ethos-explore SKILL.md skillA
ethos-explore from nvidia/skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add nvidia/skills/ethos-explore@git:20261015.675de2fPins git:20261015.675de2f in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- nvidia/skills
- Path
skills/ethos-explore/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20261015.675de2f, committed Oct 15, 2026
- Size
- 27,180 bytes
- Repository stars
- 3,871
- License
- Apache-2.0
Captures what an AI agent is supposed to do — its purpose, boundaries, and success criteria — as a durable snapshot for anyone building, evaluating, reviewing, or changing it. Explores the user's codebase and docs first, then asks one intent question at a time for what source cannot supply. Hands its answers to ethos-write, which writes ethos.md. Use over generic brainstorming when the goal is an agent's ethos.md.
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
<!-- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved. --> <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 --> # Explore an agent's intended behavior Capture what the agent should do. Product mission and user goals matter more than implementation inventory. The output of this skill is the data that `ethos-write` writes into `ethos.md` — the durable contract that people and agents read before they build, evaluate, review, or change this agent. Underspecified input here leads every one of them to guess at intent from code and traces. This skill is **explore first, then a mandatory intent interview.** Scan the codebase and docs, infer implementation-shaped fields, then ask the user for intent source cannot own. Do not skip the interview because the scan looked complete, and do not skip a question because you think you already know the answer. Do not dump the draft ethos.md until that interview has asked at least three questions and received a reply to each. The division of labor is: **infer implementation, ask for intent.** Almost everything about what the agent *is* can be read from source. Nothing about what …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add nvidia/skills/ethos-explore@sha256:2f12b8e03a164339The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261015.675de2f, 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_c7a2ww56fjrlsoo2)
2 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Oct 15, 2026.
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 (27180 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
nvidia/skills · 3,871 stars · license Apache-2.0 · pushed 2026-11-05 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_c7a2ww56fjrlsoo2 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=nvidia/skills/ethos-explore GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/2f12b8e03a164339fb4707203b75c239fb3cba98a226e2b3c10198a40ee812e8
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.