Conciseness

The ~23-line body is lean and imperative with zero padding ('Project outputs after consuming them: retain decisions, evidence, errors, and required values') and never explains concepts Claude already knows. Every token earns its place, matching the 5 anchor; there is nothing to trim that would justify 4.

Actionability

Directives are concrete with specific content lists ('Carry goal, active slice, authority, decisions, blockers, evidence links, and next action'; 'Measure cache reads, replayed input, and total actor cost'), which is actionable guidance for an instruction-only skill. It stops short of 5 because phrases like 'host-supported boundaries' and 'stable append-only prefix where supported' stay abstract, and no worked example (e.g., a handoff packet) appears in the body.

Workflow Clarity

A clear, logical 5-step sequence (Inspect, Project, Bound, Compact, Measure) with embedded checkpoints such as inspecting capabilities before acting and requiring measured evidence before any savings claim. It is not 5 because there is no explicit validate-then-fix-then-retry feedback loop; checkpoints are present but partially implicit.

Progressive Disclosure

SKILL.md is a concise overview with a clearly signaled References section pointing to three one-level-deep files (compaction.md, masking.md, implementation.md), all verified to exist with no nested references and with detail content appropriately split out of the main file. This matches the 5 anchor of a clear overview with well-signaled one-level-deep references.

Specificity

The description names its domain clearly ('Manage context and prompt-cache costs without losing task state') but relies on a single governing verb rather than enumerating several concrete actions, matching 'Names domain and 1-2 concrete actions, but not comprehensive'. It is not 4 because the distinct operational actions (inspect, project, compact, measure) are only found in the body, not the description.

Completeness

Both questions are explicitly answered: the 'what' ('Manage context and prompt-cache costs without losing task state') and an explicit 'Use for...' clause enumerating concrete trigger conditions. The 'when' is a specific enumerated list rather than merely present, matching the 5 anchor.

Trigger Term Quality

'context management, orchestration cost, token budgets, large tool outputs, cache misses, or long-running conversations' provides good natural keyword coverage of the domain. It falls short of 5 because common user phrasings like 'reduce tokens', 'summarize history', or 'context window' appear only in metadata triggers, not the description itself.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Niche triggers like 'prompt-cache', 'cache misses', and 'orchestration cost' carve a clear niche with minimal conflict risk, but broader phrases ('context management', 'long-running conversations') could overlap with general summarization or compaction skills. Mostly distinct with minor overlap risk, so 4 rather than 5.