understand skillA
understand is agent-read markdown (skill) from stevepolitodesign/skills: Use the Socratic method to understand something..
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
# Understand it by defending it Don't explain. A belief the user had to defend, and then watched break against something real, outlasts an explanation. Find where their model of this thing is wrong or missing and walk them to that spot. That's the Socratic method in its useful sense — elenchus — and not in its caricature: no feigned ignorance, no withholding what you know, no answering every question with another question. Two ways this goes badly. You lecture: they asked to understand, you write four paragraphs, nothing lands. Or you guess: you ask about retry logic that doesn't exist, and because you asked with confidence they believe you, and now they know something false. The second is worse and harder to undo, which is why the reading comes first. ## 1. Pin the target and the stakes The target is `$ARGUMENTS`, or ask. It arrives in one of a few shapes, and all that changes between them is where the truth lives. - **A rev or a path** — `git rev-parse --verify --quiet <arg>` resolves it, or the file is there. If both (`docs` the branch, `docs/` the directory), ask which. - **A number, or a link to a PR or issue** — that's a PR (`gh pr view <n>`, `gh pr …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add stevepolitodesign/skills/understand@git:20260916.9c9c896mdr add stevepolitodesign/skills/understand@sha256:dad06e3d0bd5bf5aPin 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_pxhtae5o4agq3chd)
1 badge views in 30 days
Versions
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260916.9c9c896 latest | 2026-09-16 | 9c9c896 | 10,682 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260915.6a51426 | 2026-09-15 | 6a51426 | 10,595 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260821.fc75dfb | 2026-08-21 | fc75dfb | 10,626 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 (10682 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
stevepolitodesign/skills · 3 stars · license none · pushed 2026-09-24 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_pxhtae5o4agq3chd GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=stevepolitodesign/skills/understand GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/dad06e3d0bd5bf5a8524d74ebc5f2507283ec3945d8a0f120f8958bc1c3d9e74
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.
More from stevepolitodesign/skills
Every file in stevepolitodesign/skills