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arn-code-simplify

This skill should be used when the user says "simplify", "arness code simplify", "simplify code", "code simplification", "clean up code", "reduce complexity", "remove duplication", "check for reuse", "find duplicates", "optimize code", "efficiency review", "simplify implementation", "arn-code-simplify", or wants to review recently implemented code for reuse opportunities, quality issues, and efficiency problems after execution completes. Do NOT use this for full implementation correctness review (use arn-code-review-implementation) or PR review (use arn-code-review-pr).

80

Quality

76%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

Optimize this skill with Tessl

npx tessl skill review --optimize ./plugins/arn-code/skills/arn-code-simplify/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Discovery

89%

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 description excels at trigger term coverage and completeness, with an extensive list of natural user phrases and explicit 'when to use' / 'when NOT to use' guidance including references to related skills. Its main weakness is that the 'what it does' portion is somewhat vague—it describes the review focus areas (reuse, quality, efficiency) but doesn't enumerate specific concrete actions the skill performs. Overall it is a strong, functional description.

Suggestions

Add more specific concrete actions describing what the skill actually does, e.g., 'Identifies duplicate code blocks, suggests shared utility extraction, reduces cyclomatic complexity, and consolidates redundant logic.'

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description mentions some actions like 'review recently implemented code for reuse opportunities, quality issues, and efficiency problems' but doesn't list concrete specific actions (e.g., 'removes duplicate functions', 'extracts shared utilities', 'reduces cyclomatic complexity'). The actions are somewhat general.

2 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both 'what' (review code for reuse opportunities, quality issues, efficiency problems after execution) and 'when' (explicit list of trigger phrases plus contextual guidance). Also includes helpful negative boundaries distinguishing it from related skills.

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Excellent coverage of natural trigger terms users would say: 'simplify', 'clean up code', 'reduce complexity', 'remove duplication', 'find duplicates', 'optimize code', 'efficiency review', 'simplify implementation'. These are highly natural phrases a user would actually type.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Explicitly distinguishes itself from 'arn-code-review-implementation' and 'arn-code-review-pr' with clear negative boundaries. The focus on simplification, duplication removal, and efficiency creates a distinct niche that is unlikely to conflict with other skills.

3 / 3

Total

11

/

12

Passed

Implementation

62%

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 orchestration skill with excellent workflow clarity, clear error handling, and good progressive disclosure design via external references. Its main weaknesses are moderate verbosity (repeated messages, some redundancy) and a lack of concrete executable examples—the skill describes what to do at a high level but relies heavily on unreferenced template files for specifics. The workflow's validation checkpoints and feedback loops are a notable strength.

Suggestions

Deduplicate the repeated 'Arness is not configured' message by defining it once and referencing it, reducing token usage.

Add a concrete example of a reviewer agent dispatch call (showing the actual Agent tool invocation with filled parameters) to improve actionability.

Provide the bundle files (scope-detection.md, review-prompts.md) or at minimum include inline summaries of their key content so the skill is self-contained enough to act on.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The skill is fairly long (~250 lines) and includes some redundant information (e.g., the Arness config missing message is repeated three times verbatim, pipeline position is explained both in prose and a diagram). However, most content is genuinely instructional and not explaining concepts Claude already knows. It could be tightened but isn't padded with unnecessary background.

2 / 3

Actionability

The workflow steps are clearly sequenced with specific instructions (dispatch three agents in parallel, deduplicate findings, assign SIM-IDs, self-heal up to 3 times), but there are no executable code examples, no concrete command snippets, and key details are deferred to reference files (scope-detection.md, review-prompts.md) that aren't provided in the bundle. The presentation format example is helpful but still somewhat abstract.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The 8-step workflow is clearly sequenced with explicit validation checkpoints: test verification after each applied finding, self-heal retry loop with a 3-attempt cap, revert on failure, and a final cumulative test pass. The feedback loop (apply → test → self-heal → revert) is well-defined, and error handling covers all major failure modes including partial reviewer failure and scope detection failure.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

The skill references external files (scope-detection.md, review-prompts.md, SIMPLIFICATION_REPORT_TEMPLATE.json) with clear signaling, which is good progressive disclosure design. However, no bundle files were provided, making it impossible to verify these references resolve correctly. The main SKILL.md itself is quite long and some content (like the detailed error handling section and constraints) could potentially be split out, though it's not egregiously monolithic.

2 / 3

Total

9

/

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.

Validation10 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

Total

10

/

11

Passed

Repository
AppsVortex/arness
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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