Stop Patching
When the implementation fights back, stop patching and re-derive. Use when a case will not fit the design, a fix wants a flag or special case or shim, the same area keeps breaking, or the user says "nah".
Install
$ agentstack add skill-stumason-skills-stop-patching ✓ scanned · ✓ verified, works with Claude Code, Cursor, and more.
Security review
✓ PassedNo issues found. Passed automated security review. · v0.1.0 How review works →
- ✓ Prompt-injection patterns
- ✓ Secret / credential exfiltration
- ✓ Dangerous shell & filesystem operations
- ✓ Untrusted network calls
- ✓ Known-malicious package signatures
What it can access
- ✓ Network access No
- ✓ Filesystem access No
- ✓ Shell / process execution No
- ✓ Environment & secrets No
- ✓ Dynamic code execution No
From automated source analysis of v0.1.0. “Used” means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it’s unsafe.
Verified badge
Passed review? Show it. Paste this badge into your README, it links to the public security report.
Links to your public security report.[](https://agentstack.voostack.com/security/report/skill-stumason-skills-stop-patching) Reliability & compatibility
Declared compatibility
Compatibility is declared by the source manifest. End-to-end runtime verification is coming, see below.
We're building live execution health for every listing: tool-call success rate, median latency, uptime, and last-checked timestamps, measured, not self-reported. It isn't live yet, so we don't show numbers we can't stand behind.
How agent discovery & health will work →About
Stop Patching
The wall you just hit is information. A case that will not fit, a spec that breaks when poked, an assumption that failed: these mean the design is wrong somewhere, and every patch you are about to write is a way of not hearing that. Duct tape is a confession.
Forbidden patches
- a flag to route around the broken case
- a special case for "just this one"
- a conversion shim between two shapes that should have been one shape
- a parallel path or second channel doing what the main one should do
- a test rewritten to dodge the rule it was checking
Catching yourself mid-keystroke on one of these is the trigger. Stop typing.
What to do instead
- Name the wall. Say plainly what does not fit and which assumption failed. Not "this is tricky", but "the design assumes X and this case proves X false."
- Re-derive. Walk back up to the design decision the wall contradicts. That decision, not the code in front of you, is what needs to change.
- Propose, then wait. Present the clean design. If it diverges from what the human asked for, say so explicitly and stop. Never silently comply with a broken design, never silently swap in your own.
- Accept the overrule. If the human hears you out and says patch it anyway, patch it. Their codebase, their call. The crime is not the patch; it is patching silently.
Done means the human has approved the re-derived design or overruled you in the open. "Blocked, here is why" is a good outcome. "Working" on duct tape is the worst one.
Source & license
This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.
- Author: StuMason
- Source: StuMason/skills
- License: MIT
Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.
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Versions
- v0.1.0 Imported from the upstream source.