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abstract indexed · arXiv 2610.11647 · updated 2026-10-18

One Skill Too Many: How Co-Installed Skills Conflict in Coding Agents

First page of One Skill Too Many: How Co-Installed Skills Conflict in Coding Agents
From the original paper · arXiv 2610.11647Page 1. Select the image to read the PDF.

The technique replaces reliance on the model's name-and-description-based choice between co-installed similar skills with a pre-tool hook that intercepts the first skill read, plus benchmark scoring of exclusive core functions rather than task completion alone. Cost is low: a hook in the agent harness, an inventory of installed skills with their exclusive core functions, and surfacing which skill ran; no model retraining, extra inference, or additional hardware is required. It can fail if skill metadata is stale or incomplete, if the hook misclassifies legitimate substitutions as conflicts, or if new co-installed skills are added without updating the conflict registry.

For solo builders

A possible application for this research area. Paper-specific feasibility still needs a full-paper review.

Your coding assistant makes changes that still need substantial repair before merging.

What you would change

Try the technique on held-out issues from a repository with reliable tests.

Try the idea on your product

A proposed first test. Set your budget and success criteria before running it.

Try the technique on held-out issues from a repository with reliable tests.

Compare against

The same coding agent, repository snapshot, tools, and token budget.

  1. Locate the paper's implementation and check its license, model support, data needs, and hardware requirements. Stop here if you cannot obtain the required artifacts.
  2. Save a small set of representative product tasks and expected outcomes. Keep evaluation tasks out of any training or tuning, and choose quality and cost limits before running.
  3. Run the baseline and the proposed change on identical inputs. Keep other settings fixed and repeat paired runs to expose variation.
  4. Save per-task outputs, failures, timings, and all usage costs. Review regressions before expanding the test.

What to measure

Correct patches, regression failures, human repair time, and total cost per accepted change.

When to keep it

Keep the change only if it meets your preselected quality and latency limits and improves the metric you care about after setup and operating costs. Otherwise retain the baseline. This is an exploration plan, not a validated recommendation.

Download test plan ↓

abstract indexedPaperraft next step

Do not allocate compute yet.

This page uses the abstract and public adoption signal only. Request the deep report before relying on its recommendation.

Abstract-level screening only. Risks and infrastructure may not have been evaluated. This recommendation is not a reproduced result.
minimum test setup
not reported
published evidence setup
not reported
source-linked claims
0 of 2
exposure checks
0 of 8

Why it was shortlisted

The technical change, research area, and reason it entered the archive.

recommendation
adopt
research area
coding agents
technical change
Pre-tool hook guarding first skill read
published
2026-10-08

Skill conflicts silently strip normative constraints such as git-touching bans while tasks still pass, and the proposed hook is cheap to implement on a single-GPU or API-based agent stack with immediate safety and fidelity benefits.

About the technical core

Equations have not been fetched yet.

When reading the methods, identify the rule, algorithm, or evaluation protocol that produces the claimed change. An equation is useful here only if it explains that mechanism.

Inspect the original paper

Claims and evidence

A claim is source-linked only when the PDF page and matching excerpt are available.

  1. claim 01Paperraft inference
    Read the brief interpretation

    The technique replaces reliance on the model's name-and-description-based choice between co-installed similar skills with a pre-tool hook that intercepts the first skill read, plus benchmark scoring of exclusive core functions rather than task completion alone. Cost is low: a hook in the agent harness, an inventory of installed skills with their exclusive core functions, and surfacing which skill ran; no model retraining, extra inference, or additional hardware is required. It can fail if skill metadata is stale or incomplete, if the hook misclassifies legitimate substitutions as conflicts, or if new co-installed skills are added without updating the conflict registry.

    This is a Paperraft inference. It is not pinned to a verified PDF passage.

    Inspect the source
  2. claim 02Paperraft inference

    Runs that open a similar co-installed skill first lose over a third of the installed skill's exclusive core functions; a pre-tool hook at the first skill read restores fidelity on those functions to the level of runs that open the installed skill first (no multiplicative factor reported).

    This is a Paperraft inference. It is not pinned to a verified PDF passage.

    Inspect the source

Exposure map

Author findings, Paperraft interpretations, and the next check. Missing analysis never counts as evidence of safety.

quality

Still unknown

Which tasks improve, and which regress against the baseline?

compute and memory

Still unknown

What memory, hardware, and total compute does the complete method require?

latency

Still unknown

Are startup time, typical response time, and slow requests measured separately?

operations

Still unknown

What must be monitored, maintained, and rolled back?

software compatibility

Still unknown

Does the implementation support your model, runtime, and hardware?

security

Still unknown

What new data access, permissions, or trust boundaries does it introduce?

data and training

Still unknown

What data preparation or training is required, and is it included in the cost?

reproducibility

Still unknown

Are code, versions, inputs, and evaluation scripts available?

Continue the investigation

A reading guide for coding agents.

Editorial prompts, not findings from this paper or a validated test plan. Detailed analysis is still pending for the topics below.

What to inspect

Does the evaluation use held-out repositories and tests the agent cannot modify?

Plan a fair comparison

Can you run both agents against the same repository snapshot, tool permissions, and time budget?

Questions for adoption

How many tasks pass independent tests, and what is the cost per accepted change?

Read the paper with these questions

Inside the paper

Preview the first 3 pages of the original PDF. Click the stack to turn the page.

The downloadable skill includes SKILL.md and evidence.json, with recorded findings and unanswered checks. TRY-IT.md adds a product test plan and a blank results sheet.

A reading aid for your agent. Findings still need validation.

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Open this page in the PDF ↗

Provisional research brief updated 2026-10-18. Paperraft has not reproduced this experiment.

Discuss this paper

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arXiv 2610.11647

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