alternatives-considered SKILL.md skillA
alternatives-considered from edbertchan/catstack is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add edbertchan/catstack/alternatives-considered@git:20260909.2dc9a9fPins git:20260909.2dc9a9f in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- edbertchan/catstack
- Path
product/skills/alternatives-considered/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260909.2dc9a9f, committed Sep 9, 2026
- Size
- 3,306 bytes
- Repository stars
- 6
- License
- none declared
Produce the real option set for a decision before committing to the first shape that came to mind. Use before a design, a schema, a naming or format choice, or any change expensive to reverse. Every option is labeled considered (cited) or invented (untested); invented options route to `spike-and-validate` before they can decide anything.
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
# Alternatives considered One attempt at a hard design locks in the first shape the model thought of. This produces the option set, with each option honest about where it came from. ## The asymmetry that governs this skill `how` and `why` read what exists. They can come back empty, and an empty result is informative. This skill **generates**. It can always produce three plausible options, and plausibility is free. Left ungated it manufactures evidence for `principle-prove-it` — which is the exact failure that principle exists to stop. So every option carries a label and the label is load-bearing: | Label | Means | Authority | | --- | --- | --- | | `considered` | Someone actually weighed this — cite the PR comment, commit, doc, or rejected design | Evidence | | `invented` | Produced here, never tried | Hypothesis only | An `invented` option may not decide anything until `spike-and-validate` turns it into a run with real output. Saying "we considered X and rejected it" about an option nobody ran is a false claim about the record. ## Step 1. Bound the decision State in one line: what is being chosen, and what makes it expensive to …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add edbertchan/catstack/alternatives-considered@sha256:a46137772bc82ce3The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260909.2dc9a9f, 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_kxs6yfm7kkjdr7e3)
2 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Sep 9, 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 (3306 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
edbertchan/catstack · 6 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-10-22 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_kxs6yfm7kkjdr7e3 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=edbertchan/catstack/alternatives-considered GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/a46137772bc82ce3c66893b7276f9002ebafab91c7ec7ccd6a2dffece6d5660b
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.