Observed 2026-10-21 · October 2026 snapshot
When skill guides change after a registry scan
The registry’s checks flagged 1,386 of 5,750 skill guides (24.1%) as no longer matching the version it scanned.
73 moved, 448 removed; see search coverage under Limits
Among the files compared, 78 added new commands to run, 106 added new external URLs, and 45 widened tool permissions. These signals can overlap. Substantive edits also include changed code examples and larger instruction rewrites.
These are changes to review, not safety verdicts. A new URL may be a citation, and a command may be an example. The results do not establish author intent.
What changed
Each of the 1,386 flagged guides has one primary label. Higher-priority signals take precedence; all detected signals remain in the downloadable data. Moved guides keep a separate content comparison.
| Change | Guides | Share of flagged guides |
|---|---|---|
| Adds new commands to run | 66 | 4.76% |
| Adds new external URLs | 55 | 3.97% |
| Widens tool permissions | 25 | 1.80% |
| Changes code examples | 76 | 5.48% |
| Rewrites instructions | 206 | 14.86% |
| Small edits | 304 | 21.93% |
| Moved within the repository | 73 | 5.27% |
| Removed from the repository | 448 | 32.32% |
| Could not check | 122 | 8.80% |
| Could not compare | 11 | 0.79% |
“Small edits” includes 30 guides whose bytes now match the archive again. Small textual changes can still affect meaning.
The sources that disappeared
Separately, the registry had recorded 323 unavailable sources. Rechecking the recorded repository and branch gives:
- Repository unavailable or inaccessible: 258
- Recorded branch no longer found: 15
- Source available again: 0
- Could not check availability: 50
A repository returning “not found” may be private or inaccessible; this does not prove deletion. An accessible repository with no recorded branch stays unresolved. Recovered sources are counted here without a new content comparison.
Examples you can inspect
These examples cover the confirmed change types and favor moderate diffs. Each snippet quotes up to four added lines with their original spacing. The links fix both versions to commits; a removal link points to the missing upstream location.
microsoft-docs
github/awesome-copilot · Adds new commands to run
The guide now includes a command to run “npx @microsoft/learn-cli search "BlobClient UploadAsync Azure.Storage.Blobs"”.
npx @microsoft/learn-cli search "BlobClient UploadAsync Azure.Storage.Blobs" # Or install globally, then run npm install -g @microsoft/learn-cliArchived file at b2456cc40342 · Upstream file at 613efc8c21d9
alphafold
adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills · Adds new external URLs
The guide adds a link to https://github.com/google-deepmind/alphafold.git.
git clone https://github.com/google-deepmind/alphafold.gitArchived file at b2456cc40342 · Upstream file at 59dd63374314
adr-index
ruvnet/ruflo · Widens tool permissions
The upstream frontmatter adds a tool or permission token, including “allowed-tools: Bash mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__memory_list mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__memory_search”.
allowed-tools: Bash mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__memory_list mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__memory_searchArchived file at b2456cc40342 · Upstream file at a00b2855e5b8
github-multi-repo
proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe · Changes code examples
The upstream guide adds or edits a code example without introducing a detected execution command, including “- uses: actions/checkout@v4”.
- uses: actions/checkout@v4 - uses: actions/setup-node@v4Archived file at b2456cc40342 · Upstream file at e5814a2f4f3d
csharp-pro
sickn33/antigravity-awesome-skills · Rewrites instructions
The upstream guide changes more than six substantive body lines, including “Implement or review C#/.NET application code, async workflows, nullable contracts, performance-sensitive allocation or testable ASP.NET/EF boundaries.”.
Implement or review C#/.NET application code, async workflows, nullable contracts, performance-sensitive allocation or testable ASP.NET/EF boundaries.Archived file at b2456cc40342 · Upstream file at 32b8ad933cfb
istio-traffic-management
wshobson/agents · Small edits
The edits fall below the instruction-change threshold and introduce none of the higher-priority signals, including “| Resource | Purpose | Scope |”.
| Resource | Purpose | Scope | | ------------------- | ----------------------------- | ------------- | | **VirtualService** | Route traffic to destinations | Host-based |Archived file at b2456cc40342 · Upstream file at 0874a27b17a2
fastapi-router-py
microsoft/agent-skills · Moved within the repository
The guide moved to .github/plugins/azure-sdk-python/skills/fastapi-router-py/SKILL.md; its content comparison is classified as “Changes code examples”.
async def create_item(item: ItemCreate) -> Item: ...Archived file at b2456cc40342 · Upstream file at 28bd7424998a
hf-mem
suphiozdedee/projenicdesign.com · Removed from the repository
The recorded file is missing and no matching guide was found in the complete upstream commit tree.
