do-things-that-dont-scale SKILL.md skillA
do-things-that-dont-scale from deciqai/knowledge-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add deciqai/knowledge-skills/do-things-that-dont-scale@git:20261025.cb4e537Pins git:20261025.cb4e537 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- deciqai/knowledge-skills
- Path
do-things-that-dont-scale/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 5
- Latest version
- git:20261025.cb4e537, committed Oct 25, 2026
- First version recorded
- Jul 16, 2026
- Size
- 2,999 bytes
- Repository stars
- 13
- License
- MIT
Activate when: an early founder is over-automating or waiting for growth to be 'efficient'; 'this won't scale', recruiting first users, delivering early service manually; concierge/white-glove starts. Do NOT activate when: the motion is already validated and the task is genuinely to scale it (then systemize/automate). More: deciqai.com/s/do-things-that-dont-scale.
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
# Do Things That Don't Scale ## Overview Paul Graham's counterintuitive rule: early on, **the unscalable is exactly what you should do**. Startups don't take off by themselves — founders recruit users manually, deliver an over-the-top experience by hand, and learn things automation would hide. Worrying about scale too early is a form of avoidance; the manual phase is where you earn insight and love that later become your moat. ## The Process 1. **Recruit the first users by hand** — go to them individually; don't wait for a funnel. *Gate: "it won't scale" used to avoid direct outreach = you're hiding from the work that matters now.* 2. **Deliver a delightfully unscalable experience** — concierge/white-glove; do manually what the product will later automate. 3. **Insert yourself into the value delivery** — the friction you feel is the product spec. 4. **Learn from doing, not dashboards** — hand-delivery surfaces needs analytics miss. 5. **Use the unscalable to create early love** — a small number of users who love you beats many who are indifferent. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add deciqai/knowledge-skills/do-things-that-dont-scale@sha256:158f7d2012499584The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261025.cb4e537, 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_nsz5altuva2gowq4)
5 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 5 versions of this file, between Jul 16, 2026 and Oct 25, 2026, about one every 25 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261025.cb4e537 latest | 2026-10-25 | cb4e537 | 2,999 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260816.be84677 | 2026-08-16 | be84677 | 2,999 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260719.ed3f856 | 2026-07-19 | ed3f856 | 2,999 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260717.2ed857e | 2026-07-17 | 2ed857e | 2,999 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260716.fac12bf | 2026-07-16 | fac12bf | 2,999 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 (2999 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
deciqai/knowledge-skills · 13 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-25 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_nsz5altuva2gowq4 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=deciqai/knowledge-skills/do-things-that-dont-scale GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/158f7d201249958416044eeeee4852da1920aa0bf7592509dd47d23d076fbadd
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.