A-Grade Skill Quality Standards

Requirements for achieving A-grade (≥126/140) on quality evaluation. Use this as a checklist when creating or improving skills.

A-Grade Requirements Summary

Minimum Score: 126/140 (90%)
Target Score: 133/140 (95%) for A+
Perfect Score: 140/140 (100%)

Dimension Requirements for A-Grade

D1: Knowledge Delta (≥18/20)

Requirements:

• <5% redundant content
• Expert-only knowledge throughout
• No basic tutorials or installation guides
• Domain-specific patterns AI assistants don't know
• Project-specific conventions

Checklist:

• No basic syntax explanations
• No copied official documentation
• No generic best practices
• Contains non-obvious insights
• Includes production-tested patterns

D2: Mindset + Procedures (≥13/15)

Requirements:

• Clear philosophical framing
• Step-by-step numbered workflow
• Explicit "when to apply" criteria
• Explicit "when NOT to apply" scenarios

Checklist:

• Philosophy/core principle stated
• Numbered workflow steps
• Entry/exit points defined
• Use case examples provided
• Non-applicable scenarios listed

D3: Anti-Pattern Quality (≥13/15)

Requirements:

• NEVER statements with WHY explanations
• Concrete code examples of anti-patterns
• Consequences explained
• ❌ BAD / ✅ GOOD comparisons

Checklist:

• At least 3 NEVER statements
• Each NEVER has WHY explanation
• Code examples for anti-patterns
• Consequences articulated
• Side-by-side comparisons present

D4: Specification Compliance (≥13/15)

Requirements:

• Description field with activation keywords
• Proper YAML frontmatter
• Clear trigger scenarios in description
• Cross-harness portability (no agent-specific paths)

Checklist:

• Description is comprehensive (≥100 chars)
• Domain keywords included
• Trigger scenarios mentioned
• Frontmatter syntax correct
• Name matches directory
• No harness-specific paths (.opencode/, .claude/, .cursor/)
• No agent-specific references (Claude Code, Cursor Agent, etc.)
• Uses relative paths (scripts/, references/, templates/)
• ## References is last H2, uses Topic | Reference | When to Use table format

D5: Progressive Disclosure (≥13/15)

Requirements:

• SKILL.md <100 lines for aggregations
• References directory with categorized files
• Navigation hub approach
• Content organized by priority

Checklist:

• Main file is navigation hub
• Detailed content in references/
• Files organized by prefix
• Priority labels present
• Clear category structure

D6: Freedom Calibration (≥13/15)

Requirements:

• Rigidity matches skill type
• Mindset skills: Strong rules
• Process skills: Balanced flexibility
• Tool skills: Options and trade-offs

Checklist:

• Calibration appropriate for type
• Mindset skills use NEVER/ALWAYS
• Process skills allow adaptation
• Tool skills present options
• Consistent throughout

D7: Pattern Recognition (≥9/10)

Requirements:

• Rich domain keywords in description
• Comprehensive trigger scenarios
• Clear activation signals

Checklist:

• 5+ domain keywords in description
• Trigger examples provided
• When-to-use scenarios clear
• Unambiguous activation criteria

D8: Practical Usability (≥13/15)

Requirements:

• Concrete, runnable code examples
• Real-world scenarios
• Clear, scannable structure
• Complete implementations (not fragments)

Checklist:

• Code examples are runnable
• Examples use realistic scenarios
• Headings are scannable
• Code blocks properly formatted
• No pseudocode fragments

Common A-Grade Patterns

Navigation Hub Pattern (Best for Aggregations)

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md (60-90 lines)
├── AGENTS.md
└── references/
    ├── category-topic1.md
    └── category-topic2.md

Single-File Pattern (Best for Focused Skills)

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md (100-250 lines)
└── AGENTS.md (optional)

D9: Eval Validation (>=17/20)

Requirements:

• Complete evals/ directory with tessl eval harness structure
• instructions.json with full instruction extraction
• summary.json showing >= 80% instruction coverage
• At least 3 valid scenarios with task.md + criteria.json + capability.txt
• Each criteria.json sums to exactly 100

Checklist:

• evals/ directory exists
• instructions.json present and non-empty
• summary.json shows coverage_percentage >= 80
• >= 3 scenario directories with all required files
• criteria.json sums to 100 in each scenario
• 10+ checklist items per criteria.json
• No instruction leakage in task.md files

Red Flags (Immediate Disqualification from A-Grade)

• Description <50 characters
• No activation keywords

• 50% tutorial content

• Missing anti-patterns
• No code examples

• 500 lines in single file

• Generic "best practices" without specificity
• Multi-purpose scope: skill covers >2 distinct workflows or description requires multiple "and"/"or" connectors to capture all sub-topics
• No eval scenarios (D9 = 0)

Quality Verification Commands

# Check line count
wc -l skills/*/SKILL.md

# Verify frontmatter
head -10 skills/*/SKILL.md | grep -A5 "^---"

# Check for references directory
ls -la skills/*/references/

# Count keywords in description
grep "^description:" skills/*/SKILL.md | wc -w

See Also

• framework-dimensions.md - Dimension definitions
• framework-scoring-rubric.md - Scoring methodology