Model interpretability and explainability using SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations). Use this skill when explaining machine learning model predictions, computing feature importance, generating SHAP plots (waterfall, beeswarm, bar, scatter, force, heatmap), debugging models, analyzing model bias or fairness, comparing models, or implementing explainable AI. Works with tree-based models (XGBoost, LightGBM, Random Forest), deep learning (TensorFlow, PyTorch), linear models, and any black-box model.
79
75%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
80%
1.29xAverage score across 6 eval scenarios
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./scientific-skills/shap/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
100%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 an excellent skill description that clearly defines its scope around SHAP-based model interpretability, provides explicit trigger conditions with a 'Use this skill when...' clause, and includes rich natural keywords covering frameworks, plot types, and use cases. It is highly specific, complete, and distinctive, making it easy for Claude to select appropriately from a large skill set.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: explaining predictions, computing feature importance, generating specific SHAP plot types (waterfall, beeswarm, bar, scatter, force, heatmap), debugging models, analyzing bias/fairness, comparing models. Also enumerates specific compatible model types. | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (model interpretability using SHAP, computing feature importance, generating plots, debugging, bias analysis) and 'when' with explicit trigger guidance ('Use this skill when explaining machine learning model predictions, computing feature importance, generating SHAP plots...'). | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural terms users would say: 'SHAP', 'feature importance', 'explainability', 'interpretability', 'model bias', 'fairness', specific plot types, specific framework names (XGBoost, LightGBM, TensorFlow, PyTorch), 'explainable AI', 'black-box model'. These are all terms a user would naturally use when needing this skill. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Highly distinctive with a clear niche around SHAP-based model interpretability. The specific mention of SHAP, particular plot types, and the explainability domain make it very unlikely to conflict with other skills like general ML training or data visualization skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 12 / 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 is highly actionable with excellent executable code examples covering diverse use cases, but it suffers significantly from verbosity—it tries to be both an overview and a comprehensive reference simultaneously. Many sections (Key Concepts, Troubleshooting, Integration, Best Practices) should be moved to reference files, and the 'When to Use This Skill' trigger phrases and explanations of well-known ML concepts waste tokens. Workflows beyond the basic one lack inline validation steps.
Suggestions
Cut the content by 50%+: Remove the 'When to Use This Skill' trigger list, the 'Key Concepts' explanations of SHAP theory (Claude knows this), the verbose Reference Documentation table-of-contents, and the 'Additional Resources' section. Move Troubleshooting, Integration, and Best Practices to reference files.
Add explicit validation/verification steps to workflows—e.g., after computing SHAP values, verify that values sum to prediction minus baseline; after generating plots, confirm they rendered correctly.
Consolidate the explainer selection into just the decision tree without the redundant listing in the Reference Documentation section.
Move Performance Optimization, Troubleshooting, and Integration sections to references/workflows.md and keep only a one-line pointer in the main skill.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is extremely verbose at ~400+ lines. It explains concepts Claude already knows (what SHAP values are, Shapley values from game theory, what PDFs are equivalent-level explanations of ML concepts), includes a 'When to Use This Skill' section with trigger phrases that waste tokens, repeats information across sections (e.g., explainer selection appears multiple times), and the Reference Documentation section essentially duplicates table-of-contents information that belongs in the reference files themselves. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | The skill provides fully executable, copy-paste ready Python code throughout. Code examples are complete with imports, cover multiple use cases (basic explanation, cohort comparison, debugging, MLflow integration, production API), and include concrete patterns rather than pseudocode. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | Workflows are listed with clear steps, but most workflows (2-6) defer entirely to references/workflows.md without providing validation checkpoints or feedback loops inline. The basic workflow (Workflow 1) has steps but lacks explicit validation or error recovery. For operations like production deployment, there are no verification steps shown in the main skill. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill does reference external files (references/explainers.md, plots.md, workflows.md, theory.md) with clear navigation, which is good. However, the main SKILL.md itself contains too much inline content that should be in reference files (e.g., the entire Key Concepts section, Performance Optimization, Troubleshooting, Integration with Other Tools, Best Practices Summary). The Reference Documentation section also redundantly lists contents of each reference file. | 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 (565 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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