aide-plugin-author-guide SKILL.md skillA
aide-plugin-author-guide from anonymousnomad/aide-sovereign-workbench is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add anonymousnomad/aide-sovereign-workbench/aide-plugin-author-guide@git:20260829.3450c8ePins git:20260829.3450c8e in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- anonymousnomad/aide-sovereign-workbench
- Path
skills/packs/aide-plugin-author-guide/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260829.3450c8e, committed Aug 29, 2026
- Size
- 8,168 bytes
- Repository stars
- 53
- License
- Apache-2.0
How to build an AIDE plugin — manifest contract, capability model, spawn-protocol rules, the Windows-stdin gotcha that bit the skills-inspector prototype, and the path-resolution patterns that survive both the manager's --permission spawn and direct CLI runs. Use when authoring any new plugin under plugins/, when debugging a plugin that exits 0 with no output, or when porting an existing CLI tool into the plugin system.
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
# AIDE Plugin Author Guide
Born 2026-08-28 from a real attempt to ship `plugins/skills-inspector`
(an inspector over `skills/registry.json` that suggested skills based
on a workspace's file extensions). The plugin ran in the manager's
`spawn()` but exited 0 with empty stdout and empty stderr — the
lessons below are the unwasted bit.
## What the plugin system actually does today
- `plugins/manager.mjs` exports `PluginManager` with `load()`,
`scaffold(id)`, `setTrust(id, true)`, `execute(id, payload)`.
- Manifest validation is strict: `id` must match its folder, `api_version`
must be `'1'`, capabilities must be in the allowlist
(`workspace.read`, `workspace.write`, `terminal.run`, `ui.view`,
`command.register`, `network.localhost`), entry path is jail-validated.
- `execute()` spawns a child with `--permission --allow-fs-read=<pluginDir>`
plus per-capability grants. stdout + stderr are captured; the child
gets `JSON.stringify(payload) + '\n'` on stdin and the pipe is closed.
- The plugin must write a single JSON object to stdout and exit 0.
Non-zero or invalid JSON → the manager rejects with the captured stderr.
## Manifest contract (verified 2026-08-28)
```json
{
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add anonymousnomad/aide-sovereign-workbench/aide-plugin-author-guide@sha256:3eb4dc05ef258f3fThe line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260829.3450c8e, 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_u25z3t6bxhje56tr)
5 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Aug 29, 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 (8168 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
anonymousnomad/aide-sovereign-workbench · 53 stars · license Apache-2.0 · pushed 2026-10-26 · branch covert-production
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_u25z3t6bxhje56tr GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=anonymousnomad/aide-sovereign-workbench/aide-plugin-author-guide GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/3eb4dc05ef258f3f56ba7d2b8fcb690e671330b21066e1dfd0661753e32ec74b
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.