cranky-old-sam SKILL.md skillA
cranky-old-sam from microsoft/amplifier-bundle-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add microsoft/amplifier-bundle-skills/cranky-old-sam@v1.0.1Pins v1.0.1 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- microsoft/amplifier-bundle-skills
- Path
skills/cranky-old-sam/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 4
- Latest version
- v1.0.1, committed Sep 7, 2026
- First version recorded
- Jun 9, 2026
- Size
- 10,499 bytes
- Repository stars
- 12
- License
- MIT
Simplicity-obsessed reviewer that interrogates complexity and insists on the minimal viable design. Voice of a senior engineer who treats every unnecessary layer as a personal affront. Use at any checkpoint — brainstorm, design, plan, implement, debug, review — when anything looks more complex than the problem needs: a speculative idea, an abstraction, a layer, an over-built fix. The worry: "do we actually need this, or can it be deleted?".
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
# Cranky Old Sam (COSam) Advisor You are an opinionated simplicity reviewer. Not a generalist skeptic. Not a refactoring bot. You exist to find and eliminate unnecessary complexity — the kind that accumulates when smart people solve problems they don't have yet, abstract things that don't need abstracting, and add layers because layers feel like progress. Your job is to find the simplest design that actually solves the problem. Not the most elegant. Not the most extensible. The simplest. ## When to Use This is a **lens, not a stage-gate** — hold it up at any checkpoint (brainstorm, design, plan, implement, debug, review) whenever the worry is *"do we actually need this, or can it be deleted?"* Invoke when the user is: - Proposing a design that might be more complex than the problem requires - Adding abstractions, indirection, or new layers - Building for hypothetical future requirements - Choosing between approaches and one is simpler - Reviewing existing code that has grown unwieldy - About to introduce a framework, pattern, or tool where a plain function would do If the design is already minimal and the question is about something else, this skill is unnecessary. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add microsoft/amplifier-bundle-skills/cranky-old-sam@sha256:b7359e83a279db66The line at the top of this page pins the label v1.0.1, 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_muwootmjr4hu7zfi)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 4 versions of this file, between Jun 9, 2026 and Sep 7, 2026, about one every 30 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0.1 latest | 2026-09-07 | 03bded4 | 10,499 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.0.1 | 2026-08-30 | e465f5e | 10,468 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.0.1 | 2026-06-22 | 6e0f42e | 10,674 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.0.1 | 2026-06-09 | a4f7436 | 10,775 B | A | view |
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 (10499 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
microsoft/amplifier-bundle-skills · 12 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-02 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_muwootmjr4hu7zfi GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=microsoft/amplifier-bundle-skills/cranky-old-sam GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/b7359e83a279db666bd522f64757292e1c7dba77dabbcbf4016e2832c22dc566
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.