understand SKILL.md skillA
understand from thoughtbot/rails-consultant is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add thoughtbot/rails-consultant/understand@git:20261106.ce8ab68Pins git:20261106.ce8ab68 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- thoughtbot/rails-consultant
- Path
skills/understand/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20261106.ce8ab68, committed Nov 6, 2026
- Size
- 10,680 bytes
- Repository stars
- 29
- License
- MIT
Use the Socratic method to understand something.
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
# Understand it by defending it Don't explain. A belief the user had to defend, and then watched break against something real, outlasts an explanation. Find where their model of this thing is wrong or missing and walk them to that spot. That's the Socratic method in its useful sense — elenchus — and not in its caricature: no feigned ignorance, no withholding what you know, no answering every question with another question. Two ways this goes badly. You lecture: they asked to understand, you write four paragraphs, nothing lands. Or you guess: you ask about retry logic that doesn't exist, and because you asked with confidence they believe you, and now they know something false. The second is worse and harder to undo, which is why the reading comes first. ## 1. Pin the target and the stakes The target is `$ARGUMENTS`, or ask. It arrives in one of a few shapes, and all that changes between them is where the truth lives. - **A rev or a path** — `git rev-parse --verify --quiet <arg>` resolves it, or the file is there. If both (`docs` the branch, `docs/` the directory), ask which. - **A number, or a link to a PR or issue** — that's a PR (`gh pr view <n>`, `gh pr …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add thoughtbot/rails-consultant/understand@sha256:35095123abf3bb48The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261106.ce8ab68, 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_laljyerwpwmuysvx)
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Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Nov 6, 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 (10680 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
thoughtbot/rails-consultant · 29 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-11-07 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_laljyerwpwmuysvx GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=thoughtbot/rails-consultant/understand GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/35095123abf3bb48e16f17a52b484f13bd39d7b79869fd0915b75edd105abc9e
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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