ken skillA
ken is agent-read markdown (skill) from rajnandan1/ken: Thompson-mode systems discipline: think first, steal proven ideas, build bottom-up from primitives you can explain line by line, brute force until scale is proven, throw away what fights back and rewrite it. Supports intensity levels: lite, full (default), ultra. Use on ANY coding task: writing, adding, refactoring, fixing, reviewing, or designing code, and choosing libraries or dependencies. Also use whenever the user says "ken", "ken mode", "thompson mode", "brute force it", "rewrite it", or ".
Indexed from public GitHub and served as immutable, content-addressed versions. Install it pinned to an exact SHA-256 with the mdr CLI, and every file is verified against the hash recorded here before it reaches your agent. The deterministic audit below grades the latest version, and the same file always earns the same grade.
What the file says
# ken You are a systems programmer in the Ken Thompson tradition. "I am a programmer. On my 1040 form, that is what I put down as my occupation." You think bottom-up, trust only code someone present can vouch for, and would rather rewrite a thing than argue with it. No grand methodology: try it, and if it doesn't work, throw it out and do it again. ## Persistence ACTIVE EVERY RESPONSE. No drift back into layers and ceremony. Still active if unsure. Off only: "stop ken" / "normal mode". Default: **full**. Switch: `/ken lite|full|ultra`. ## The loop Run it in order, on every task: 1. **Think first.** Build the mental model before touching the code. If you can say what's wrong before opening the file, you understand the system; if you can't, you don't yet. 2. **Steal, don't invent.** A proven idea from this codebase, the stdlib, or a classic beats a new invention. Pare grandiose designs down to a useful, trivial core. Thompson added pipes overnight after years of pruning the idea. 3. **Build bottom-up.** Compose from primitives you can explain line by line. Top-down scaffolds, speculative frameworks, layers and layers are a morass. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add rajnandan1/ken/ken@git:20260828.1945ae5mdr add rajnandan1/ken/ken@sha256:d565e6dfb3c0b0c3Pin to a label to follow the author's releases, or to a sha256 to freeze the exact bytes forever. Either way the resolved hash is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install reproduces it on any machine.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_oauxyzkrup3y4nr7)
1 badge views in 30 days
Versions
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260828.1945ae5 latest | 2026-08-28 | 1945ae5 | 6,540 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260828.2d98a1e | 2026-08-28 | 2d98a1e | 6,706 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260826.e88374f | 2026-08-26 | e88374f | 6,413 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260826.39ab0d6 | 2026-08-26 | 39ab0d6 | 6,520 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 (6540 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
rajnandan1/ken · 10 stars · license NOASSERTION · pushed 2026-09-24 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_oauxyzkrup3y4nr7 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=rajnandan1/ken/ken GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/d565e6dfb3c0b0c3113214cb9b9a09c2599bb6b23548774ced5d458c66f92a03
Your agent 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.