bradygaster Context
Use this skill when authoring or revising a skill that can mutate files, state, repositories, or external systems. Informational reference skills need not carry operational ceremony.
Patterns
- Start with an explicit
## SCOPE: activation conditions, allowed targets, and exclusions. - Provide an ordered, deterministic workflow. State required inputs, the intended side effect, and the exact validation after each consequential operation.
- Define STOP conditions for missing prerequisites, ambiguous scope, failed verification, and unavailable tools. A failed precondition must not look like success.
- Point to a current canonical implementation or workflow when a procedure depends on repository behavior; do not copy volatile values into prose.
- Keep one skill focused on one operational boundary. Link to related skills rather than combining unrelated governance, release, and documentation procedures.
Examples
archival-integrity defines a verified append-before-trim transaction. gh-aw-enlistment limits
mutations through an explicit allowlist and ends with strict compilation.
Anti-Patterns
- Vague verbs such as “handle,” “ensure,” or “fix” without an observable success condition
- Side effects that proceed after a failed validation
- Treating a dated incident workaround as a permanent procedure without reconciling source
- Adding action ceremony to a purely explanatory skill