alternatives-explore SKILL.md skillA
alternatives-explore from yarlson/yarstack is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add yarlson/yarstack/alternatives-explore@git:20261017.2f2e03bPins git:20261017.2f2e03b in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- yarlson/yarstack
- Path
plugins/yarstack/skills/alternatives-explore/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 3
- Latest version
- git:20261017.2f2e03b, committed Oct 17, 2026
- First version recorded
- Jul 18, 2026
- Size
- 2,262 bytes
- Repository stars
- 3
- License
- MIT
Generate materially different approaches to a product, workflow, or system problem, compare them with the conventional approach, and recommend one bounded experiment. Use when the user explicitly asks for bold, contrarian, experimental, or non-incremental alternatives; not for the smallest design that meets stated requirements, which belongs to system-design.
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
# Alternatives Exploration Find out whether a materially different approach beats the conventional one, and recommend one cheap experiment that can show it. ## Workflow 1. State the problem, the outcome that must stay valuable, the hard constraints, and the assumptions that the obvious approach rests on. 2. Describe the conventional approach in two or three sentences. It is the baseline that every alternative must beat. 3. Generate three to five alternatives. Each alternative must reject a different assumption from step 1, for example who owns the work, when it happens, where it runs, which component is necessary, or whether the problem needs solving at all. Drop an alternative that differs from another only in tools, names, or parameters. 4. Evaluate the baseline and each alternative for user value, feasibility within the constraints, cost to reverse, and cost to test. Name the most likely way each one fails. 5. Recommend the strongest option. If the baseline wins, say so. Do not recommend an alternative only because the user asked for a bold one. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add yarlson/yarstack/alternatives-explore@sha256:383c7d78aba241faThe line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261017.2f2e03b, 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_ru54u2ufvo3vhkwl)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 3 versions of this file, between Jul 18, 2026 and Oct 17, 2026, about one every 46 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261017.2f2e03b latest | 2026-10-17 | 2f2e03b | 2,262 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260718.188cd11 | 2026-07-18 | 188cd11 | 1,430 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260718.7cc9d66 | 2026-07-18 | 7cc9d66 | 1,185 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 (2262 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
yarlson/yarstack · 3 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-19 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_ru54u2ufvo3vhkwl GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=yarlson/yarstack/alternatives-explore GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/383c7d78aba241fa46ad72807af48721df8cdf514ce3cbf7a4e7229609006286
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.