investigate-first SKILL.md skillA
investigate-first from juliusbrussee/caveman is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add juliusbrussee/caveman/investigate-first@git:20260811.82864c8Pins git:20260811.82864c8 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- juliusbrussee/caveman
- Path
skills/investigate-first/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260811.82864c8, committed Aug 11, 2026
- Size
- 688 bytes
- Repository stars
- 118,366
- License
- Apache-2.0
Diagnose ambiguous failures before editing. Use for unknown causes, intermittent behavior, performance regressions, or investigations needing evidence-ranked hypotheses.
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
# Investigate first Gather evidence before changing product code. - Separate observed symptom from inferred cause. - Trace inputs, state transitions, ownership boundaries, and failure output. - Rank hypotheses by evidence and cheap falsification value. - Do not edit until one credible mechanism explains evidence. - Stop exploration when evidence is sufficient to name cause or exact blocker. Report cause and proof. Make no fix unless task authorizes implementation.
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add juliusbrussee/caveman/investigate-first@sha256:7cc19dd2fc457eb2The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260811.82864c8, 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_kncwjjtihsppswsm)
6 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Aug 11, 2026.
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 (688 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
juliusbrussee/caveman · 118,366 stars · license Apache-2.0 · pushed 2026-11-08 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_kncwjjtihsppswsm GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=juliusbrussee/caveman/investigate-first GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/7cc19dd2fc457eb20d65c44dee4d1b72dcdfcd1617182f5bff666700f2a055d8
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.