attic-fail SKILL.md skillA
attic-fail from nishikantaray/attic is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add nishikantaray/attic/attic-fail@v1.6.1Pins v1.6.1 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- nishikantaray/attic
- Path
codex/skills/attic-fail/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 2
- Latest version
- v1.6.1, committed Sep 23, 2026
- First version recorded
- Sep 18, 2026
- Size
- 2,897 bytes
- Repository stars
- 5
- License
- MIT
Record an approach that was tried and did not work, so nobody repeats it. Use when the user says "that didn't work", "this approach failed", "record this failure", "don't try this again", "note what we ruled out", or when an attempt in this session was abandoned for a reason worth keeping. Also use for a temporary workaround that should not be mistaken for a real fix.
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
# Record a failed approach
First, in the same shell command as anything below, locate the script:
```bash
ATTIC_JS=$(ls -d "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}"/plugins/cache/attic/attic/*/skills/attic/scripts/attic.js "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}"/skills/attic/scripts/attic.js "$HOME"/.agents/skills/attic/scripts/attic.js .agents/skills/attic/scripts/attic.js 2>/dev/null | sort -V | tail -1)
```
Argument: `$ARGUMENTS` (a title, or empty to use the last failed attempt).
A failed approach is worth more than it looks. The next session will consider
the same idea for the same reasons, and the record of why it did not work is
what stops the second attempt from costing what the first one did.
## What to capture
Four things, in this order. The third is the one that matters — an approach
recorded without its reason just reads as defeatism and gets re-tried anyway.
1. **What was tried** — concretely enough to recognise the idea again.
2. **What happened** — the actual failure, error text copied verbatim.
3. **Why it failed** — the underlying reason, not the symptom.
4. **What to do instead**, if known.
## Recording it
```bash
node "$ATTIC_JS" stash \
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add nishikantaray/attic/attic-fail@sha256:c329a29488148052The line at the top of this page pins the label v1.6.1, 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_zpqyeuqa6barad7z)
3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Sep 18, 2026 and Sep 23, 2026, about one every 5 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.6.1 latest | 2026-09-23 | ec26888 | 2,897 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.6.0 | 2026-09-18 | e3fa82c | 2,897 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 (2897 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
nishikantaray/attic · 5 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-09-23 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_zpqyeuqa6barad7z GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=nishikantaray/attic/attic-fail GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/c329a294881480527a133d13bcfe096a03ba79fc9268592e1bbd0569fcbc4a0f
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.
More from nishikantaray/attic
Every file in nishikantaray/attic