Tracks 09 and 10 · How we check
Check it before you trust it.
Anyone can publish a skill or a plugin for an AI, and in 2026 some were made to steal. So before an outside one comes near a computer here, it gets the same seven checks. Each is a read-only first check: nothing is downloaded while it is looked at, and a person presses Install, never the AI.
- 157
- confirmed malicious by behaviour out of 98,380, a study cited by OWASP that we have not opened ourselves. 2026
How you count changes the number, so all three are shown and none is picked. The lesson is the same: the checking has to happen on your side.
The method · track 09
Seven checks. In this order.
You can do every one of these yourself, from the skill's public page, without downloading anything. Each comes with a real example from the shortlist checked on 2 Nov 2026.
- 01
Who made it
A company, a known maker, or an account made last week? Look at the owner, how old the account is and what else they have built. Copies of famous names get a second look.
Example Claude SEO is strong work from one author whose project was nine months old. Not a no: a reason to read the rest closely.
- 02
Licence
The licence says what you may do with it: use it, change it, sell it on. Open the actual licence file and write the answer in plain words.
Example Vercel's design guidelines say MIT in the read-me, but no licence file was found. When two sources disagree, show both and pick neither.
- 03
Health
Is anyone still looking after it? The last change, the open issues, how many people help. Twelve months with no change earns a warning.
Example SuperSEO skills last changed on 3 Sep 2026, two months before the check. Not stale, but the evidence is thin.
- 04
Security
The heart of it. Read every file that comes with it, looking for hidden commands, scripts that download and run code, instructions that try to rewrite the AI's memory, and anything that quietly sends data out.
Example Five tools in Accessibility agents send the file you name to an outside service, so those five would be left off.
- 05
Fit
Does it suit the job and the computer it will run on? A great tool that needs hardware you do not have, or takes over every session, is the wrong tool.
Example Claude SEO sets up its own runtime and a whole web browser: worth it for a search audit, if the laptop has room that day.
- 06
Size and fingerprint
Know how big it is before you download. Afterwards, take a fingerprint of the files (a checksum), so any later change shows up at once.
Example No skill on the shortlist has a fingerprint yet, because nothing has been downloaded.
- 07
Sealed install
If it passes, it goes in its own folder: no administrator rights, nothing that starts at login, easy to switch off. Track 10 covers plugins and hooks the same way.
Example Superpowers is a good method, but it adds its own instructions to every session. Sealed, it switches off in one place.
The answer
Green fine to use, and to sell on if the licence allows. Amber useful, with one named thing to read or fix first. Red no, or no for a stated use. Every answer carries its evidence and its date.
The board
Every outside skill. Every check.
One row per skill, one column per check. Press a mark to read the evidence behind it. Pending means not looked at yet, said plainly rather than left blank.
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- Loading the board
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Why a Green skill can still show Pending: Green is the first-check answer on who made it, its licence, its health and what it does. The fingerprint and the sealed install only happen when a person presses Install, and none of these has been installed yet.
Ru's own skills
Written here, so the outside checks do not apply: there is no stranger to look up and no licence to read. Listed so nothing on the shelf is hidden.
Your line in the sand
What a skill may never do.
Six pairs to copy into your own rules. Each one comes from a check above and from something a real skill on the shortlist tried to do.
Draft the email, the post, the reply, and wait.
Never send, post, book or pay on its own.
Read the files you name, on your own computer.
Never pass your files to an outside service without saying so first.
Run from a copy kept here, fixed at the version that was checked.
Never fetch fresh instructions from the internet each time it runs.
Live in its own folder, easy to switch off in one place.
Never ask for administrator rights or start itself at login.
Keep its own notes for the job in hand.
Never rewrite the AI's memory or its rules.
Wait for a person to press Install.
Never install itself, or skip the questions that ask first.