# Prototype

> Use for an authorised, timeboxed throwaway build that answers one feasibility question. Not for production code, settled requirements, or debugging known breakage; use implement, scope, or diagnose.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-mblauberg-provenant-prototype`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [mblauberg](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/mblauberg)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [mblauberg](https://github.com/mblauberg)
- **Source:** https://github.com/mblauberg/provenant/tree/main/skills/prototype

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-mblauberg-provenant-prototype
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# prototype: spike to learn, then throw it away

Some uncertainty is cheaper to build through than to talk through. A
prototype exists to answer ONE named question; the deliverable is the
answer, never the code.

## Contract (agree before writing code)

1. **The question**: one sentence, falsifiable. "Can X stream 10k rows
   without buffering?" not "explore X".
2. **Timebox**: default 30 to 60 min of agent work. Hit the box with no answer
   → that IS a finding (question too big; split it or grill further).
3. **Kill criteria**: what result answers the question either way.
4. **Where it lives**: an authorised, manifest-owned scratch dir outside
   production source. Never import it from real code or touch external systems,
   credentials or user data without separate authority.

## Rules

- Build only the checks needed to answer the question. Production quality gates
  do not apply to disposable scratch code; evidence, authority and containment do.
- **Cheat aggressively**: hardcode data, stub auth, fake the network. Only
  the question's variable needs to be real.
- **One question per spike.** A second question mid-spike → note it, finish,
  spike it separately if it still matters.
- **Harvest, then retire.** Put the finding and evidence in the owning spec,
  decision record or scoping thread when artifact authority exists. Remove only
  paths proven run-owned and explicitly authorised; otherwise quarantine or
  hand them back with a named cleanup action.
- **Prototype code never "graduates" to production.** Productionisation routes
  through `scope` when decisions changed, then `implement`; rebuild the smallest
  production solution with the appropriate test/refactor method.

## Harvest format (into the owning doc/thread)

```markdown
**Spike:**   (YYYY-MM-DD, timebox 45m)
**Answer:** yes/no/partial — 
**Evidence:** 
**Implication:** 
```

## Red flags

- "The spike works, let's ship it" → scope any changed decision, then use
  `implement`; do not wire the spike into production.
- Spike touching production files or secrets → wrong dir, stop.
- No timebox agreed → not a spike, just unscoped wandering.
- Answer known from docs/a search in <10 min → didn't need a spike.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [mblauberg](https://github.com/mblauberg)
- **Source:** [mblauberg/provenant](https://github.com/mblauberg/provenant)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-mblauberg-provenant-prototype
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/mblauberg
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.