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matthew-a-carr/review-tech-debt

Review and triage the tech debt register. Use when the user says "review tech debt," before planning a new feature, or on a periodic schedule. Reads docs/tech-debt.md, assesses each item's relevance and severity, categorises actions, and reports recommendations to the human.

81

1.24x
Quality

94%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

76%

1.24x

Average score across 1 eval scenario

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

Overview
Quality
Evals
Security
Files

Quality

Content

85%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

This is a well-structured process skill that clearly sequences a multi-step review workflow with appropriate human checkpoints. It's concise, well-organized, and makes good use of references to other skills and documents. The main weakness is the lack of concrete examples showing what the summary output or register updates should look like, which would make the skill more immediately actionable.

Suggestions

Add a brief example of what the summary report (step 5) should look like when presented to the human, e.g., a sample markdown output with one item per category.

Include a concrete example of a tech-debt.md table row being moved from Outstanding to Resolved, showing the expected format.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The skill is lean and efficient. It doesn't explain what tech debt is or how markdown tables work. Every section serves a clear purpose and there's no padding or unnecessary context. The table format for categorization is an efficient use of tokens.

3 / 3

Actionability

The skill provides clear procedural guidance with specific file paths and categories, but lacks executable code or commands. The assessment criteria are concrete but somewhat subjective (e.g., 'blast radius'). The commit message and file references are specific, but there are no concrete examples of what a summary output should look like or how to format the tech-debt.md updates.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The workflow is clearly sequenced with numbered steps from reading through assessment, reporting, acting, and updating. It includes a critical human-in-the-loop checkpoint (step 6: 'Ask the human which items to act on') before any action is taken, and references external verification steps (TDD workflow, implement-spec skill) for approved fixes. The categorization table provides clear decision criteria.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

The skill appropriately references external resources (CONSTITUTION.md §3, implement-spec skill, draft-spec skill/routine) without inlining their content. References are one level deep and clearly signaled. The content is well-organized into logical sections (read, assess, report, update) that are appropriately sized for a single SKILL.md file.

3 / 3

Total

11

/

12

Passed

Description

100%

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

This is a strong skill description that clearly communicates what the skill does (review and triage tech debt register with specific steps) and when to use it (three explicit trigger conditions). It uses third person voice, includes natural trigger terms, and is distinctive enough to avoid conflicts with other skills.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists multiple specific concrete actions: reads docs/tech-debt.md, assesses each item's relevance and severity, categorises actions, and reports recommendations. These are clear, actionable steps.

3 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both 'what' (reads tech-debt.md, assesses relevance/severity, categorises actions, reports recommendations) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when' clause with three distinct triggers: user says 'review tech debt,' before planning a new feature, or on a periodic schedule).

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Includes natural trigger terms users would say: 'review tech debt,' 'planning a new feature,' and 'periodic schedule.' These cover the main scenarios when a user would invoke this skill.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Highly distinctive with a clear niche: specifically targets the tech debt register in docs/tech-debt.md. The combination of 'tech debt,' a specific file path, and the triage/review workflow makes it unlikely to conflict with other skills.

3 / 3

Total

12

/

12

Passed

Validation

100%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation11 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Reviewed

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