Unassisted Evidence Checkpoint Agent Skill

After scaffolded practice, run an unassisted check with no AI help.

Context cost
4.1k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 16.5 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
not declarednone named by its author
Last change
—v1.1
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

After scaffolded practice, run an unassisted check with no AI help. Use to distinguish supported performance from what the learner can currently do independently.

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.

assisted-unassisted-gapbastanidocumentationevidenceindependenceunassisted

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.md16.5 kB · preview
--- # AGENT SKILLS STANDARD FIELDS (v2) name: unassisted-evidence-checkpoint disable-model-invocation: false user-invocable: true effort: light # DOMAIN 20 FIELDS skill_id: "student-learning/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint" skill_name: "Unassisted Evidence Checkpoint" domain: "student-learning" domain_number: 20 version: "1.1" audience: "student" evidence_strength: "moderate" evidence_sources: - "Bastani et al. (2025) — Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning (PNAS) — unguarded GPT-4 reduced subsequent unassisted exam performance by 17% relative to the control group" - "Koedinger & Aleven (2007) — Exploring the assistance dilemma in experiments with cognitive tutors" - "Kapur & Rummel (2012) — Productive failure and the nature of prior knowledge for learning" - "Roediger & Karpicke (2006) — Testing effect and independent retrieval" - "Bjork et al. (2013) — Self-regulated learning: beliefs, techniques, and illusions" input_schema: required: - field: "topic_or_skill" type: "string" - field: "scaffolded_session_summary" type: "string" optional: - field: "prior_unassisted_results" type: "array" - field: "developmental_band" type: "string" evidence_captured: cognitive_gate: "verification" student_attempt_required: true confidence_before: true confidence_after: true hint_level_reached: "0" error_type: "conceptual | procedural | strategic | none" ai_support_type: "none" reflection_captured: true transfer_check: "passed | failed | skipped" unassisted_followup: "completed" assistance_tag: "unassisted" chains_well_with: - "student-learning/retrieve-first-gate" - "student-learning/confidence-calibration-check" - "student-learning/transfer-bridge" - "student-learning/srl-session-wrapper" - "student-learning/weekly-agency-review" tags: ["unassisted", "assisted-unassisted-gap", "independence", "evidence", "Bastani"] ---
60# Unassisted Evidence Checkpoint
61
62## What This Skill Does
63
64After scaffolded practice, schedules and administers an unassisted check — a problem or question the learner must attempt with absolutely no AI help, hints, or scaffolding. The result is tagged as assistance_tag: unassisted in the evidence record. Bastani et al. (2025) found that students with unguarded GPT-4 access performed better during assisted practice but 17% worse than the control group on a subsequent unassisted exam. This checkpoint applies the broader implication that assisted and unassisted performance should be recorded separately. It is a design extrapolation from the study, not a guardrail tested by Bastani et al. The result is one data point about current independent performance; it does not by itself establish durable learning or transfer.
65
66## Evidence Foundation
67
68Bastani et al. (2025), published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ran a randomized controlled trial with nearly 1,000 secondary students studying mathematics in Turkey. Students with access to an unguarded GPT-4 interface performed 48% better than the control group during assisted practice but 17% worse on the subsequent unassisted exam. The authors describe students using GPT-4 as a "crutch" by asking for and copying solutions. A third group used GPT Tutor, which was prompted to withhold full answers, provide incremental teacher-designed hints, and use teacher-provided solutions and common-error guidance. This group performed 127% better than the control group during assisted practice and was statistically indistinguishable from the control group on the unassisted exam. The study therefore supports distinguishing performance with AI from later performance without it, but it did not test this checkpoint protocol, long-term retention, or broad transfer. Koedinger & Aleven (2007) frame the related "assistance dilemma": support that improves immediate performance may not optimize learning. Roediger & Karpicke (2006) and Bjork et al. (2013) provide broader support for unassisted retrieval and for checking perceived learning against performance. Together, these sources support the rationale for an independent check while leaving this exact AI-mediated implementation to be validated.
69
70## System Prompt
71
72```
73You are a learning coach administering an unassisted evidence checkpoint. The learner has just completed a scaffolded learning session on {{topic_or_skill}}. This checkpoint is the unassisted component: the learner must attempt the problem below with no help, no hints, and no feedback until they have submitted a complete attempt. This is the part that tells us what the learner can actually do independently.
74
75TOPIC OR SKILL: {{topic_or_skill}}
76SCAFFOLDED SESSION SUMMARY: {{scaffolded_session_summary}}
77PRIOR UNASSISTED RESULTS: {{prior_unassisted_results — if not provided, treat this as the first checkpoint on this topic}}
78DEVELOPMENTAL BAND: {{developmental_band — if not provided, assume secondary school / undergraduate}}
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md2,505 words
Files1
Licencenot declared
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.

≈610
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
3,515
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
2.1%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 21% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

4.1k 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

1 file, 16.5 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md16.5 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing.

Install

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

# Unassisted Evidence Checkpoint · 4.1k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint ] || { mv .claude/skills/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add garethmanning/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint

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/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint/ 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/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint/ 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.

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
Version1.1
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencegarethmanning/unassisted-evidence-checkpoint

Versions

v1.1 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v1.1
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

The install command always fetches the release that is current the day you run it — v1.1 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

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