sota-shell-scripting SKILL.md skillB
sota-shell-scripting from martinholovsky/sota-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add martinholovsky/sota-skills/sota-shell-scripting@git:20261030.4fb4c58Pins git:20261030.4fb4c58 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- B, 16 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- martinholovsky/sota-skills
- Path
skills/sota-shell-scripting/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 30
- Latest version
- git:20261030.4fb4c58, committed Oct 30, 2026
- First version recorded
- Jun 17, 2026
- Size
- 15,219 bytes
- Repository stars
- 26
- License
- CC-BY-4.0
State-of-the-art shell scripting (bash and PowerShell, defensive) for writing and auditing shell scripts, CI scripts, init/deploy scripts, container entrypoints, and Makefile recipes — and equally for the ad-hoc commands you run yourself: a grep/find/rg sweep whose result you are about to report, a one-liner pasted from a checklist, a pipeline whose exit status or empty output you are about to believe. Use when creating, modifying, reviewing or hardening shell code, AND before trusting any…
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
# SOTA Shell Scripting ## Purpose Produce shell scripts that survive contact with reality — unusual filenames, missing commands, partial failures, hostile input, signals, and concurrent invocation — and audit existing scripts for the defect classes that cause most production shell incidents: unquoted expansions, silent error swallowing, injection, secret leakage, and temp-file races. Bash-focused (written for bash 5.x; macOS ships bash 3.2 and defaults to zsh — see portability rules). POSIX `sh` only when the target demands it (busybox/dash containers, init systems). ## First decision: should this be shell at all? **Do NOT use shell when any of these hold.** Recommend Python/Go (or the project's primary language) instead, and say so explicitly in BUILD and AUDIT output: - Script exceeds ~100 lines of actual logic (not counting boilerplate/usage text). - Needs real data structures (nested maps, JSON manipulation beyond a `jq` one-liner, sets). - Needs granular error handling (retry *this* step, distinguish error kinds, partial rollback). - Does arithmetic beyond integers, date math, or float comparison. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add martinholovsky/sota-skills/sota-shell-scripting@sha256:a9d2532f85552b60The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261030.4fb4c58, 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_ev6gd7p2ikqqqffy)
3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 30 versions of this file, between Jun 17, 2026 and Oct 30, 2026, about one every 5 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261030.4fb4c58 latest | 2026-10-30 | 4fb4c58 | 15,219 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261028.da12e08 | 2026-10-28 | da12e08 | 15,086 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261027.0f83440 | 2026-10-27 | 0f83440 | 15,083 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261027.e012ef1 | 2026-10-27 | e012ef1 | 15,003 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261026.808c340 | 2026-10-26 | 808c340 | 14,990 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261025.ee367c3 | 2026-10-25 | ee367c3 | 14,844 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261025.c05557f | 2026-10-25 | c05557f | 14,687 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261020.4ac7a80 | 2026-10-20 | 4ac7a80 | 13,693 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261018.f1ef90d | 2026-10-18 | f1ef90d | 13,447 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261014.73ef769 | 2026-10-14 | 73ef769 | 13,355 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261012.ae1b29b | 2026-10-12 | ae1b29b | 13,234 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20261001.7f1c062 | 2026-10-01 | 7f1c062 | 12,977 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260927.fe83fea | 2026-09-27 | fe83fea | 12,956 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260926.9bf0475 | 2026-09-26 | 9bf0475 | 12,899 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260926.e89beb1 | 2026-09-26 | e89beb1 | 12,812 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260925.9af1226 | 2026-09-25 | 9af1226 | 12,808 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260924.cfe6bcb | 2026-09-24 | cfe6bcb | 12,591 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260923.3ae13cf | 2026-09-23 | 3ae13cf | 12,516 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260918.ab69f80 | 2026-09-18 | ab69f80 | 12,374 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260915.81b437a | 2026-09-15 | 81b437a | 11,553 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260914.32094b9 | 2026-09-14 | 32094b9 | 10,839 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260911.2045e87 | 2026-09-11 | 2045e87 | 9,985 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260910.ec46a93 | 2026-09-10 | ec46a93 | 9,457 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260910.1a411a8 | 2026-09-10 | 1a411a8 | 9,225 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260908.d329573 | 2026-09-08 | d329573 | 9,094 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260908.b22c911 | 2026-09-08 | b22c911 | 8,541 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260908.1f82c86 | 2026-09-08 | 1f82c86 | 8,256 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260903.a8b1a1f | 2026-09-03 | a8b1a1f | 7,736 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260701.1c5bd88 | 2026-07-01 | 1c5bd88 | 7,563 B | B | view · diff |
| git:20260617.c5d2c7b | 2026-06-17 | c5d2c7b | 7,520 B | B | view |
Audit of the latest version
- fail: No curl or wget piped into a shell (matched: curl\|bash)
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (15219 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 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
Starting a new one? Use a template for SKILL.md on mdpantry, which passes every one of these checks and says what to change in it.
Source
martinholovsky/sota-skills · 26 stars · license CC-BY-4.0 · pushed 2026-11-05 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_ev6gd7p2ikqqqffy GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=martinholovsky/sota-skills/sota-shell-scripting GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/a9d2532f85552b601bf828fa10b5a02c594e57672aad7782e3e64f0e22539d93
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.