Build a dark factory Agent Skill

Take a PRD and build a dark factory around it - a repository that takes work in as an issue and ships validated code out with nobody at…

Context cost
57k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
49 of 51 fileshanded out here; the rest is at its source
Licence
MITthe author’s own terms
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Take a PRD and build a dark factory around it - a repository that takes work in as an issue and ships validated code out with nobody at the keyboard - one component at a time, into the user's actual repo. Covers the five components in construction order - the guidance layer, the validation harness, the workflow-driven repo, deployment, and the trigger that makes it autonomous - and is agnostic about which coding agent runs underneath (Claude Code, Codex, Archon, the Agent SDK, Cline, Goose, Amp, Pi). It encodes the AI coding process the user already runs rather than replacing it.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

devops
Filed under

Cloud & DevOps

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md47.6 kB · preview
--- name: build-dark-factory argument-hint: "[path/to/product.prd.md] [optional: path/to/repo]" arguments: [prd, repo] ---
8# Build a dark factory
9
10**What the user typed:** $ARGUMENTS
11
12> **Work out the PRD path and the repo path from that line yourself, and do not print a
13> parse you have not checked.** The positional split is on whitespace, so anyone who
14> types a sentence ("build a dark factory for my repo at C:\code\thing") gets the first
15> two *words* as the two paths - three separate test runs opened with PRD: Build and
16> Repo: a, which is a broken-looking first contact for a parse the skill then quietly
17> recovered from anyway.
18>
19> So: read the line, find the thing that looks like a .md PRD and the thing that looks
20> like a directory, and confirm both back to the user as one sentence before Phase 0. If
21> only one is given, work out from its extension which it is and ask for the other. If
22> the PRD path does not exist, say so and stop - that is Phase 0a, reached early.
23
24A dark factory is a repository where work goes in one end and shipped code comes out
25the other, and there is no human in between. Work arrives as an issue. Workflows plan
26it, build it, validate it, and merge it. Deployment carries it to real users. Nobody
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md8,160 words
Files49
LicenceMIT
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈280
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
56,695
on trigger
The instruction body and 48 supporting files, read only when the skill fires.
28.5%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would not fit in the window together.
050k100k150k200k context window

57k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

The download carries 49 of the 51 files in its source folder; the list here names 49 files, 663.5 kB on disk. Mostly text — the instructions the model reads — with 24 scripts in it that your client would run only if the instructions tell it to. The other 2 are not in the download, nor is 1 file of a type a skill download does not carry — listed after these, with why.

  • SKILL.md47.6 kB
  • references/automation.md15.5 kB
  • references/deployment.md4.4 kB
  • references/guidance-layer.md10.8 kB
  • references/interview.md30.2 kB
  • references/setup.md10.8 kB
  • references/validation-harness.md21.7 kB
  • scripts/_audit_runner.py30.9 kB
  • scripts/_test_audit_runner.py5.0 kB
  • scripts/_test_factory_doctor.py18.4 kB
  • scripts/_test_runner.py77.3 kB
  • scripts/factory_doctor.py61.1 kB
  • templates/CLAUDE.md3.8 kB
  • templates/FACTORY.md3.3 kB
  • templates/FACTORY_RULES.md11.5 kB
  • templates/MISSION.md6.2 kB
  • templates/harness/appproc.py8.9 kB
  • templates/harness/ci.py12.4 kB
  • templates/harness/e2e.py5.3 kB
  • templates/harness/harness.config.json3.3 kB
  • templates/harness/README.md8.3 kB
  • templates/runner/README.md7.9 kB
  • templates/harness/holdout/run.py6.1 kB
  • templates/harness/locks/floor.json1.3 kB
  • templates/harness/mutations/defects.json5.2 kB
  • templates/harness/mutations/run.py4.9 kB
  • templates/runner/.factory/decisions.md1.7 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/config.sh14.4 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/cost.py5.0 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/deploy.sh7.6 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/gate.sh15.8 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/gh_backend.py26.8 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/guard.py9.6 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/init-labels.sh5.4 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/install-trigger.sh8.2 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/merge.sh14.7 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/node_failure.py4.2 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/orchestrator.sh24.0 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/run-workflow.sh46.3 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/state.py21.0 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/tripwire.py2.3 kB
  • templates/runner/issues/0001-example.md2.7 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/prompts/fix.md3.3 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/prompts/implement.md4.2 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/prompts/judge.md5.3 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/prompts/plan.md8.0 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/prompts/prime.md2.1 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/prompts/review.md3.3 kB
  • templates/runner/factory/prompts/triage.md5.5 kB

Not in the download

Not carried is a type a skill download does not hold. Marked read: its SKILL.md or scripts name the file, so without it the skill works only in part. Take them from its source.

  • dark-factory-diagram.pngread · not carried
  • templates/runner/.gitignoreread · not carried
  • templates/runner/.gitattributesnot carried
What is not in it

A skill installs nothing and depends on nothing: it is a folder your client reads. This one carries 24 scripts beside the text, so the download is 49 files — not the whole of its source: 3 files are left out, and the skill reads 2 of them. They are listed under the files, with why. The MIT licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Build a dark factory · 57k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/build-a-dark-factory/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/build-a-dark-factory" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/build-a-dark-factory ] || { mv .claude/skills/build-a-dark-factory "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/build-a-dark-factory" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/build-a-dark-factory"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add coleam00/build-a-dark-factory

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/build-a-dark-factory/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/build-a-dark-factory/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/build-a-dark-factory" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/build-a-dark-factory ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/build-a-dark-factory "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/build-a-dark-factory" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/build-a-dark-factory" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/build-a-dark-factory/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where. It appears as build-dark-factory in Gemini CLI, Codex, Copilot and Grok (its own name); Claude Code lists it by the folder name, build-a-dark-factory. Not in this download: 3 files of its source, 2 of them read by its SKILL.md or scripts (the full list, and why). Take them from its source.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencecoleam00/build-a-dark-factory

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

Reviews

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