Claim ledger

Skills Are Package Management for Your AI

There are millions of agent skill files to choose from. The hard part is deciding which deserve trust, how to version them, and how to retire them.

Read the essay On Substack Published Tests Law III: Architecture Outlives Content

Claims
8
Verified at the primary source
8
Removed before publication
0
Last checked

8 claims: 8 verified.

Download this ledger: CSV · JSON · Markdown · CC BY 4.0 · Query it from Claude or ChatGPT

The evidence, row by row

Each row is a claim the essay makes, then the evidence recorded for it and the source it was checked against. For verified rows that is usually the exact words, where they sit and the day they were read. The label says how far it was checked.

What the labels mean
Verified
Checked against the primary source itself by a checker who did not draft the piece, usually with the exact words, where they sit and the date read.
Executed
A run or observation done for the piece: code, a query, a count, or a check made live in an app. The claim is what it returned. Run records are not published.
Checked
Checked against its source by a separate checker in the older ledger format, which recorded no quote, locator or date.
Reported
Not verified word for word against a primary source: carried from a secondary source, from one that could not be opened in full, or supported only in part. The essay words it accordingly.
Struck
Drafted, checked and removed before publication. Kept here, crossed out, with the reason.
Excluded
Considered and deliberately left out of the piece. Kept here with the reason.
  1. S1 Verified Read

    SkillsMP's live index contained 3,337,075 collected public SKILL.md files on 2 October 2026

    3,337,075 Collected SKILL.md files

    SkillsMP, Agent Skills Marketplace · homepage hero count · skillsmp.com

    Link
    Cite

    SkillsMP, Agent Skills Marketplace, homepage hero count, https://skillsmp.com/. Checked in: Claim Ledger, "Skills Are Package Management for Your AI", The Durability Curve, row S1, https://durabilitycurve.com/claims/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/#c-S1 (source read 2026-10-02).

    Report an error
  2. S2 Verified Read

    Anthropic published Agent Skills as an open standard intended for cross-platform portability

    We've published Agent Skills as an open standard for cross-platform portability.

    Anthropic, Equipping agents for the real world with Agent Skills · 18 December 2025 update · anthropic.com

    Link
    Cite

    Anthropic, Equipping agents for the real world with Agent Skills, 18 December 2025 update, https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/equipping-agents-for-the-real-world-with-agent-skills. Checked in: Claim Ledger, "Skills Are Package Management for Your AI", The Durability Curve, row S2, https://durabilitycurve.com/claims/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/#c-S2 (source read 2026-10-02).

    Report an error
  3. S3 Verified Read

    The Agent Skills format uses SKILL.md instructions that an agent loads when a task matches the skill description

    When a task matches a skill’s description, the agent reads the full SKILL.md instructions into context.

    Agent Skills, Overview · How do Agent Skills work? — Activation · agentskills.io

    Link
    Cite

    Agent Skills, Overview, How do Agent Skills work? — Activation, https://agentskills.io/home. Checked in: Claim Ledger, "Skills Are Package Management for Your AI", The Durability Curve, row S3, https://durabilitycurve.com/claims/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/#c-S3 (source read 2026-10-02).

    Report an error
  4. S4 Verified Read

    Agent Skills are supported across a broad set of AI tools and agentic clients

    Agent Skills are supported by a large number of AI tools and agentic clients

    Agent Skills, Overview and official Client Showcase registry · Where can I use Agent Skills?; linked client registry counted 46 entries on 2026-10-02 · agentskills.io

    Link
    Cite

    Agent Skills, Overview and official Client Showcase registry, Where can I use Agent Skills?; linked client registry counted 46 entries on 2026-10-02, https://agentskills.io/home. Checked in: Claim Ledger, "Skills Are Package Management for Your AI", The Durability Curve, row S4, https://durabilitycurve.com/claims/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/#c-S4 (source read 2026-10-02).

