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Agent skill

Readchk

by LilMGenius in LilMGenius/paperthin

Verify the model's understanding of a user's instruction before spending non-trivial work.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Readchk

skills CLI
$ npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin --skill readchk -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install LilMGenius/paperthin readchk --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/LilMGenius/paperthin.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/depth/readchk .claude/skills/readchk && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
readchk
GitHub stars
1.1k
Token cost
~688 tokens
SKILL.md length
349 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
28
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Verify the model's understanding of a user's instruction before spending non-trivial work.

  • Works in 6 steps: Recognize the signal: a long or… → Restate the instruction internally in… → Cross-check the restatement against… → …
  • A request is long
  • SKILL.md covers Goal, Workflow, Rules and Verification
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Readchk is an agent skill from LilMGenius/paperthin. Verify the model's understanding of a user's instruction before spending non-trivial work. Use when a request is long, bundled, high-stakes, hard to undo, or has ambiguous scope or referents such as this, that, it, the other one, whatever is cleaner, or whichever order makes sense. Restate internally, cross-check against available context, proceed silently when resolved, and surface only a genuine surviving fork.

Its SKILL.md is about 690 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Development. The repository describes itself as: Low-level agentic design patterns. Turning old engineering wisdom into reflexes your agent reaches for on its own—on any agent. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • A request is long
  • Has ambiguous scope
  • Referents such as this
  • Whatever is cleaner

Example prompts

  • “s understanding of a user”
  • “/readchk”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Recognize the signal: a long or multi-part instruction, ambiguous scope or referents, deliberately flexible wording, or stakes high enough…
  2. Restate the instruction internally in different words. Do not copy the user's wording back to yourself and treat that as understanding.
  3. Cross-check the restatement against available context. Look for contradictions, missing antecedents, or two plausible readings that…
  4. If context resolves the read, proceed silently. Do not ask the requester to confirm what the available context already answered.
  5. If a real fork survives, surface one specific clarifying question anchored to the restated understanding. Name the choice; do not ask a…
  6. For substantial work, log one durable "understood as: ..." line before beginning so a later reader can audit whether the work matched the…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 7d5dc62. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Readchk loads about 688 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 106 tokens; SKILL.md has 349 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~106
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~688

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from LilMGenius/paperthin at commit 7d5dc62, republished under its MIT licence (© LilMGenius). 349 words, ~688 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/readchk/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
readchk
description
Verify the model's understanding of a user's instruction before spending non-trivial work. Use when a request is long, bundled, high-stakes, hard to undo, or has ambiguous scope or referents such as this, that, it, the other one, whatever is cleaner, or whichever order makes sense. Restate internally, cross-check against available context, proceed silently when resolved, and surface only a genuine surviving fork.

Check the read before acting: did you understand the instruction correctly enough to spend the work?

Goal

readchk catches misread instructions before they become coherent work against the wrong target. It verifies a claim about the requester's intent against available context: the current message, session history, project memory, files on disk, and established conventions.

This is not factchk: the question is what was meant, not whether a world claim is true.

Workflow

  1. Recognize the signal: a long or multi-part instruction, ambiguous scope or referents, deliberately flexible wording, or stakes high enough that a wrong guess would cost real work.
  2. Restate the instruction internally in different words. Do not copy the user's wording back to yourself and treat that as understanding.
  3. Cross-check the restatement against available context. Look for contradictions, missing antecedents, or two plausible readings that context cannot choose between.
  4. If context resolves the read, proceed silently. Do not ask the requester to confirm what the available context already answered.
  5. If a real fork survives, surface one specific clarifying question anchored to the restated understanding. Name the choice; do not ask a vague "does this look right?"
  6. For substantial work, log one durable "understood as: ..." line before beginning so a later reader can audit whether the work matched the confirmed read.

Rules

  • Restate, don't echo. A paraphrase proves you built a model of the request; a verbatim repeat proves little.
  • Silent when context resolves it. The default good outcome is invisible. Surfacing a question for a resolved or unambiguous request is a defect.
  • One fork at a time. If several ambiguities exist, surface the highest-stakes one first instead of dumping a checklist.
  • Never silently resolve a fork that changes the shape of the work.
  • Log large commitments, not every turn. Durable read logs are for plans, multi-file changes, irreversible actions, or work a fresh reviewer may need to audit.

Verification

Before proceeding with the work: the restatement is a paraphrase, every surfaced fork is genuinely unresolved by available context, and no substantial work starts without either a silent pass or a resolved fork.

© LilMGenius, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/depth/readchk of LilMGenius/paperthin.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 7d5dc62

Compare with similar skills

Readchk next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Readchk compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Readchk this skillLilMGenius/paperthin1.1k—~688Automated safety check: PassMIT
Vercel Composition Patternssupabase/supabase111k58 repos~726Automated safety check: PassMIT
Finishing a Development Branchobra/superpowers297k5 repos~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Typescript Advanced Typesrolling-scopes/rsschool-app10k25 repos~4.2kAutomated safety check: PassMPL-2.0
PR Babysitteropeninterpreter/openinterpreter69k3 repos~4.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Code Review ChecklistshareAI-lab/learn-claude-code78k5 repos~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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All 28 skills in this repo

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  • Catchup

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  • Debloat

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Categories

Questions about Readchk

What does Readchk do?

Verify the model's understanding of a user's instruction before spending non-trivial work. Readchk is an agent skill from LilMGenius/paperthin. Verify the model's understanding of a user's instruction before spending non-trivial work.

When should I use Readchk?

Readchk fits situations like: A request is long; has ambiguous scope; referents such as this; whatever is cleaner.

How do I install Readchk in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin --skill readchk -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/depth/readchk in LilMGenius/paperthin) into .claude/skills/readchk in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Readchk in Codex?

Run `npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin --skill readchk -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/depth/readchk in LilMGenius/paperthin) into .agents/skills/readchk in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Readchk in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin --skill readchk -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/readchk, .gemini/skills/readchk, .github/skills/readchk and .opencode/skills/readchk in your project.

What does Readchk need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Readchk is instructions for the agent only.

Does Readchk access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Readchk safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Readchk use?

Readchk is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Readchk use?

About 688 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.8k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Readchk?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Readchk: Vercel Composition Patterns (supabase/supabase, 111k stars), Finishing a Development Branch (obra/superpowers, 297k stars), Typescript Advanced Types (rolling-scopes/rsschool-app, 10k stars) and PR Babysitter (openinterpreter/openinterpreter, 69k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Readchk?

LilMGenius (a GitHub user) maintains it in LilMGenius/paperthin, which has 1,130 GitHub stars. The repository holds 28 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 1, 2026.

Source: LilMGenius/paperthin on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.