why SKILL.md skillA

why from bastani-inc/atomic is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned

mdr add bastani-inc/atomic/why@git:20260823.166e8d7

Pins git:20260823.166e8d7 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade: A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind: SKILL.md skill
Repository: bastani-inc/atomic
Path: packages/workflows/skills/why/SKILL.md
Versions recorded: 2
Latest version: git:20260823.166e8d7, committed Aug 23, 2026
First version recorded: Aug 23, 2026
Size: 22,885 bytes
Repository stars: 874
License: a license file GitHub does not identify

Use for 'why does X work this way', 'why we picked Y', design rationale, regressions, postmortems, or data-backed thresholds. Discovers available MCPs and queries each evidence category (source control, issue tracker, long-form docs, real-time chat, infrastructure observability, error tracking, product analytics warehouse) in parallel, then returns a cited read on decisions and tradeoffs. Use how for runtime behavior.

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

# Why

Investigate the motivation and intent behind code. Why was it built this way? What edge cases were considered? What product, business, or operational constraints shaped the design? What alternatives were rejected, and why?

Companion to the `how` skill. `how` answers what the code does and how it works. `why` answers what forces led to its shape.

## How this skill works

Historical context spreads across seven evidence categories: source control history, issue or ticket tracking, long-form documents, real-time team chat, infrastructure observability, error or exception tracking, and product analytics warehouses. You cannot predict from the question alone which one holds the answer, so the skill enumerates available MCPs at run time, maps each to a category, queries all seven in parallel, then synthesizes with explicit confidence calibration. Null results from searched categories are first-class evidence about how the decision was made; report them alongside positive findings. The default is coverage, not minimalism.

## Operating Posture
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint

mdr add bastani-inc/atomic/why@sha256:b9483931061c91ac

The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260823.166e8d7, 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](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_cfqkxgcbidsdmmjk.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_cfqkxgcbidsdmmjk)

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

Versions

The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, all committed on Aug 23, 2026.

version	committed	commit	size	audit
git:20260823.166e8d7 latest	2026-08-23	166e8d7	22,885 B	A	view · diff
git:20260823.cc40f7f	2026-08-23	cc40f7f	21,601 B	A	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 (22885 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

bastani-inc/atomic · 874 stars · license a license file GitHub does not identify · pushed 2026-11-03 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_cfqkxgcbidsdmmjk
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=bastani-inc/atomic/why
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/b9483931061c91ac6393d27962bbe71644e928ef017120b11fb9c6b6dfc9cc24

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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