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find-cause

Wraps investigation requests with evidence-chain discipline. Use when asked to find out why something happens, research a root cause, debug an issue, or investigate unexpected behavior. Transforms vague investigation requests into reproducible-proof investigations with a 5-step protocol — disambiguate, reproduce, read source, build evidence chain, present findings. Invoke with /find-cause followed by a description of what to investigate.

64

Quality

77%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Risky

Do not use without reviewing

Fix and improve this skill with Tessl

tessl review fix ./.claude/skills/find-cause/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

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 thorough, well-structured investigation protocol with excellent workflow clarity and actionability — every step has concrete actions, validation gates, and output templates. However, it is significantly over-engineered for a skill file: at 250+ lines it consumes substantial context window for concepts Claude already understands (what constitutes evidence, how to batch questions, what 'bound constraints' mean). The content would benefit greatly from aggressive condensation and splitting detailed templates into separate reference files.

Suggestions

Cut the content by 40-50% by removing explanatory rationale (e.g., 'Reproduction IS observation. You must see the failure mechanism, not just confirm the failure occurred.' — Claude knows this from the protocol structure) and condensing template examples.

Extract the reproduction safety classification rules and the evidence chain format templates into separate referenced files (e.g., EVIDENCE_RULES.md, SAFETY_CHECK.md) to reduce the main skill's token footprint.

Remove the 'Prohibited Behaviors' section or reduce it to 2-3 critical items — most of these (don't say 'probably', don't skip reproduction) are already implied by the evidence-chain protocol itself.

Condense Step 0's capability matrix into a single command block rather than a numbered list with explanations — Claude knows how to check for available tools.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The skill is extremely verbose at ~250+ lines. It over-explains concepts Claude already understands (what constitutes evidence, what 'bound' vs 'unbound' constraints are, anti-patterns). The reproduction safety checklist, capability matrix, and extensive formatting templates could be dramatically condensed. Many sections explain reasoning and rationale rather than just instructing.

1 / 3

Actionability

The skill provides highly concrete, executable guidance at every step: specific commands to run for capability discovery, exact template formats for evidence chains, precise question batching templates for user interaction, and clear examples (e.g., test failure interpretations). Every step has specific actions to take and outputs to produce.

3 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The 6-step protocol (Steps 0-5) is clearly sequenced with explicit validation checkpoints ('Do NOT proceed until...'), feedback loops (constraint discovery mid-investigation triggers a stop-and-ask pattern), and clear decision points (bound vs unbound constraints leading to autonomous vs check-in mode). Error recovery paths are well-defined.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

The content is a monolithic wall of text with no references to external files. While it uses headers and sub-sections for internal organization, the sheer volume of inline content (reproduction safety rules, evidence chain rules, prohibited behaviors) could benefit from being split into referenced files. However, no bundle files exist, so there's nothing to reference — the content that could be separated remains inline.

2 / 3

Total

9

/

12

Passed

Description

92%

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 articulates what the skill does (structured investigation with a 5-step evidence-chain protocol) and when to use it (root cause analysis, debugging, investigating unexpected behavior). The trigger terms are natural and varied, and the explicit invocation command adds clarity. The only weakness is potential overlap with general debugging or troubleshooting skills, though the emphasis on evidence-chain discipline and the formal protocol help differentiate it.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists multiple concrete actions: disambiguate, reproduce, read source, build evidence chain, present findings. Also describes the transformation from 'vague investigation requests' to 'reproducible-proof investigations' with a named 5-step protocol.

3 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both 'what' (wraps investigation requests with evidence-chain discipline, 5-step protocol) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when asked to find out why something happens, research a root cause, debug an issue, or investigate unexpected behavior'). The 'Use when...' clause is explicit and well-formed.

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Includes strong natural trigger terms users would say: 'find out why something happens', 'root cause', 'debug an issue', 'investigate unexpected behavior'. Also includes the explicit invocation command '/find-cause'. These cover common variations of how users phrase investigation requests.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

While the evidence-chain methodology and 5-step protocol are distinctive, terms like 'debug an issue' could overlap with general debugging or troubleshooting skills. The '/find-cause' invocation helps distinguish it, but the broad scope of 'investigate unexpected behavior' could conflict with other diagnostic skills.

2 / 3

Total

11

/

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
Jamie-BitFlight/claude_skills
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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