This skill should be used when the user says "arness code help", "where am I", "what's next", "show pipeline", "pipeline status", "what step am I on", "arness code status", "arn-code-help", "show workflow", or wants to see their current position in the Arness workflow pipeline and get guidance on the next step.
75
70%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
—
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./plugins/arn-code/skills/arn-code-help/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
62%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
The description excels at trigger term coverage and distinctiveness due to its specific domain (Arness workflow pipeline) and extensive list of natural trigger phrases. However, it is weak on specificity of capabilities — it fails to describe what concrete actions the skill performs beyond vaguely 'showing position' and 'giving guidance'. The description reads more like a trigger-matching rule than a capability description.
Suggestions
Add specific concrete actions the skill performs, e.g., 'Displays the current stage in the Arness workflow pipeline, lists completed and remaining steps, and provides actionable guidance for the next step.'
Restructure to lead with capabilities (what it does) before listing trigger phrases, e.g., 'Shows pipeline progress, identifies current step, and recommends next actions in the Arness code workflow. Use when...'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description mentions 'see their current position in the Arness workflow pipeline and get guidance on the next step' but does not list concrete actions beyond showing position and giving guidance. It's vague about what the skill actually does — no specific capabilities like 'displays pipeline stages', 'runs diagnostics', etc. | 1 / 3 |
Completeness | The 'when' is very well covered with explicit trigger phrases and a 'Use when' equivalent. However, the 'what' is weak — it only vaguely says it shows current position and provides guidance without detailing what actions or outputs the skill produces. The strong 'when' prevents a score of 1, but the weak 'what' prevents a 3. | 2 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | The description includes an extensive list of natural trigger phrases users would say: 'where am I', 'what's next', 'show pipeline', 'pipeline status', 'what step am I on', 'arness code help', etc. These are realistic, varied, and cover multiple phrasings. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The skill is clearly tied to the 'Arness workflow pipeline' which is a very specific domain. The trigger terms like 'arness code help' and 'arn-code-help' are unique identifiers that would not conflict with other skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 9 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
77%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, highly actionable read-only diagnostic skill with clear detection logic and explicit stage-ordering rules. Its main weakness is verbosity — the FAQ section in Step 4, repeated tool constraints, and overlapping error handling cases inflate the token cost without proportional value. The reference to pipeline-map.md is appropriate progressive disclosure, though more content could be offloaded there.
Suggestions
Move the Step 4 FAQ answers into the pipeline-map.md reference file to reduce the main skill's token footprint — Claude can look them up on demand.
Consolidate the error handling cases that share the same resolution (e.g., 'CLAUDE.md missing', 'Arness section missing', and 'plans/specs directory missing' all suggest similar next steps) into a single fallback block with conditions listed.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is fairly detailed and well-structured, but includes some unnecessary verbosity — e.g., listing common follow-up questions with scripted answers (Step 4) that Claude could handle naturally, and some repetitive error handling cases that overlap significantly. The constraints section repeats tool restrictions already stated at the top. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | The detection rules are highly specific and concrete — exact file paths, glob patterns, JSON field checks, and clear precedence ordering. Each stage has explicit artifact checks (e.g., 'PROGRESS_TRACKER.json with overallStatus = completed') and specific command suggestions. This is copy-paste-ready detection logic. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The multi-step workflow is clearly sequenced (Steps 0-4) with explicit ordering for detection (most advanced to least advanced, first match wins), clear fallback logic, and well-defined error handling for each failure mode. Since this is a read-only skill, destructive operation validation isn't applicable, and the workflow is unambiguous. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill references an external file (pipeline-map.md) for rendering templates and detection rules, which is good progressive disclosure. However, no bundle files were provided to verify this reference exists, and the skill itself is quite long (~150 lines of dense content) with Step 4's FAQ section and detailed error handling that could potentially be split into the reference file. The inline content is borderline monolithic. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 10 / 12 Passed |
Validation
90%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 10 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
frontmatter_unknown_keys | Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata | Warning |
Total | 10 / 11 Passed | |
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Table of Contents
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