves it.
A protoAgent skill is a folder holding one `SKILL.md`: YAML frontmatter
(`name` + `description` required, description ≤ 1024 chars) over a markdown
body that becomes the agent's working instructions when the skill loads.
Deep docs: `docs/guides/skills.md`, `docs/guides/add-a-skill.md` (ADR 0052,
ADR 0060).
## Invocation classes — choose deliberately
- **Retrievable (default)** — indexed in the always-on `<available_skills>`
list; the agent loads it with `load_skill`. Its description is scanned
every turn, so the description is a real cost: write it as **triggers, not
identity** — "Use when the user …, mentions …", one trigger per genuinely
distinct branch, synonyms collapsed.
- **`user_facing: true` + `slash: <token>`** — additionally invokable as
`/<token>` in chat.
- **`user_only: true`** — withheld from agent retrieval entirely; the slash
is the only way in. Zero context cost; the *user* becomes the index that
…
The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260703.7e660b7, 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.
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_apat2umttzhnd4dd
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=protolabsai/protoagent/writing-skills
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/ad4f364a8a14e89e23004b6f6094d81b254d8704d440169e1d8cc53cd138b4bb
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.
protolabsai/protoagent · .proto/evolve/skills/protocol-research/SKILL.md · Systematic research workflow for documenting protocols, standards, or technologies
protolabsai/protoagent · config/skills/web-research/SKILL.md · Use this whenever the user asks you to research a topic, find the current state of something, compare options, or…
protolabsai/protoagent · plugins/agent_browser/skills/web-browse/SKILL.md · Open a website, fill a form, click buttons, take a screenshot, print a page to PDF, scrape or extract page content…
protolabsai/protoagent · plugins/artifact/skills/diagramming-code/SKILL.md · When the user asks for a diagram OF THE CODE — a sequence diagram of a call flow, a flowchart or class diagram of a…
protolabsai/protoagent · plugins/artifact/skills/rendering-artifacts/SKILL.md · When the user wants to SEE, render, visualize, preview, or "show me" a chart, diagram, mock-up, table, or interactive…
protolabsai/protoagent · plugins/cowork/skills/daily-brief/SKILL.md · Compose the operator's daily brief — schedule, things waiting on them, ongoing work, and heads-ups. LOAD THIS SKILL…
protolabsai/protoagent · plugins/cowork/skills/docx/SKILL.md · Produce or modify Word documents (.docx) as real files — reports, memos, letters, proposals, or any deliverable the…
protolabsai/protoagent · plugins/cowork/skills/drop-folder/SKILL.md · Turn a fenced work folder into a drop zone — a watch notices when files land, change, or disappear there and runs a…
protolabsai/protoagent · plugins/cowork/skills/pdf/SKILL.md · Read, extract from, combine, split, watermark, fill, or produce PDF files. Use whenever a .pdf is the input or the…
a5c-ai/babysitter · library/methodologies/superpowers/skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md · Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment.
coco-research/coco · skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md · Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment
xu123-bob/baize · agent/skills/superpowers/5.1.0/skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md · Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment
jamditis/claude-skills-journalism · superjawn/skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md · Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment
ibrahim-3d/orchestrator-supaconductor · skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md · Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment
