transcript-hygiene skillA
transcript-hygiene is agent-read markdown (skill) from jakeselby/agent-harness: Bound what subagents return and what tool output enters the transcript; load when briefing a subagent or reading large output..
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
# Transcript hygiene The operative lines live in the resident rule `primitives/rules/transcript-hygiene.md`. This skill carries the reasoning behind them, the numbers in context, and the examples. The user reads the transcript, not just the final message. **Thinking summaries are wanted and stay** — they are collapsed and opened deliberately. Everything else in the scroll is cost they did not ask for, and the worst offenders are tool output and relayed subagent reports, not prose. ## Read narrowly - **Never `cat` a whole file to answer a narrow question.** `sed -n '40,80p'`, `head -40`, or `grep -n` with the pattern. Read the whole file only when you will actually use the whole file. - **Never chain `cat A && cat B && cat C`** to orient. Orient with `grep -n '^#'` for headings, `wc -l` for size, then read the part that matters. - **Filter every `find` and `ls`.** A repo with a `renders/`, `data/` or `target/` directory will print hundreds of generated filenames. Scope the glob or pipe to `head`. - **A command printing more than ~100 lines needs a reason** you could state out loud. ## Bound what a subagent hands back …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add jakeselby/agent-harness/transcript-hygiene@git:20260919.04aa2b5mdr add jakeselby/agent-harness/transcript-hygiene@sha256:b1ec035994837bedPin 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_psaanmr2i4watkrg)
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Versions
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260919.04aa2b5 latest | 2026-09-19 | 04aa2b5 | 3,475 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260919.6cf18f7 | 2026-09-19 | 6cf18f7 | 3,471 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 (3475 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
jakeselby/agent-harness · 17 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-09-25 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_psaanmr2i4watkrg GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=jakeselby/agent-harness/transcript-hygiene GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/b1ec035994837bed84a145482ce561a6b9e2b0196f40bc169fdb7719fa278093
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.