code-reading SKILL.md skillA
code-reading from amey-thakur/ai-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add amey-thakur/ai-skills/code-reading@git:20260728.fac4544Pins git:20260728.fac4544 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- amey-thakur/ai-skills
- Path
skills/code-quality/code-reading/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 2
- Latest version
- git:20260728.fac4544, committed Jul 28, 2026
- First version recorded
- Jul 28, 2026
- Size
- 2,195 bytes
- Repository stars
- 14
- License
- MIT
Understand unfamiliar code quickly by tracing real execution paths rather than reading files in order. Use when joining a codebase, reviewing an unfamiliar area, or debugging something you did not write.
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
# Code reading Developers spend far more time reading code than writing it, and most read badly: opening files alphabetically, skimming everything, and retaining nothing. Effective reading is targeted, follows execution, and starts from a question. ## Method 1. **Start with a question, not with the codebase.** How does a request become a response, or where does this value come from. Reading without a question produces recognition rather than understanding. 2. **Find the entry points first.** Routes, handlers, command definitions, and scheduled jobs are where behaviour begins, and they orient everything else (see repository-structure). 3. **Trace one path end to end.** Follow a single realistic operation through every layer, since one complete path teaches more than surveying every module (see mental-model-building). 4. **Read the tests to learn the contract.** Tests state intended behaviour and edge cases more honestly than comments, and they show how the code is meant to be called (see unit-test-design). 5. **Use the debugger and the call graph over guessing.** Stepping through a real execution answers in minutes what reading answers in …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add amey-thakur/ai-skills/code-reading@sha256:494183cf871dd32bThe line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260728.fac4544, 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_ibhoqprzio5jbvvd)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, all committed on Jul 28, 2026.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260728.fac4544 latest | 2026-07-28 | fac4544 | 2,195 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260728.ea77000 | 2026-07-28 | ea77000 | 2,190 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 (2195 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
amey-thakur/ai-skills · 14 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-09-06 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_ibhoqprzio5jbvvd GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=amey-thakur/ai-skills/code-reading GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/494183cf871dd32b52e0d31aa7f9468c0a7e1419875bb0298ba33d6e9bf5d84c
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.