Scientific delegation framework for orchestrators — provide observations and success criteria while preserving agent autonomy. Use when assigning work to sub-agents, before invoking the Agent tool, or when preparing delegation prompts for specialist agents.
59
68%
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/agent-orchestration/skills/how-to-delegate/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.
This is a well-structured description with a clear 'Use when' clause and strong trigger terms targeting the agent orchestration domain. Its main weakness is that the 'what' portion is somewhat conceptual rather than listing concrete discrete actions (e.g., it says 'provide observations and success criteria' but doesn't enumerate specific steps or outputs). Overall it performs well for skill selection purposes.
Suggestions
Add more concrete action verbs describing specific outputs, e.g., 'Structures delegation prompts with observations, constraints, and success criteria' to improve specificity.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description names the domain ('scientific delegation framework for orchestrators') and some actions ('provide observations and success criteria', 'preserving agent autonomy'), but it doesn't list multiple concrete, specific actions — it's more of a conceptual framing than a list of discrete capabilities. | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (scientific delegation framework providing observations and success criteria while preserving agent autonomy) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when' clause covering assigning work to sub-agents, before invoking the Agent tool, or preparing delegation prompts). | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes strong natural trigger terms that a user/orchestrator would actually use: 'sub-agents', 'Agent tool', 'delegation prompts', 'specialist agents', 'orchestrators', 'success criteria'. These cover the key vocabulary someone would use when needing this skill. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Highly distinctive niche — delegation to sub-agents and orchestrator patterns are a very specific domain. The mention of 'Agent tool', 'sub-agents', and 'delegation prompts' creates clear, non-overlapping triggers unlikely to conflict with other skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 11 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
47%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill has excellent workflow structure with clear sequencing, validation checkpoints, and a well-defined 10-step process. However, it is significantly over-engineered and verbose for its purpose — an orchestrator agent doesn't need repeated explanations of delegation principles, 'Why' sections for every step, or extensive example text in every template field. The content would be far more effective at half its length, trusting Claude to understand the framework without justification for each design decision.
Suggestions
Remove all 'Why' explanation blocks — Claude understands delegation principles; state the rules once in 'Core Delegation Principles' and don't re-justify each step.
Consolidate Steps 8 and 10 into a single verification checklist — they overlap significantly and the separation adds tokens without value.
Trim example fill-ins to one per section maximum, or remove them entirely since the field names are self-explanatory (e.g., 'WHAT must be true when done' doesn't need an example).
Move the Step 9 prompt template to a separate reference file and keep only a brief summary inline, reducing the main skill to a concise checklist.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | Extremely verbose for its purpose. The 10-step worksheet with extensive examples, mermaid diagrams, repeated 'Why' explanations, and checkbox formatting is far more than an orchestrator agent needs. Many principles (don't pre-gather data, define WHAT not HOW) are repeated multiple times. The template in Step 9 essentially restates what Steps 2-6 already covered. Claude doesn't need explanations of why observations should be factual or why success criteria prevent scope creep. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | The skill provides a structured worksheet with concrete templates and example fill-ins, which is somewhat actionable. However, the actual 'code' is just placeholder text templates (not executable), and the guidance is more of a thinking framework than concrete executable steps. The Agent() invocation syntax and Skill() loading are concrete, but most content is fill-in-the-blank prompts. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The 10-step sequence is clearly ordered with explicit dependencies (complete ALL steps before invoking Agent tool). Step 8 provides a verification checklist before delegation, and Step 10 has a final pre-flight check. The conditional execution flowchart at the top handles the empty-arguments edge case. The feedback loop of 'verify -> fix -> re-verify' is present in the pre-flight step. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | References the agent-orchestration skill at the top for the complete delegation flow, which is good. However, the skill itself is monolithic — all 10 steps with extensive examples and explanations are inline rather than split into referenced files. The domain-specific skill loading diagram in Step 1 provides good navigation to other skills, but the body content itself could benefit from splitting detailed templates into separate reference files. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 8 / 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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