NGS analysis toolkit. BAM to bigWig conversion, QC (correlation, PCA, fingerprints), heatmaps/profiles (TSS, peaks), for ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq visualization.
74
66%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
90%
1.50xAverage score across 3 eval scenarios
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./scientific-skills/deeptools/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
82%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, domain-specific description that excels at listing concrete capabilities and using natural trigger terms from the NGS bioinformatics domain. Its main weakness is the lack of an explicit 'Use when...' clause, which caps the completeness score. Adding explicit trigger guidance would make this description excellent.
Suggestions
Add an explicit 'Use when...' clause, e.g., 'Use when the user needs to process BAM files, generate bigWig tracks, perform NGS quality control, or create heatmaps/profiles for ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, or ATAC-seq data.'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: BAM to bigWig conversion, QC (correlation, PCA, fingerprints), heatmaps/profiles (TSS, peaks), and names specific assay types (ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq). | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | The 'what' is well covered with specific actions and data types, but there is no explicit 'Use when...' clause or equivalent trigger guidance. The when is only implied by the domain context. | 2 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural terms a bioinformatician would use: NGS, BAM, bigWig, QC, correlation, PCA, fingerprints, heatmaps, profiles, TSS, peaks, ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq. These are precisely the terms users in this domain would mention. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Highly distinctive niche targeting NGS/deepTools-style analysis with very specific bioinformatics terminology (BAM, bigWig, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq). Extremely unlikely to conflict with other skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 11 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
50%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 content with concrete, executable commands and good coverage of multiple NGS analysis types. However, it is severely bloated with redundant information (RNA-seq extend reads warning repeated 3+ times), conversational coaching sections that Claude doesn't need, and inline content that should either be in reference files or eliminated. The workflow clarity would benefit from explicit validation checkpoints within each analysis workflow rather than just an upfront file validation step.
Suggestions
Remove the 'Handling User Requests', 'Example Interactions', and 'When to Use This Skill' sections entirely — these describe conversational strategies and trigger detection that Claude handles natively.
Eliminate redundancy: the 'never extend reads for RNA-seq' warning appears in at least 3 places; consolidate best practices into a single concise section or move to a reference file.
Add explicit validation/verification checkpoints within each workflow (e.g., 'check plotFingerprint output shows enrichment before proceeding to bamCompare') to improve workflow clarity for destructive or multi-step operations.
Move the effective genome sizes table and detailed normalization quick guide to their respective reference files, keeping only a one-line pointer in the main SKILL.md.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | Extremely verbose at ~400+ lines. Includes extensive sections explaining when to use the skill, how to handle user requests, example interactions, and key reminders that are unnecessary for Claude. The 'Handling User Requests' and 'Example Interactions' sections describe conversational strategies Claude already knows. The 'Reference Documentation' section spends many lines describing what each reference file contains rather than just linking to them. Significant redundancy between sections (e.g., RNA-seq 'never extend reads' is stated at least 3 times). | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | Provides fully executable, copy-paste ready commands throughout. Code examples include complete flags and realistic parameter values (e.g., effective genome sizes, bin sizes, processor counts). The bamCoverage, bamCompare, computeMatrix, plotHeatmap, and other tool examples are concrete and immediately usable. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | Workflows are listed with numbered steps and the general pattern (QC → Normalization → Comparison/Visualization) is clear. However, explicit validation checkpoints within the workflows are mostly absent — the file validation step is separate from the analysis workflows themselves. The ChIP-seq workflow lists steps but doesn't include inline validation/verification between steps (e.g., checking output quality before proceeding). The actual workflow commands are deferred to references/workflows.md. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | References to external files (references/tools_reference.md, references/workflows.md, etc.) are well-signaled and one level deep. However, no bundle files were provided to verify these exist, and the SKILL.md itself contains far too much inline content that should be in reference files — the 'Handling User Requests', 'Example Interactions', normalization quick guide, effective genome sizes table, and best practices sections bloat the main file significantly when they could be split out or trimmed. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 8 / 12 Passed |
Validation
81%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 9 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
skill_md_line_count | SKILL.md is long (530 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking | Warning |
metadata_version | 'metadata.version' is missing | Warning |
Total | 9 / 11 Passed | |
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Table of Contents
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