    Report an error
  5. S5 Verified Read

    Recent security research frames third-party agent skills as a software-supply-chain risk because developers may install and execute them with implicit trust

    developers install and execute third-party skills with implicit trust and no formal analysis

    Bhardwaj, Formal Analysis and Supply Chain Security for Agentic AI Skills, arXiv:2603.00195v2 · §1 Introduction, lines 205–206 · arxiv.org

    Link
    Cite

    Bhardwaj, Formal Analysis and Supply Chain Security for Agentic AI Skills, arXiv:2603.00195v2, §1 Introduction, lines 205–206, https://arxiv.org/html/2603.00195v2. Checked in: Claim Ledger, "Skills Are Package Management for Your AI", The Durability Curve, row S5, https://durabilitycurve.com/claims/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/#c-S5 (source read 2026-10-02).

    Report an error
  6. S6 Verified Read

    The same paper defines an Agent Skill Bill of Materials using CycloneDX and records identity/version/hash, capabilities, dependencies, trust metadata and vulnerability status

    An ASBOM is a CycloneDX 1.6-compatible document that records

    Bhardwaj, Formal Analysis and Supply Chain Security for Agentic AI Skills, arXiv:2603.00195v2 · §6.6, Definition 6.8, lines 965–989 · arxiv.org

    Link
    Cite

    Bhardwaj, Formal Analysis and Supply Chain Security for Agentic AI Skills, arXiv:2603.00195v2, §6.6, Definition 6.8, lines 965–989, https://arxiv.org/html/2603.00195v2. Checked in: Claim Ledger, "Skills Are Package Management for Your AI", The Durability Curve, row S6, https://durabilitycurve.com/claims/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/#c-S6 (source read 2026-10-02).

    Report an error
  7. S7 Verified Read

    SkillsBench's current release reports that curated Skills raise mean resolution rate from 33.9% to 50.5%, a 16.6-point lift, across the 18-configuration paper aggregate

    In the 18-configuration paper aggregate … The mean resolution rate rises from 33.9% to 50.5% (+16.6 points

    SkillsBench 1.1: Agent Skills Benchmark Release · Results · skillsbench.ai

    Link
    Cite

    SkillsBench 1.1: Agent Skills Benchmark Release, Results, https://www.skillsbench.ai/blogs/skillsbench-1-1. Checked in: Claim Ledger, "Skills Are Package Management for Your AI", The Durability Curve, row S7, https://durabilitycurve.com/claims/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/#c-S7 (source read 2026-10-02).

    Report an error
  8. S8 Verified Read

    On SkillsBench's three dedicated self-generated-Skills configurations, self-generated Skills underperformed the no-Skills baseline by 8.1 to 11.5 points

    Self-generated Skills change resolution rate by −8.1 points for Claude Code + Opus 4.7, −11.3 points for Codex + GPT-5.5, and −11.5 points

    SkillsBench 1.1: Agent Skills Benchmark Release · Self-Generated Vs. Curated Skills · skillsbench.ai

    Link
    Cite

    SkillsBench 1.1: Agent Skills Benchmark Release, Self-Generated Vs. Curated Skills, https://www.skillsbench.ai/blogs/skillsbench-1-1. Checked in: Claim Ledger, "Skills Are Package Management for Your AI", The Durability Curve, row S8, https://durabilitycurve.com/claims/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/#c-S8 (source read 2026-10-02).

    Report an error

Cite and reuse

A single claim
Use the row's Cite button. It names the original source first, then this row, which carries its own link.
This ledger
Floyd, Harry (2026). Claim Ledger: Skills Are Package Management for Your AI. The Durability Curve. https://durabilitycurve.com/claims/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/
The essay
Floyd, Harry (2026). Skills Are Package Management for Your AI. The Durability Curve. https://durabilitycurve.com/blog/skills-are-package-management-for-your-ai/

The ledger data is licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse it, quote it or train on it, with credit to The Durability Curve and a link. Read the licence. Machine copies: JSON, CSV, Markdown.