Getting it into your agent
It runs from inside its repository, so the clone comes first — what it calls does not travel with the file alone.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skillsnpx agentmods add skills/cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills/docker-patternsWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills/docker-patterns)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills/docker-patterns"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills/docker-patterns/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills/docker-patterns"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills/docker-patterns.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>- NVIDIA SkillSpector warn
SkillSpector: 8 findings, up to high
These are SkillSpector’s own severities. On a checked sample its high-severity flags on skills were ~96% false positives — a documented command, a public API, a “never do X” rule — so we show them as a caution to read, not a verdict. Why →
- high Privilege Escalation · line 203 Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.Fix: Remove references to credential paths. Use environment variables or secrets managers. For docs, use placeholder paths (e.g., /path/to/config). Never load .env or token files in production code paths.
- high Privilege Escalation · line 287 Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.Fix: Remove references to credential paths. Use environment variables or secrets managers. For docs, use placeholder paths (e.g., /path/to/config). Never load .env or token files in production code paths.
- high Privilege Escalation · line 359 Potential security issue detected. Manual review is recommended.Fix: Review the flagged content for security risks. Ensure no credentials, secrets, or sensitive data are exposed.
- high Privilege Escalation · line 360 Potential security issue detected. Manual review is recommended.Fix: Review the flagged content for security risks. Ensure no credentials, secrets, or sensitive data are exposed.
- medium Privilege Escalation · line 320 Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.Fix: Avoid sudo/root unless strictly required. Prefer least-privilege patterns. If elevation is needed, document the justification and scope.
- medium MCP Rug Pull · line 359 Docker image references without a specific tag (:latest is implicit) or digest (@sha256:...) can be silently replaced by a malicious image.Fix: Pin the image: image:tag or image@sha256:abc123
- low Tool Misuse · line 222 Tool parameters are crafted to achieve unintended or unsafe behavior. Parameter abuse can bypass intended safety checks (e.g. shell=True, --force, dangerous glob patterns).Fix: Validate all tool parameters against an allowlist. Reject dangerous parameter values (shell=True, --force, -rf /) and use safe defaults.
- low Tool Misuse · line 222 Tool parameters are crafted to achieve unintended or unsafe behavior. Parameter abuse can bypass intended safety checks (e.g. shell=True, --force, dangerous glob patterns).Fix: Validate all tool parameters against an allowlist. Reject dangerous parameter values (shell=True, --force, -rf /) and use safe defaults.
What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00032 | $0.02835 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00016 | $0.01418 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00006 | $0.00567 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00003 | $0.00283 |
Grade B, and why
docker-patterns scanned grade B with 3 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 8d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Asks for rootlowPrivilege escalation
A mod that escalates privileges can change anything on the machine, not only the project.
**Never Run as Root:** Downgraded: this mod is about security review, or the phrase is quoted, so it is likely naming the pattern rather than instructing it.
Recursive force deletemediumDestructive command
rm -rf with a variable or a broad path is one typo away from removing the wrong tree.
rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* Downgraded: this mod is about security review, or the phrase is quoted, so it is likely naming the pattern rather than instructing it.
Makes network callslowCapability
Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.
apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl && \ How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 393 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Docker Patterns: Production-Grade Containerization
Overview
Docker patterns encompass the art and science of building efficient, secure, and maintainable container images. This skill covers the entire lifecycle — from writing optimized Dockerfiles and orchestrating multi-service environments with docker-compose to hardening images against vulnerabilities and minimizing attack surface. Mastery of these patterns is essential for any DevOps practitioner aiming to ship reliable, fast, and secure software.
Core Principles
- Minimalism — Every layer, every package, every instruction adds weight and risk. Include only what the runtime needs, nothing more.
- Reproducibility — Builds must produce identical images given the same source. Pin base image tags, lock dependency versions, and avoid network-dependent build steps.
- Cache Efficiency — Order Dockerfile instructions from least to most frequently changing to maximize layer cache reuse. This transforms build times from minutes to seconds.
- Defense in Depth — Never run containers as root. Use read-only root filesystems. Drop all unnecessary Linux capabilities. Scan images before deployment.
- Single Responsibility — Each container should run exactly one process. Use docker-compose to compose multiple containers rather than cramming processes into one image.
- Immutable Infrastructure — Never modify a running container. Build a new image, test it, and replace the old one. This eliminates configuration drift.
Docker Maturity Model
🟢 Beginner
- Uses a single
FROMstatement in Dockerfiles - Runs containers as
rootby default - Installs build tools and runtime dependencies in the same layer
- No
.dockerignorefile - Pulls
:latestbase image tags - Uses
docker commitfor ad-hoc image creation - Builds take 5–15 minutes with no layer caching strategy
- Image sizes range from 500 MB to 2+ GB
Typical Beginner Dockerfile (anti-pattern):
FROM node:latest
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y build-essential
COPY . /app
WORKDIR /app
RUN npm install
RUN npm run build
CMD ["npm", "start"]
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 8d ago First seen · 393 lines · 32 tokens per session scan B b7a2c3c2b6d8
docker-patterns is a skill published in the GitHub repository cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills (470 stars, last pushed 17d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 32 tokens to every session and 2,835 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 3 findings (asks for root, recursive force delete, makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.
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Container escape and breakout techniques targeting Docker, containerd, and Podman runtimes. Covers privileged container breakout via host filesystem mount and nsenter, Docker socket abuse through /var/run/docker.sock, Linux capability exploitation including CAPSYSADMIN, CAPSYSPTRACE, and CAPNETADMIN, cgroup v1…
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