Home / the-artificer-of-ciphers-llc / skills-from-the-artificer · GitHub

test-first-bugfix SKILL.md skillA

test-first-bugfix from the-artificer-of-ciphers-llc/skills-from-the-artificer is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned

mdr add the-artificer-of-ciphers-llc/skills-from-the-artificer/test-first-bugfix@git:20261108.5e6d7c1

Pins git:20261108.5e6d7c1 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade: A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind: SKILL.md skill
Repository: the-artificer-of-ciphers-llc/skills-from-the-artificer
Path: test-first-bugfix/SKILL.md
Versions recorded: 2
Latest version: git:20261108.5e6d7c1, committed Nov 8, 2026
First version recorded: Apr 15, 2026
Size: 11,587 bytes
Repository stars: 6
License: MIT

Test-driven bug fixing — reproduce before you fix. Use this skill whenever the user reports a bug, describes unexpected behavior, says something is broken, mentions a regression, or asks you to fix an error. This includes phrases like "this is broken", "X doesn't work", "there's a bug in", "getting an error when", "it used to work but now", "failing on", or any variation. Even if the user says "just fix it" or "quick fix", use this skill — the reproduce-first discipline catches regressions and…

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

# Test-First Bug Fixing

When a user reports a bug, the instinct is to jump straight to reading code and patching it. Resist that. A fix without a reproduction test is a guess — you can't prove it works, and you can't prevent the bug from coming back. This skill enforces a disciplined sequence: **understand → reproduce → fix → prove**.

## Progress checklist

- [ ] 1. Bug understood: expected vs. actual stated, likely area identified
- [ ] 2. Test setup studied: framework, conventions, helpers found
- [ ] 3. Reproduction test written and **seen failing**, output shown to the user
- [ ] 4. Fix applied (subagents raced only when more than one credible strategy exists)
- [ ] 5. Winner picked: repro passes, nothing else broke, smallest root-cause fix
- [ ] 6. Final verification in the main tree: repro and broader suite green, shown to the user
- [ ] Regression patterns checked: incomplete enumeration, partial fix across call sites, silent fallthrough, stale test encoding the bug

## The Sequence

### 1. Understand the Bug

Before touching any code, make sure you understand what's actually broken:

- Ask clarifying questions if the report is ambiguous
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint

mdr add the-artificer-of-ciphers-llc/skills-from-the-artificer/test-first-bugfix@sha256:b3f085b8ac6cca2e

The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261108.5e6d7c1, 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_jbzogx3wudwltcz7.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_jbzogx3wudwltcz7)

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

Versions

The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Apr 15, 2026 and Nov 8, 2026, about one every 206 days.

version	committed	commit	size	audit
git:20261108.5e6d7c1 latest	2026-11-08	5e6d7c1	11,587 B	A	view · diff
git:20260415.109c051	2026-04-15	109c051	15,747 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 (11587 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

the-artificer-of-ciphers-llc/skills-from-the-artificer · 6 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-11-08 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_jbzogx3wudwltcz7
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=the-artificer-of-ciphers-llc/skills-from-the-artificer/test-first-bugfix
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/b3f085b8ac6cca2e6ecbfb4b44e9f9b34abf63288d66485971e7f8b9ad925d64

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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