theme-craft SKILL.md skillA
theme-craft from danjdewhurst/story-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add danjdewhurst/story-skills/theme-craft@git:20261014.4b8019dPins git:20261014.4b8019d in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- danjdewhurst/story-skills
- Path
skills/theme-craft/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 11
- Latest version
- git:20261014.4b8019d, committed Oct 14, 2026
- First version recorded
- Sep 20, 2026
- Size
- 7,495 bytes
- Repository stars
- 395
- License
- MIT
This skill should be used when the user asks about "theme", "controlling idea", "thematic argument", "moral argument", "thematic arc", "flat arc", "negative arc", "the lie", "antagonist design", "motif", "symbolism", "theme audit", or wants to plan, track, or revise the thematic layer of a story, including the lie, truth, ghost-wound, and arc-type fields of a character file. NOT for finding or testing a story premise (use premise-workshop), or a character's profile, relationships, or…
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
# Theme Craft
## Overview
Plan and audit theme as a working mechanism, not decoration. Covers the
controlling idea (value + cause, in McKee's sense), the lie/truth machinery
and the three canonical arc types, antagonist design as the embodied
counter-argument, motif tracking, and a revision-time theme audit. Use at
story start (working premise), during character design (lie/truth/arc-type),
and after a complete draft (theme audit).
## Prerequisites
A story project must already exist (created via the story-init skill).
Character files (character-management) and a plot structure
(plot-structure) should exist or be in progress.
## Workflow
1. **Draft the working premise.** Read `story.md` for genre and themes.
Consult `references/controlling-idea.md` and write a one-sentence
premise (value + cause) and counter-premise. Store them in `story.md`
frontmatter:
```yaml
premise: "{Value} triumphs because {cause}."
counter-premise: "{Opposing value} triumphs because {opposing cause}."
```
If the user prefers discovering theme in the draft, record
`premise: tbd-discovery` and skip to step 3.
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add danjdewhurst/story-skills/theme-craft@sha256:5a59937953938083The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261014.4b8019d, 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_erzrqaicfjjqscqw)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 11 versions of this file, between Sep 20, 2026 and Oct 14, 2026, about one every 2 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261014.4b8019d latest | 2026-10-14 | 4b8019d | 7,495 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261008.b4b500f | 2026-10-08 | b4b500f | 7,354 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261008.dff4623 | 2026-10-08 | dff4623 | 7,247 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261008.bc44ac6 | 2026-10-08 | bc44ac6 | 7,117 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261007.a8b3f01 | 2026-10-07 | a8b3f01 | 7,037 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261007.9b5d289 | 2026-10-07 | 9b5d289 | 7,003 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260924.f9090b8 | 2026-09-24 | f9090b8 | 5,746 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260922.11ed642 | 2026-09-22 | 11ed642 | 5,669 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260920.f646308 | 2026-09-20 | f646308 | 5,528 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260920.5444aa3 | 2026-09-20 | 5444aa3 | 5,195 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260920.620c8c2 | 2026-09-20 | 620c8c2 | 5,475 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 (7495 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
danjdewhurst/story-skills · 395 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-11-04 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_erzrqaicfjjqscqw GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=danjdewhurst/story-skills/theme-craft GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/5a59937953938083030f668a4cf24762fbafc87f403c104b5350157e06543c17
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.