No added lines are available to quote for this comparison.
Archived file at b2456cc40342 · Upstream file at 90b75fd61c25
How we measured
We selected guides that the registry’s install-pin checks had marked as changed or unavailable. For each changed guide, we verified the archived file against its recorded SHA-256 digest before comparing it. We resolved each upstream branch once and used that commit for file retrieval, move searches and evidence links. When the recorded path was missing, we searched the same commit tree for a guide with the archived directory name or frontmatter name. We then applied textual rules to distinguish commands, URLs, permission additions, code examples and instruction edits. The observations span 2026-10-21 through 2026-10-21 (UTC). These are observations at different times, rather than one simultaneous snapshot of every source.
Input checks: 2026-10-17 through 2026-10-20. Content history starts 2026-10-17; this is not the date an author edited a file. Archive snapshot at b2456cc40342.
Precise comparison rules
- Priority is: adds new commands to run, adds new external URLs, widens tool permissions, changes code examples, rewrites instructions, then small edits. Flags can overlap; primary labels cannot.
- A new command is a download using curl or wget piped to sh, bash or Python; an npx, uvx or pip install command; Python, bash, sh, Node, Ruby or Perl followed by a script path; or a relative executable beginning with
./. Interpreter script suffixes are .py, .sh, .js, .mjs, .rb and .pl; relative executables also accept .cjs, .ps1 or no suffix. Commands are compared as whitespace-normalized sets, joining shell backslash-newline continuations. A changed command counts as new even inside an example. - A closed, nonempty fenced block in one of these languages is a code example: bash, c, console, cpp, go, javascript, js, perl, php, powershell, ps1, py, python, python3, ruby, rust, sh, shell, sql, terminal, ts, typescript, zsh. A block is changed when its whitespace-normalized content is new. Plain text, JSON and YAML fences do not qualify by themselves.
- New external URLs are new HTTP or HTTPS URLs, including new paths on an existing domain. Localhost and loopback addresses are excluded. New hostnames are recorded separately.
- Frontmatter fields named allowed-tools, allowed_tools, tools, tool, permissions or permission are checked at any mapping depth. Added flattened tokens count as wider permissions; list order is ignored, values split on whitespace or commas, mapping paths are kept, and false or null grants no tokens. This does not model tool-specific permission semantics. Unparseable YAML is flagged.
- Instruction rewrites exceed six added plus removed nonempty body lines after removing whitespace and Markdown formatting characters (
` * _ # > | ~ -). Letter case and other punctuation remain significant. Paragraph reflow with identical joined normalized text counts as zero; other frontmatter changes do not count toward this threshold. Remaining edits, including identical bytes, are small edits. - A moved guide must be a SKILL.md in the same resolved commit with a matching parent directory or archived frontmatter name. Directory matches take precedence, then the lexicographically first matching path. Its content is compared normally. No match after a complete search means removed; failed or truncated trees and incomplete name searches remain unchecked.
- Unavailable sources are checked independently: a missing repository is unavailable or inaccessible; an accessible repository with a missing recorded branch has a branch failure. Unknown branches and other errors remain unresolved.
- Only SKILL.md is compared; bundled assets are outside this report. No commands are run. Successful responses and missing-file responses are cached. Transient errors are retried twice and not cached; rate-limit responses are reported without repeated retries. Reusing the cache preserves previously resolved commits.
What this means for you
Users: Prefer installs pinned to a commit and digest. For a registry guide offering verified installation, use npx skills add <registry guide URL> and check its recorded commit and digest. Re-read SKILL.md and review bundled files before updating. A pin identifies the checked bytes; it is not a guarantee of safety.
Authors: Tag releases, keep skill paths stable, and describe changes so users can make informed update decisions.
Registries and installers: Pin content by commit and digest, and show content history so users can see what changed after a scan.
Limits
122 missing-path searches could not be completed; 11 content comparisons and 0 moved-file comparisons failed; 50 availability checks remain unresolved. Every affected row retains its reason in the data. Unchecked paths are neither confirmed moves nor confirmed removals.
Textual heuristics can miss unfenced code, prose permissions and non-HTTP links. Formatting normalization can hide meaningful small edits. Cached errors and missing responses reflect the observation, not guaranteed current availability.