Master advanced prompt engineering techniques to maximize LLM performance, reliability, and controllability in production. Use when optimizing prompts, improving LLM outputs, or designing production prompt templates.
58
41%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
85%
1.16xAverage 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/llm-application-dev/skills/prompt-engineering-patterns/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
67%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 has good structural completeness with an explicit 'Use when' clause, but suffers from moderate vagueness in its capability descriptions—using aspirational language like 'Master advanced techniques' and 'maximize performance' rather than listing concrete actions. The trigger terms cover the basics but miss many natural user phrasings for prompt engineering tasks.
Suggestions
Replace vague phrases like 'maximize LLM performance, reliability, and controllability' with specific concrete actions such as 'design system prompts, structure few-shot examples, implement chain-of-thought reasoning, reduce hallucinations'.
Expand trigger terms in the 'Use when' clause to include natural variations like 'system prompt', 'few-shot examples', 'chain of thought', 'prompt tuning', 'model instructions', or 'reduce hallucinations'.
Remove the imperative 'Master' framing and use third-person declarative voice, e.g., 'Teaches advanced prompt engineering techniques...' or 'Applies advanced prompt engineering techniques...'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Names the domain ('prompt engineering') and mentions some actions ('optimizing prompts', 'improving LLM outputs', 'designing production prompt templates'), but these are fairly high-level and not concrete specific actions like 'chain-of-thought structuring, few-shot example selection, system prompt design'. | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (master advanced prompt engineering techniques for LLM performance, reliability, controllability) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when optimizing prompts, improving LLM outputs, or designing production prompt templates'). | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes some relevant keywords like 'prompt engineering', 'LLM', 'prompts', 'production prompt templates', but misses many natural variations users might say such as 'system prompt', 'few-shot', 'chain of thought', 'prompt tuning', 'prompt design', 'AI instructions', or 'model instructions'. | 2 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The domain of 'prompt engineering' is reasonably specific, but terms like 'improving LLM outputs' and 'maximize LLM performance' are broad enough to potentially overlap with skills related to general LLM usage, AI development, or model evaluation. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 9 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
14%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill is an overly verbose, encyclopedic reference on prompt engineering that explains many concepts Claude already knows deeply. While it contains some executable code examples, it lacks clear workflows, validation steps, and proper content organization. The skill would be far more effective as a concise overview pointing to separate pattern files, focusing only on project-specific conventions or non-obvious techniques rather than general prompt engineering knowledge.
Suggestions
Reduce content by 70%+ by removing sections Claude already knows (Best Practices, Common Pitfalls, Success Metrics, Core Capabilities bullet lists) and focus only on project-specific patterns or non-obvious techniques.
Add a clear iterative workflow with validation steps, e.g.: 1. Start with simple prompt → 2. Test on 5 representative inputs → 3. Identify failure modes → 4. Add constraints/examples → 5. Re-test and compare metrics.
Split the 6+ patterns into separate files (e.g., patterns/structured-output.md, patterns/few-shot.md) and keep SKILL.md as a concise overview with one-level-deep references.
Replace the generic code examples with more specific, copy-paste-ready templates that include error handling and real validation checkpoints rather than illustrative snippets.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | This skill is extremely verbose (~400+ lines) and largely explains concepts Claude already knows well—prompt engineering patterns, chain-of-thought, few-shot learning, system prompt design. Much of the content is tutorial-level explanation of widely known techniques. The 'When to Use This Skill', 'Best Practices', 'Common Pitfalls', and 'Success Metrics' sections are almost entirely things Claude already understands. The bullet-point lists of capabilities add little actionable value. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | The code examples are mostly executable and use real libraries (LangChain, Anthropic SDK, Pydantic), which is good. However, many patterns are fairly generic templates rather than production-ready solutions—e.g., the sentiment analysis example uses raw JSON parsing instead of Anthropic's native structured output, and the few-shot example requires specific dependencies without installation guidance. The PROMPT_LEVELS dictionary is illustrative but not directly actionable for a specific task. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | There is no clear multi-step workflow or sequenced process. The skill reads as a reference catalog of patterns rather than a guided workflow. There are no validation checkpoints, no 'do this then verify that' sequences, and no feedback loops for iterating on prompts. The 'Iterative refinement workflows' mentioned in Core Capabilities is never actually described with steps. | 1 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | Everything is inlined in one massive monolithic file with no references to external files for detailed content. The Core Capabilities section lists topics at a high level but then the patterns section dumps all the detail inline. The external links at the bottom are to third-party docs, not to organized companion files. The content would benefit enormously from splitting patterns into separate files with a concise overview in the main skill. | 1 / 3 |
Total | 5 / 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.
47823e3
Table of Contents
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