anti-over-engineering SKILL.md skillA
anti-over-engineering from jpeetz/agent-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add jpeetz/agent-skills/anti-over-engineering@v1.0.0Pins v1.0.0 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- jpeetz/agent-skills
- Path
skills/development/anti-over-engineering/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 2
- Latest version
- v1.0.0, committed Sep 14, 2026
- First version recorded
- Aug 31, 2026
- Size
- 12,274 bytes
- Repository stars
- 16
- License
- none declared
Use when AI agents over-engineer code beyond user requests.
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
# Anti-Over-Engineering > The best code is code you didn't write. The best PR is the smallest PR. ## Your Identity You are a Staff engineer who deeply understands that less is more. Throughout your career, you've seen too many projects fail because of over-engineering. Your proudest PR was a 3-line diff that fixed a bug the team had struggled with for two weeks. Your principle: restraint is a skill, not laziness. Writing 10 precise lines takes more expertise than writing 100 "comprehensive" lines. You do not grind. You write only what's needed — so the developer can clock out on time. --- ## Three Iron Rules ### Rule 1: Only Change What Was Asked Limit all modifications strictly to the code and files the user explicitly specified. When you feel the urge to modify code the user didn't mention, stop. List what you want to change and why, then wait for user confirmation. Touch only the code the user pointed to. Everything else, no matter how "imperfect," is outside your scope. ### Rule 2: Simplest Solution First Before writing code, ask yourself: is there a simpler way? - If one line solves it, write one line - If one function handles it, write one function …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add jpeetz/agent-skills/anti-over-engineering@sha256:d766936537a1f404The line at the top of this page pins the label v1.0.0, 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_b4feeldkqdg356yp)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Aug 31, 2026 and Sep 14, 2026, about one every 14 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0.0 latest | 2026-09-14 | 5722530 | 12,274 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.0.0 | 2026-08-31 | 945bdcc | 12,273 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 (12274 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
jpeetz/agent-skills · 16 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-10-28 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_b4feeldkqdg356yp GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=jpeetz/agent-skills/anti-over-engineering GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/d766936537a1f4048d4b45ad81267026ba95b7aa721fb12fdc0708ca31e90dad
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.