▣ Skill Poison — Knowledge ExplorerONLINE / EDITION 10
AGENT SKILLS / SECURITY
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THE SKILL POISONING GLOSSARY

Clear terms.
Better decisions.

55 concise definitions, each linked to a guide that explains its relevance to reusable agent skills.

55 terms
A

Action trace

A record of actions proposed or invoked during a workflow. It should be correlated with verified effects.

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A

Admission review

The decision process for allowing a package into an approved environment under a defined scope.

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A

Agent skill

A reusable package of task guidance and optional resources that extends an agent’s workflow.

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A

Attack success rate

The share of evaluated cases meeting a study’s definition of successful attack. It depends on the denominator and configuration.

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A

Authority boundary

An enforced limit on data access or actions available to a package-driven workflow.

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B

Backdoor

Hidden behavior that activates under particular conditions while a component may otherwise behave normally.

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B

Behavioral verification

Checking observed actions or effects rather than inferring behavior from text alone.

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C

Canary value

A synthetic marker used in an isolated test to observe access or movement without exposing a real secret.

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C

Claim ledger

A record tying a statement to its source version, conditions, and verification limits.

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C

Containment

Runtime limits on reachable files, networks, processes, or actions to restrict the effects of unsafe behavior.

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C

Coverage manifest

A record of expected artifacts and which were fully, partially, or unsuccessfully inspected.

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C

Cross-session artifact

A file or record that persists after one agent session and influences a later skill run.

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D

Documentation-to-action boundary

The transition where an example or template influences an executable artifact or action.

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D

Dual-purpose skill

A package that may complete the visible task while performing an additional unauthorized action.

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E

Evidence tier

A label describing how directly a finding is supported, according to a tool’s stated criteria.

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E

Experience-to-skill pipeline

The process that turns task histories into persistent reusable procedures.

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F

False negative

A malicious or unsafe case that a detector fails to flag under its stated criteria.

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H

Handoff contract

An explicit description of the data and validation expected between two workflow components.

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H

Human handoff

A transition where an agent asks a person to perform an action outside the agent’s enforced environment.

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I

Indirect prompt injection

An instruction-manipulation attempt arriving through content the agent reads, such as a skill reference, instead of the direct user request.

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I

Instruction boundary

The distinction between task guidance a source may provide and actions it is authorized to request.

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I

Integrity

Whether an artifact matches a recorded state. Matching bytes do not prove safe behavior.

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I

Intermediate artifact

A file or record passed between stages or skills; its source can matter to the final action.

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M

Metadata poisoning

Misleading or malicious discovery content that influences how a skill is found, selected, or interpreted.

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M

Mutable reference

Supporting content that can change independently of the installed skill revision.

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O

Observation window

The time period covered by collection or analysis, which may differ from publication date.

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O

Output contract

An explicit statement of the criteria and constraints a generated result must satisfy.

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O

Output integrity

Whether the result follows the user’s authorized criteria, sources, and recipients.

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P

Post-loading evaluation

A test beginning after a skill has loaded; it does not by itself evaluate discovery or installation.

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P

Pre-execution detector

A method that screens material before it runs; a positive result is not evidence of completed impact.

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P

Preprint

A research manuscript shared before or separately from a final peer-reviewed publication.

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P

Prerequisite trap

A setup claim used to make a legitimate task conditional on an unverified or unrelated installation.

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P

Pretext

Context presented as the reason a later skill should act; review its origin and integrity.

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P

Progressive disclosure

Loading metadata, instructions, and supporting resources as they are needed, rather than exposing the entire package at once.

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P

Provenance

Evidence of where a package or artifact came from and how it reached the reviewed environment.

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R

Rollback

Returning artifacts or configuration to a previously reviewed state; external effects may need separate recovery.

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S

Skill poisoning

Malicious instructions or behavior introduced through a reusable skill or its supply chain. A working umbrella in this library.

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S

Source-disjoint evaluation

Testing on sources held out from training or tuning to probe source-dependent generalization.

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S

Structural family

A group of closely related artifacts considered together when controlling evaluation overlap.

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T

Truncated analysis

Inspection limited to part of an artifact; the unprocessed remainder remains outside the finding.

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V

Version pinning

Identifying and retaining the exact package or dependency state approved for a workflow.

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