surface-instruction-concern SKILL.md skillA
surface-instruction-concern from jposluns/grc_library is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add jposluns/grc_library/surface-instruction-concern@git:20260803.50c809aPins git:20260803.50c809a in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- jposluns/grc_library
- Path
guardrails/skills/surface-instruction-concern/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260803.50c809a, committed Aug 3, 2026
- Size
- 7,645 bytes
- Repository stars
- 3
- License
- CC-BY-SA-4.0
Runs the stop-consider-confirm protocol when executing a clear instruction as given would be counterproductive. Use when an instruction would destroy or discard committed work, reduce quality or efficiency with no offsetting benefit, contradict a goal the requestor stated, or rest on an apparently stale belief about current state; and when a brief instruction has both a harmful literal reading and a sensible charitable one. Walks the trigger test, the charitable-interpretation and stale-state…
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
# Surface Instruction Concern (before executing it)
## Overview
The failure mode this skill interrupts: fast, compliant execution of an
instruction that is perfectly clear and still the wrong thing to do, because its
execution as given would cost the requestor something they did not foresee. The
highest-severity shape is the silent most-destructive-literal reading: a brief
instruction ("wind down after this") taken to authorize destroying committed work
the requestor did not know existed. The requestor's actual interest, not
compliance, is the goal; a one-sentence confirmation is cheap, and unwinding
executed damage is not.
The canonical rule
([`surface-counterproductive-instructions`](../../governance/surface-counterproductive-instructions.md))
defines the five trigger classes and the calibration; this skill is its workflow
wrapper for the moment an instruction lands and something about executing it as
given feels net-negative.
## When to Use
- Executing the instruction as given would REDUCE efficiency, effectiveness, or
productivity, with no offsetting benefit the requestor named.
- Executing it as given would lower quality or correctness (introduce a defect,
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add jposluns/grc_library/surface-instruction-concern@sha256:002b989330e88922The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260803.50c809a, 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_r4ns37xjimswhqnp)
2 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Aug 3, 2026.
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 (7645 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
jposluns/grc_library · 3 stars · license CC-BY-SA-4.0 · pushed 2026-11-08 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_r4ns37xjimswhqnp GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=jposluns/grc_library/surface-instruction-concern GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/002b989330e88922227724baf7abe54f20cedbea5c90490e7416aa289bf969bf
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.