context-degradation SKILL.md skillA

context-degradation from docxology/template is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned
mdr add docxology/template/context-degradation@git:20260713.397aa15

Pins git:20260713.397aa15 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade
A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind
SKILL.md skill
Repository
docxology/template
Path
.agents/skills/context-degradation/SKILL.md
Versions recorded
1
Latest version
git:20260713.397aa15, committed Jul 13, 2026
Size
19,180 bytes
Repository stars
20
License
Apache-2.0

This skill should be used for diagnosing and mitigating context degradation: lost-in-middle failures, context poisoning, context clash, context confusion, attention-pattern issues, and agent performance degradation caused by accumulated or conflicting context.

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

# Context Degradation Patterns

Diagnose and fix context failures before they cascade. Context degradation is not binary — it is a continuum that manifests through five distinct, predictable patterns: lost-in-middle, poisoning, distraction, confusion, and clash. Each pattern has specific detection signals and mitigation strategies. Treat degradation as an engineering problem with measurable thresholds, not an unpredictable failure mode.

## When to Activate

Activate this skill when:
- Agent performance degrades unexpectedly during long conversations
- Debugging cases where agents produce incorrect or irrelevant outputs
- Designing systems that must handle large contexts reliably
- Evaluating context engineering choices for production systems
- Investigating "lost in middle" phenomena in agent outputs
- Analyzing context-related failures in agent behavior

Do not activate this skill for adjacent work owned by other skills:
- Explaining foundational context mechanics without an active failure: `context-fundamentals`.
- Applying token-efficiency tactics after the failure pattern is known: `context-optimization`.
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint
mdr add docxology/template/context-degradation@sha256:4e1896f641ddc99c

The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260713.397aa15, 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 badge

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_atkk3hby43avqnjm.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_atkk3hby43avqnjm)

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

Versions

The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Jul 13, 2026.

versioncommittedcommitsizeaudit
git:20260713.397aa15 latest2026-07-13 397aa15 19,180 BA 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 (19180 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

docxology/template · 20 stars · license Apache-2.0 · pushed 2026-10-31 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_atkk3hby43avqnjm
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=docxology/template/context-degradation
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/4e1896f641ddc99cc9cb14322606c6133b9fd520c84d3af0541e64f553c7f928

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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Every file in docxology/template

Other files named context-degradation

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