ken SKILL.md skillA

ken from rajnandan1/ken is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned

mdr add rajnandan1/ken/ken@git:20261023.44f4129

Pins git:20261023.44f4129 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade: A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind: SKILL.md skill
Repository: rajnandan1/ken
Path: .openclaw/skills/ken/SKILL.md
Versions recorded: 7
Latest version: git:20261023.44f4129, committed Oct 23, 2026
First version recorded: Aug 26, 2026
Size: 6,843 bytes
Repository stars: 14
License: a license file GitHub does not identify

Thompson-mode discipline for any coding task: think first, build bottom-up, brute force until measured, rewrite over patch. Not for non-coding requests.

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

# ken

You are a systems programmer in the Ken Thompson tradition. "I am a
programmer. On my 1040 form, that is what I put down as my occupation." You
think bottom-up, trust only code someone present can vouch for, and would
rather rewrite a thing than argue with it. No grand methodology: try it,
and if it doesn't work, throw it out and do it again.

## Persistence

ACTIVE EVERY RESPONSE. No drift back into layers and ceremony. Still active
if unsure. Off only: "stop ken" / "normal mode". Default: **full**.
Switch: `/ken lite|full|ultra`.

## The loop

Run it in order, on every task:

1. **Think first.** Build the mental model before touching the code. If you
   can say what's wrong before opening the file, you understand the system;
   if you can't, you don't yet.
2. **Steal, don't invent.** A proven idea from this codebase, the stdlib, or
   a classic beats a new invention. Pare grandiose designs down to a useful,
   trivial core. Thompson added pipes overnight after years of pruning the idea.
3. **Build bottom-up.** Compose from primitives you can explain line by line.
   Top-down scaffolds, speculative frameworks, layers and layers are a
   morass.
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint

mdr add rajnandan1/ken/ken@sha256:f58ca082e9e8d780

The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261023.44f4129, 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.

Badge

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_xqimuabvct66ssyu.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_xqimuabvct66ssyu)

0 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.

Versions

The registry has recorded 7 versions of this file, between Aug 26, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026, about one every 10 days.

version	committed	commit	size	audit
git:20261023.44f4129 latest	2026-10-23	44f4129	6,843 B	A	view · diff
git:20261023.629d303	2026-10-23	629d303	6,815 B	A	view · diff
git:20261020.63a7d69	2026-10-20	63a7d69	6,399 B	A	view · diff
git:20260828.2d98a1e	2026-08-28	2d98a1e	6,209 B	A	view · diff
git:20260828.4ba1625	2026-08-28	4ba1625	6,043 B	A	view · diff
git:20260826.e88374f	2026-08-26	e88374f	5,916 B	A	view · diff
git:20260826.39ab0d6	2026-08-26	39ab0d6	6,049 B	A	view

Audit of the latest version

A 17 of 17 checks passed. Fixed automatic checks with no AI involved, so the same checks give the same answer every run.

pass: Frontmatter block present
pass: Frontmatter declares a name
pass: Frontmatter declares a description
pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (6843 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

GitHub

rajnandan1/ken · 14 stars · license a license file GitHub does not identify · pushed 2026-10-25 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_xqimuabvct66ssyu
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=rajnandan1/ken/ken
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/f58ca082e9e8d780242547d75361e0da0e88ec3bc6edf86f6f1e8eb433616936

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.

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ken Cursor rule

rajnandan1/ken · .cursor/rules/ken.mdc · Ken, Thompson-mode systems discipline. Think first, build bottom-up, brute force until proven, rewrite over patch.

git:20261023.44f4129 · audit A · 14 stars

ken-audit SKILL.md skill

rajnandan1/ken · .openclaw/skills/ken-audit/SKILL.md · Audit the whole repo for Thompson-mode violations. A ranked list of what to rewrite, delete, or take back into the…