skills-composition SKILL.md skillA
skills-composition from d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook/skills-composition@git:20260510.f4bea3dPins git:20260510.f4bea3d in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook
- Path
skills/skills-composition/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260510.f4bea3d, committed May 10, 2026
- Size
- 13,116 bytes
- Repository stars
- 20
- License
- MIT
Patterns for composing multiple Cursor / Agent Skills into orchestrated workflows. Covers slash commands that chain skills, project-vs-personal scope resolution, sibling-skill auto-detection with graceful degradation, sequential vs parallel chaining, HITL gates between phases, parameter passing, and error handling. Use when designing a multi-step workflow that spans skills, building a slash command that delegates to several skills, or deciding when to add a new skill vs extend an existing one.
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
# Skills Composition - Patterns How to build workflows that span more than one Cursor / Agent Skill cleanly. Covers chaining, scope resolution, graceful degradation, and the discipline of "one skill, one capability". **Companion rules:** - `015-context-engineering.mdc` - prompt packing, retrieval, compaction - `100-core.mdc` - SOLID / DRY / KISS / YAGNI --- ## When to invoke Use when designing: - A slash command that needs to call more than one skill in sequence - A skill that calls helpers in another skill (vs duplicating the logic) - A workflow where a downstream skill is *optional* (graceful degradation) - A new skill where the right answer might be "extend an existing skill instead" Do *not* use for: - Single-skill workflows - just call the skill directly - One-off scripts - skills are for repeatable workflows --- ## The Five Golden Rules 1. **One skill, one capability.** A skill answers one question well. Multiple capabilities = multiple skills. 2. **Compose via commands, not by importing.** Skills do not "import" each other; a slash command (or another skill's workflow) orchestrates them. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook/skills-composition@sha256:437abbd0010dd9cdThe line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260510.f4bea3d, 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_c2ajsfnxajuzzckn)
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Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on May 10, 2026.
Audit of the latest version
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- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
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- 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
d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook · 20 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-30 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_c2ajsfnxajuzzckn GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=d-padmanabhan/agent-engineering-handbook/skills-composition GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/437abbd0010dd9cd30512a65f765c7a495b550792f798a57fdb6e62e3b86b464
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.