Precedent

Legal precedent reference — stare decisis, case law hierarchy, distinguishing, overruling, persuasive authority. Use when researching binding case law, analy...

Security Scan

The skill is internally consistent with its stated purpose (a local CLI-style legal-precedent reference) and does not request credentials, external network access, or risky installs — but the provided script output was truncated in the listing, so inspect the full file before trusting it fully.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description match the included assets: SKILL.md documents a local command set and the repository includes a shell script implementing those commands. The skill doesn't request unrelated credentials or system access.

Instruction Scope

Runtime instructions are narrow: run the included scripts/script.sh with specific subcommands (intro, hierarchy, analysis, etc.). The SKILL.md declares an optional PRECEDENT_DIR config variable but does not require any env vars; the visible portion of scripts/script.sh only prints reference text and does not read unrelated files or env vars. Note: the script listing in the manifest was truncated in the file preview, so confirm the tail of the script contains no unexpected behavior (network calls, file writes, credential reads) before deploying.

Install Mechanism

No install spec provided (instruction-only plus an included script). Nothing is downloaded or written to disk by an installer; risk from install mechanism is minimal.

Credentials

The skill declares no required environment variables or credentials. The only configuration mentioned is an optional PRECEDENT_DIR (default ~/.precedent/), which is reasonable for local data storage but is not required and was not observed being accessed in the visible script portion.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill is not marked always:true, does not request system-wide configuration changes, and does not request elevated privileges. It runs as an on-demand local script when invoked.

Assessment

This skill appears to be a straightforward, local reference tool implemented as a shell script and the SKILL.md simply instructs the agent to run that script. Before installing: (1) review the full scripts/script.sh file end-to-end (the provided preview was truncated) to confirm there are no hidden network calls, file writes, or credential reads; (2) if you don't trust the repository owner, avoid allowing autonomous invocation of the skill or run it in a sandboxed agent environment; (3) if you plan to set PRECEDENT_DIR, create it with appropriate permissions and verify the script only writes files you expect. If you need higher assurance, ask the maintainer for the full script content or a reproducible build log.

Precedent — Legal Precedent Reference

Quick-reference skill for the doctrine of precedent, case law analysis, and stare decisis.

When to Use

• Determining which court decisions are binding in your jurisdiction
• Distinguishing or analogizing prior cases
• Understanding ratio decidendi vs obiter dicta
• Researching whether a precedent has been overruled or modified
• Building persuasive legal arguments from case law

Commands

intro

scripts/script.sh intro

Overview of legal precedent — stare decisis, common law tradition, purpose.

hierarchy

scripts/script.sh hierarchy

Court hierarchy — binding vs persuasive authority, federal/state systems.

analysis

scripts/script.sh analysis

Case analysis — ratio decidendi, obiter dicta, material facts, holdings.

distinguishing

scripts/script.sh distinguishing

Distinguishing precedent — factual differences, legal distinctions, narrow/broad readings.

overruling

scripts/script.sh overruling

Overruling and modifying precedent — when courts reverse themselves.

research

scripts/script.sh research

Case law research — citation formats, Shepardizing, KeyCite, databases.

writing

scripts/script.sh writing

Using precedent in legal writing — IRAC, analogical reasoning, synthesis.

checklist

scripts/script.sh checklist

Case law analysis and application checklist.

help

scripts/script.sh help

version

scripts/script.sh version

Configuration

Variable	Description
PRECEDENT_DIR	Data directory (default: ~/.precedent/)

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