postmortem-writing
Write effective blameless postmortems with root cause analysis, timelines, and action items. Use when conducting incident reviews, writing postmortem documents, or improving incident response processes.
80
71%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
92%
1.26xAverage score across 3 eval scenarios
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./tests/ext_conformance/artifacts/agents-wshobson/incident-response/skills/postmortem-writing/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
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 a strong skill description that clearly communicates what the skill does and when to use it. It uses specific, concrete terminology that engineers would naturally use when seeking help with incident postmortems. The description is concise, uses third person voice, and includes an explicit 'Use when' clause with relevant trigger scenarios.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: 'Write effective blameless postmortems', 'root cause analysis', 'timelines', and 'action items'. These are distinct, concrete deliverables. | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (write blameless postmortems with root cause analysis, timelines, and action items) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when' clause covering incident reviews, writing postmortem documents, or improving incident response processes). | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes strong natural keywords users would say: 'postmortems', 'root cause analysis', 'incident reviews', 'postmortem documents', 'incident response', 'blameless', 'timelines', 'action items'. Good coverage of terms an engineer would naturally use. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Occupies a clear niche around incident postmortems and incident response. The specific terms like 'blameless postmortems', 'root cause analysis', and 'incident reviews' are unlikely to conflict with other skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 12 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
42%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
The skill provides excellent, actionable templates that are immediately usable for writing postmortems, which is its strongest quality. However, it is severely bloated - explaining well-known concepts like blameless culture at length, including three full templates inline, and adding facilitation tips that Claude doesn't need. The content would be far more effective as a concise overview with references to separate template files.
Suggestions
Reduce the main file to ~50-80 lines with a concise overview, one compact template example, and references to separate files for the full standard template, 5 Whys template, quick template, and facilitation guide.
Remove explanations of concepts Claude already understands well (blameless culture philosophy, what postmortems are, basic facilitation tips like 'encourage quiet participants').
Add a validation checklist step before finalizing - e.g., 'Before marking Final, verify: all timeline entries have timestamps, every action item has an owner and ticket, root cause analysis goes at least 3 levels deep.'
Move the three templates into separate referenced files (e.g., STANDARD_TEMPLATE.md, FIVE_WHYS_TEMPLATE.md, QUICK_TEMPLATE.md) and link to them from the main skill.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | Extremely verbose at ~300+ lines. Explains concepts Claude already knows well (blameless culture, what postmortems are, facilitation tips like 'encourage quiet participants'). The full example postmortem template with fictional data is excessively detailed - the same guidance could be conveyed in a fraction of the space. Multiple templates with overlapping content further bloat the document. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | Provides fully concrete, copy-paste-ready templates with specific examples including timelines, 5 Whys analysis, action item tables with owners/dates/tickets, and a quick postmortem format. The templates are immediately usable with clear structure and realistic examples. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The Quick Start section provides a timeline (Day 0 through Quarterly), and the facilitation guide has a clear meeting structure. However, there are no explicit validation checkpoints - no steps to verify the postmortem document is complete, no checklist to ensure all sections are filled, and no feedback loop for reviewing action item quality before finalizing. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | Monolithic wall of text with everything inline. Three full templates, a facilitation guide, anti-patterns table, best practices, and resources are all in a single file. The templates should be in separate referenced files, with SKILL.md serving as a concise overview pointing to them. | 1 / 3 |
Total | 7 / 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.
Validation — 11 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
No warnings or errors.
- Repository
- Dicklesworthstone/pi_agent_rust
- Commit
47823e3
- Reviewed
Table of Contents
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