principle-explain-the-number SKILL.md skillA

principle-explain-the-number from michael-denyer/pstack-claude is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned
mdr add michael-denyer/pstack-claude/principle-explain-the-number@git:20261013.058a348

Pins git:20261013.058a348 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade
A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind
SKILL.md skill
Repository
michael-denyer/pstack-claude
Path
plugins/pstack/skills/principle-explain-the-number/SKILL.md
Versions recorded
2
Latest version
git:20261013.058a348, committed Oct 13, 2026
First version recorded
Oct 3, 2026
Size
1,654 bytes
Repository stars
3,263
License
MIT

Apply before you trust, report, or act on a number you measured: a speedup, a regression, a throughput, a latency, or an eval result. Find what limits it, and rule out that it measured something other than the work you think.

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

# Explain the Number

- **Ask "why not double?"** Name the resource or code path that bounds the result, such as a core, a lock, the disk, the network, or the load generator itself. Get it from a profile or from system counters taken during a run, then map it to source. A guess from reading the code is not a limiter. If you cannot say why the number is not twice as good, you do not know what you measured.
- **List what else the number could be measuring, and rule out each one with evidence.** The usual suspects are errors, skipped or cached work, code that never ran, an untuned side (one left on default settings), noise, and a piece too small to matter end to end.
- **Keep the evidence with the number.** Put the run count, the spread, and the limiter in the notes or a linked artifact.

For a performance number, run the full procedure with the [benchmark-checklist](../benchmark-checklist/SKILL.md) skill. For an eval result, ask the same of the trials: did every run do the task, does the gap hold across trials and models, and does the scenario matter.
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint
mdr add michael-denyer/pstack-claude/principle-explain-the-number@sha256:f376dfbb8086c76e

The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261013.058a348, 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 badge

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_mkw3e3o33efhg2sy.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_mkw3e3o33efhg2sy)

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

Versions

The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Oct 3, 2026 and Oct 13, 2026, about one every 9 days.

versioncommittedcommitsizeaudit
git:20261013.058a348 latest2026-10-13 058a348 1,654 BA view · diff
git:20261003.55430ba2026-10-03 55430ba 2,100 BA 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 (1654 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

michael-denyer/pstack-claude · 3,263 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-21 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_mkw3e3o33efhg2sy
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=michael-denyer/pstack-claude/principle-explain-the-number
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/f376dfbb8086c76e313036d303628bf454e94aec9c2a5ccfcc7fafef1aabd72f

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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