principle-subagent-inherits-scope SKILL.md skillA
principle-subagent-inherits-scope from edbertchan/catstack is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add edbertchan/catstack/principle-subagent-inherits-scope@git:20260924.cf30493Pins git:20260924.cf30493 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- edbertchan/catstack
- Path
corpus/skills/principle-subagent-inherits-scope/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 4
- Latest version
- git:20260924.cf30493, committed Sep 24, 2026
- First version recorded
- Sep 9, 2026
- Size
- 5,789 bytes
- Repository stars
- 6
- License
- none declared
Apply when spawning or prompting a subagent, fork, explorer, investigator, judge, or worker. A subagent may not act outside the scope its parent gave it, and may not widen that scope on its own. A subagent that finds the parent's premise wrong surfaces the contradiction with evidence instead of acting on it or quietly conforming to it.
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
# A subagent inherits its parent's scope A subagent's authority is a subset of its parent's, never a superset. It works inside the scope it was handed and returns; it does not decide the scope was too small. **Why:** a parent delegates because it cannot hold the work itself, which is exactly why it cannot review every action the subagent took. The parent sees a summary. So the subagent's restraint is the only control, and a summary saying "also fixed an unrelated bug I noticed" arrives after the edit already landed. Widening is not reviewable after the fact. ## Inherited, not re-derived A subagent may not exceed the parent on any of these: - **Files and directories.** Only what the parent named, or what tracing from there requires. An adjacent file that looks related is out of scope. - **Write authority.** A read-only brief stays read-only. Scope wording is not filesystem isolation — a subagent told to write files runs in its own worktree, never the live checkout, even when other parts of the same prompt default to read-only. - **Destructive or outward actions.** Never inherited by default. Commits, …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add edbertchan/catstack/principle-subagent-inherits-scope@sha256:8dcefebdcb312e86The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260924.cf30493, 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_wxatpko3p2u4vyde)
2 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 4 versions of this file, between Sep 9, 2026 and Sep 24, 2026, about one every 5 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260924.cf30493 latest | 2026-09-24 | cf30493 | 5,789 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260923.a014aec | 2026-09-23 | a014aec | 4,120 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260910.57b918f | 2026-09-10 | 57b918f | 4,047 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260909.329512b | 2026-09-09 | 329512b | 3,840 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 (5789 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
edbertchan/catstack · 6 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-10-22 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_wxatpko3p2u4vyde GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=edbertchan/catstack/principle-subagent-inherits-scope GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/8dcefebdcb312e8696bd8ca4ea431fc8593f9397af7a11abfceff303d3ab74fb
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.