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Text files are forever. No lock-in. No corruption. No transformation.
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Read SKILL.md and any companion files shown by SkillsMP before deciding whether to install.
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npx skills add https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm --skill plain-textThe command stays on one line. Scroll horizontally to inspect it before copying.
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Showing SKILL.md
| name | plain-text |
| description | Text files are forever. No lock-in. No corruption. No transformation. |
| license | MIT |
| tier | 0 |
| protocol | PLAIN-TEXT |
| allowed-tools | ["read_file","write_file"] |
| origin | Unix Philosophy โ 'Text is the universal interface' |
| lineage | ["Unix Philosophy โ Text streams, pipes","Donald Knuth โ Literate Programming","John Gruber โ Markdown (2004)","Anil Dash โ 'How Markdown Took Over the World' (2025)"] |
| related | ["yaml-jazz","markdown","sniffable-python","format-design","constructionism","session-log"] |
| tags | ["moollm","philosophy","format","durability","git","llm"] |
"I don't want to worry about whatever cursed format OneNote uses still being something I can extract in 2035." โ @Havoc, Hacker News (2025)
Plain text is MOOLLM's substrate. Everything important is stored in human-readable text files:
No proprietary formats. No binary blobs. No databases. Just text.
| Format | Status in 2004 | Status in 2025 | Status in 2045? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Word .doc | Ubiquitous | Legacy | Unknown |
| OneNote | New | Current | Unknown |
| Markdown .md | New | Ubiquitous | Still readable |
| Plain .txt | Ancient | Universal | Still readable |
Text files from 1970 are still readable. They will be readable in 2070.
# This file requires:
# - Any text editor
# - That's it
No vendor. No license. No subscription. No "cloud service discontinued."
- player_location: start
+ player_location: maze
Plain text diffs are:
From Anil Dash (2025):
"All of it โ all of it โ is controlled through Markdown files. When you see the brilliant work shown off from somebody who's bragging about what they made ChatGPT generate for them... all of the most advanced work has been prompted in Markdown."
LLMs:
cat SESSION.md # Read it
grep "player" *.yml # Search it
diff old.yml new.yml # Compare it
git log SESSION.md # Track it
No special tools. No viewers. No converters.
Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie knew this in 1969:
"Text is the universal interface."
Pipes, streams, filters โ all work on text:
cat rooms/*.yml | grep "exits" | sort | uniq
MOOLLM inherits this: the filesystem IS the database.
| Format | Extension | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Markdown | .md | Prose, documentation, session logs |
| YAML | .yml | Structured data with comments |
| Templates | .tmpl | Empathic templates (YAML + placeholders) |
All are plain text. All are human-readable. All work with standard tools.
Richard Gabriel (1989):
"Simplicity is the most important consideration in a design."
Markdown is "worse" than DocBook:
But Markdown won because:
Simple formats that actually get used beat complex formats that don't.
The entire trillion-dollar AI industry runs on plain text:
| AI Component | Format |
|---|---|
| Training data | Text files (books, web, code) |
| Prompts | Markdown / plain text |
| Outputs | Text / Markdown |
| Context windows | Measured in text tokens |
| RAG documents | Often Markdown |
| Agent instructions | Markdown files |
From Anil Dash:
"The trillion-dollar AI industry's system for controlling their most advanced platforms is a plain text format one guy made up for his blog."
No databases. State is in files:
adventure-4/
โโโ ADVENTURE.yml # Game state
โโโ start/
โ โโโ ROOM.yml # Room state
โ โโโ lamp.yml # Object state
โโโ characters/
โโโ don-hopkins/
โโโ CHARACTER.yml # Character state
If a human can't read the file in vim, rethink the format.
# CRITICAL: Do not delete this
# It contains the player's memories
memories:
- "Met Bumblewick in the maze"
Comments are preserved, not stripped.
The YAML you write is the YAML that runs. No compilation step hides meaning.
โ Binary formats โ Opaque, require special tools
โ Proprietary formats โ Lock-in, potential for obsolescence
โ Database-only state โ Not inspectable, not git-friendly
โ Generated-only files โ If no human source exists, fragile
โ Minified output โ Readable formats should stay readable
Some things aren't text:
For these: keep the metadata and references in plain text, even if the content is binary.
PLAIN-TEXT
Invoke when: Choosing formats, designing storage, considering durability.
"Markdown files from 2004 are still readable today. They'll be readable in 2045. Plain text is forever."
Write for the future. Write in plain text.