simple-english SKILL.md skillA
simple-english from vinta/hal-9000 is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add vinta/hal-9000/simple-english@git:20261003.4cc3a4fPins git:20261003.4cc3a4f in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- vinta/hal-9000
- Path
skills/simple-english/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 10
- Latest version
- git:20261003.4cc3a4f, committed Oct 3, 2026
- First version recorded
- Aug 11, 2026
- Size
- 4,233 bytes
- Repository stars
- 141
- License
- MIT
Use when the user explicitly asks for simple English, plain English, or for text a non-native English speaker can read easily — rewrites docs, READMEs, issues, comments, or UI text into plain words and translation-friendly grammar, still native-sounding. Prose the user signs in their own voice goes to write-like-me instead.
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
# Simple English
Write or rewrite the given text in Global English: the global-audience tier that Google, Microsoft, MDN, Red Hat, and GitLab documentation follows. Clear structure, unambiguous words, translation-friendly grammar, no controlled dictionary, no hard word caps. The rewrite must give the same technical facts as the source and still sound like a native speaker wrote it.
## Ground rules
- **Meaning is untouchable.** Every fact, value, condition, and caveat in the source survives the rewrite. Softened obligations stay soft: "should" stays a recommendation unless the source means a requirement.
- **Never invent specifics.** Keep each fact at its original precision and flag gaps. Do not fabricate values, names, or conditions.
- **Quoted text is frozen.** Code spans and blocks, commands, config keys, file paths, UI labels, error messages, and identifiers stay exactly as they are. Rewrite the prose around them.
- **Voice survives.** Clarity edits that flatten prose into choppy fragments are regressions. Filler drops freely ("it should be noted that"), personality stays.
## Workflow
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add vinta/hal-9000/simple-english@sha256:17253ce6f6209f87The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261003.4cc3a4f, 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_cgastm7qzrqcqzrt)
5 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 10 versions of this file, between Aug 11, 2026 and Oct 3, 2026, about one every 6 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261003.4cc3a4f latest | 2026-10-03 | 4cc3a4f | 4,233 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260927.fad81a0 | 2026-09-27 | fad81a0 | 4,233 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260927.b839427 | 2026-09-27 | b839427 | 4,233 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260923.16c363b | 2026-09-23 | 16c363b | 4,254 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260909.ede0b9b | 2026-09-09 | ede0b9b | 4,245 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260902.6927ec2 | 2026-09-02 | 6927ec2 | 4,255 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260902.7dd193f | 2026-09-02 | 7dd193f | 4,217 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260902.6d79170 | 2026-09-02 | 6d79170 | 4,276 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260811.ba10018 | 2026-08-11 | ba10018 | 4,078 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260811.e15b9d0 | 2026-08-11 | e15b9d0 | 4,085 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 (4233 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
vinta/hal-9000 · 141 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-20 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_cgastm7qzrqcqzrt GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=vinta/hal-9000/simple-english GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/17253ce6f6209f87a44c861a646f34c90c605687c07d2000ccbe69346b4a4c7e
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.