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mcclowes/google-style-guide

Use when writing or reviewing technical documentation to follow Google's documentation style guide — enforce active voice and present tense, apply sentence case to headings, fix list and procedure formatting, mark code/UI elements correctly, flag non-inclusive terminology, and remove time-specific phrasing. Triggers on tasks involving technical writing, doc review, style consistency, inclusive language, or formatting standards.

64

Quality

80%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

Overview
Quality
Evals
Security
Files

Quality

Content

50%

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

This skill provides a reasonable overview of Google's documentation style guide principles with a useful worked example and a structured review workflow. However, it stays mostly at the level of general guidance rather than providing the concrete, copy-paste-ready examples and transformation patterns that would make it highly actionable. The missing bundle files for the three referenced paths weaken the progressive disclosure structure.

Suggestions

Add 3-5 more before/after worked examples covering each major rule area (voice/tense, headings, lists, code formatting, inclusive language) to increase actionability.

Add a validation step to the Review Workflow, such as a final checklist pass to confirm all categories were addressed, to close the feedback loop.

Provide the referenced bundle files (references/language-grammar.md, references/formatting.md, references/inclusive-language.md) or remove the references if they don't exist.

Trim the Core Principles section — items like 'Write for software developers' and 'Prioritize user understanding' are things Claude already knows and don't add actionable value.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

Mostly efficient but includes some unnecessary explanation. The 'Core Principles' section has items like 'Write for software developers and technical practitioners' that Claude already knows. The attribution block, while legally appropriate, is verbose. Some bullet points restate obvious conventions.

2 / 3

Actionability

The worked example is a strong concrete demonstration, but most guidance remains at the level of general principles rather than executable instructions. There are no code snippets or copy-paste-ready templates for common transformations. The rules are stated but lack enough concrete before/after examples to be fully actionable across the range of tasks described.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The Review Workflow section provides a clear 4-step sequence for doc review, which is good. However, it lacks validation checkpoints — there's no step to verify corrections were applied correctly, no feedback loop for re-checking after edits, and no checklist for confirming completeness. For a review task that could introduce errors, this is a gap.

2 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

References to three detailed files (language-grammar.md, formatting.md, inclusive-language.md) are well-signaled and one level deep, which is good structure. However, no bundle files were provided, meaning these references point to non-existent files, undermining the progressive disclosure. The main file also inlines content that overlaps with what the reference files presumably cover.

2 / 3

Total

8

/

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 an excellent skill description that clearly articulates specific capabilities, provides explicit trigger guidance with both 'Use when' and 'Triggers on' clauses, and carves out a distinct niche by referencing Google's documentation style guide. It uses proper third-person voice throughout and balances conciseness with comprehensive detail.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists multiple specific concrete actions: enforce active voice and present tense, apply sentence case to headings, fix list and procedure formatting, mark code/UI elements correctly, flag non-inclusive terminology, and remove time-specific phrasing.

3 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both 'what' (enforce active voice, apply sentence case, fix formatting, flag non-inclusive terminology, etc.) and 'when' with an explicit 'Use when' clause at the start and a 'Triggers on' clause listing specific task types.

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Includes strong natural trigger terms users would say: 'technical documentation', 'doc review', 'style consistency', 'inclusive language', 'formatting standards', 'technical writing', and references Google's documentation style guide specifically.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Highly distinctive by anchoring to Google's documentation style guide specifically, which creates a clear niche. The combination of style guide enforcement, inclusive language flagging, and formatting standards makes it unlikely to conflict with generic writing or editing 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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