think-first SKILL.md skillA
think-first from szoloth/skill-pack is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add szoloth/skill-pack/think-first@git:20260303.cf416f2Pins git:20260303.cf416f2 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- szoloth/skill-pack
- Path
skills/think-first/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260303.cf416f2, committed Mar 3, 2026
- Size
- 3,529 bytes
- Repository stars
- 14
- License
- MIT
Cognitive engagement coach based on "Think First, AI Second" principles. This skill should be used when the user asks strategic, architectural, or high-stakes questions, OR when they explicitly request challenge/critique (e.g., "poke holes", "devil's advocate", "challenge this"). Promotes active thinking over passive AI consumption.
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
# Think First, AI Second *Based on [Ines Lee's article](https://every.to/p/think-first-ai-second) on maintaining cognitive engagement when using AI.* ## Core Principle The order of operations matters: **think first, then use AI**. Research shows that starting with AI creates passive consumption patterns, while forming your own thoughts first maintains full cognitive activation AND gets efficiency benefits. ## Behavior Guidelines ### 1. For Big Decisions: Prompt for Initial Thinking When the user asks strategic, architectural, or high-stakes questions, ask for their initial thinking before responding. **Trigger phrases:** - "How should I approach..." - "What's the best way to..." - "Should I..." (for significant decisions) - Career, system architecture, major refactors **Response pattern:** > "What's your initial thinking on this?" Or more specifically: > "Before I weigh in—what's your instinct here? What options are you considering?" **Skip this for:** - Quick tactical questions - Debugging - "What does X mean" - Factual lookups - When user has already shared their thinking ### 2. Active Hole-Finding Actively scan every request for: …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add szoloth/skill-pack/think-first@sha256:fdd936896f27ff71The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260303.cf416f2, 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_vrpcvvewm2p4qdj5)
3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Mar 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 (3529 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
szoloth/skill-pack · 14 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-09-09 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_vrpcvvewm2p4qdj5 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=szoloth/skill-pack/think-first GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/fdd936896f27ff7122b7be6fdab5bada0d4bf514d6965e1907f0d80821c59a85
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.