best-practices SKILL.md skillA
best-practices from vinta/hal-9000 is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add vinta/hal-9000/best-practices@git:20261020.eaa1ff3Pins git:20261020.eaa1ff3 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- vinta/hal-9000
- Path
skills/best-practices/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 16
- Latest version
- git:20261020.eaa1ff3, committed Oct 20, 2026
- First version recorded
- Aug 9, 2026
- Size
- 2,355 bytes
- Repository stars
- 141
- License
- MIT
Use when about to choose, configure, or refine a tool, library, config format, API pattern, or project setup, or before proposing a design of your own — research current guidance, pitfalls, and prior art first; already knowing an approach, or assuming no prior art exists, is not an exemption. Also use when the user asks about best practices, gotchas, or recommended patterns.
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
# Best Practices
Answer two questions from current sources: **what's the recommended way**, and **what bites people** (the gotchas and pitfalls around it). A how-to without its pitfalls is half an answer.
## Two-Phase Rule
- **Phase 1: Research.** Dispatch `find-docs` and/or web search queries (`WebSearch` in Claude Code, `web_search` in Codex).
- **Phase 2: Synthesize and act.** Starts only after Phase 1 results arrive.
The user's argument may be a question or an imperative. Imperatives ("refine X", "set up Y") determine what Phase 2 does, not whether Phase 1 happens. Phase 1 always runs.
## Workflow
1. Break the topic into 2-4 specific queries. Dedicate at least one query to pitfalls ("common mistakes with X", "X gotchas in production"): pitfalls live in issue threads, migration guides, and post-mortems, not in getting-started docs. Dedicate one query to how leading open source projects or production teams do it, which can differ from what the docs recommend. For single-library lookups, call `find-docs` or web search directly without subagents.
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add vinta/hal-9000/best-practices@sha256:e5e1a674fed90796The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261020.eaa1ff3, 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_mxgkxwnplkp6jnka)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 16 versions of this file, between Aug 9, 2026 and Oct 20, 2026, about one every 5 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261020.eaa1ff3 latest | 2026-10-20 | eaa1ff3 | 2,355 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261020.87bca8c | 2026-10-20 | 87bca8c | 2,253 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261003.eb1a9a5 | 2026-10-03 | eb1a9a5 | 2,214 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261003.832fbf4 | 2026-10-03 | 832fbf4 | 2,162 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261003.21eca77 | 2026-10-03 | 21eca77 | 2,142 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261003.1707f97 | 2026-10-03 | 1707f97 | 2,692 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260927.404bf3e | 2026-09-27 | 404bf3e | 5,145 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260927.c7fa58e | 2026-09-27 | c7fa58e | 5,264 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260923.16c363b | 2026-09-23 | 16c363b | 5,220 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260916.99bc966 | 2026-09-16 | 99bc966 | 5,208 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260916.1784197 | 2026-09-16 | 1784197 | 5,204 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260914.20ae0ac | 2026-09-14 | 20ae0ac | 5,206 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260902.85268fb | 2026-09-02 | 85268fb | 5,193 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260815.f92b264 | 2026-08-15 | f92b264 | 5,218 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260811.7488f76 | 2026-08-11 | 7488f76 | 5,249 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260809.2a37806 | 2026-08-09 | 2a37806 | 5,285 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 (2355 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
vinta/hal-9000 · 141 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-20 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_mxgkxwnplkp6jnka GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=vinta/hal-9000/best-practices GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/e5e1a674fed9079657efce553dbc366f162bb89d864e5787d0fbece118699ef1
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.