This skill should be used when the user says "spike", "arn spike", "validate risks", "technical validation", "proof of concept", "validate architecture", "risk spike", "test this risk", "will this work", "technical spike", "validate the stack", or wants to validate critical technical risks from the architecture vision by creating minimal proof-of-concept code and testing whether the chosen technologies work as expected.
80
76%
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-spark/skills/arn-spark-spike/SKILL.mdQuality
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.
The description excels at trigger term coverage and completeness, providing an extensive list of natural phrases that would activate the skill and clearly stating both what it does and when to use it. Its main weakness is that the 'what' portion could be more specific about the concrete actions performed (e.g., what kinds of tests, what outputs are produced). The heavy emphasis on trigger terms over capability detail slightly reduces specificity.
Suggestions
Expand the capability description with more specific actions, e.g., 'Creates minimal proof-of-concept implementations, runs integration tests against chosen technologies, and produces validation reports documenting whether architectural risks are mitigated.'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description mentions some concrete actions like 'creating minimal proof-of-concept code' and 'testing whether the chosen technologies work as expected,' but it lacks a comprehensive list of specific capabilities. It's more focused on the trigger terms than detailing what the skill actually does step by step. | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | The description explicitly answers both 'what' (validate critical technical risks by creating minimal proof-of-concept code and testing technologies) and 'when' (extensive list of trigger phrases plus a general condition). The 'when' is very well covered with explicit triggers. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural trigger terms including variations like 'spike', 'arn spike', 'validate risks', 'proof of concept', 'technical validation', 'will this work', 'validate the stack', and 'risk spike'. These are terms users would naturally say when needing this skill. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The skill occupies a clear niche around technical risk validation and spike/proof-of-concept work. The specific trigger terms like 'spike', 'validate risks', and 'risk spike' are distinctive and unlikely to conflict with general coding or architecture 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 conversational workflow skill with excellent step sequencing, validation checkpoints, and error handling coverage. Its main weaknesses are verbosity (repeated configuration lookup patterns, conversational template text that could be condensed) and lack of concrete executable examples for agent invocation. The workflow clarity is a standout strength with explicit sequential execution warnings and failure recovery paths.
Suggestions
Factor out the repeated CLAUDE.md/Arness config lookup pattern into a single 'Configuration Resolution' section referenced by later steps, reducing duplication across Steps 1, 2, and 4.
Add a concrete example of the agent invocation syntax for `arn-spark-spike-runner` (e.g., exact parameters/format) rather than describing it abstractly.
Consider splitting the Error Handling and Agent Invocation Guide sections into a separate reference file to reduce the main skill's token footprint.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is fairly lengthy and includes some redundant explanations (e.g., repeating the Arness config lookup pattern multiple times across steps, explaining what spikes are conceptually). However, much of the content is necessary workflow detail for a complex multi-step process. Some tightening is possible—the repeated CLAUDE.md lookup instructions could be factored out, and conversational template text adds bulk. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | The skill provides clear step-by-step instructions with specific agent names, directory paths, and user interaction patterns. However, it lacks executable code examples—there are no concrete code snippets, command-line invocations, or template content shown inline. The agent invocation is described abstractly ('Invoke the arn-spark-spike-runner agent with...') rather than showing exact invocation syntax. The spike report template is referenced but not shown. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The workflow is exceptionally well-sequenced with 6 clearly numbered steps, explicit validation checkpoints (user approval before each spike, result presentation after each), error recovery paths (failed spike → 3 options), and a critical warning about sequential execution with clear rationale. The feedback loop for failed spikes and the agent invocation guide table add strong operational clarity. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill references an external template file (`spike-report-template.md`) and other skills appropriately, but no bundle files were provided to verify these references exist. The main SKILL.md itself is quite long (~200+ lines) and could benefit from splitting the error handling and agent invocation guide into separate reference files. The content is reasonably well-organized with clear headers but is monolithic for its length. | 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.
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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