pdf

Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files. This includes reading or extracting text/tables from PDFs, combining or merging multiple PDFs into one, splitting PDFs apart, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, filling PDF forms, encrypting/decrypting PDFs, extracting images, and OCR on scanned PDFs to make them searchable. If the user mentions a .pdf file or asks to produce one, use this skill.

Quality

90%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

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Securityby

Low

Low-risk findings worth noting

Quality

Content

80%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

A lean, highly actionable recipe catalog with excellent code coverage, but it is a collection of one-shot recipes rather than validated workflows, and its progressive-disclosure pointers reference files that are not present in the bundle while the existing scripts go unlinked.

Suggestions

Add a verification step after destructive/batch operations — e.g. after encrypting, reopen with the password to confirm access; after merging, assert the output page count equals the sum of inputs — to lift workflow_clarity above the cap.

Resolve the bundle mismatch: either ship reference.md and forms.md (the form-filling workflow the scripts/ directory supports belongs in forms.md) or remove the dangling references from the body.

Surface the scripts/ bundle from the body — e.g. in the form-filling pointer, name the actual scripts (check_fillable_fields.py, fill_fillable_fields.py) so the navigation is one level deep and resolvable.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	The body is dense actionable code with minimal framing prose and never explains concepts Claude already knows (no 'what is a PDF' padding); even the subscript/superscript note is non-obvious guidance that earns its tokens.	5 / 5
Actionability	Every section is copy-paste-ready executable code or commands covering the common cases — merge, split, extract text/tables, create PDFs, OCR, watermark, password-protect, plus qpdf/pdftotext/pdftk CLI recipes.	5 / 5
Workflow Clarity	Each recipe is internally sequenced, but destructive/batch operations (encrypt, merge, split, rotate-overwrite) lack any validation or verification step; per the rubric cap this holds workflow_clarity at 3 even though individual recipes are clear.	3 / 5
Progressive Disclosure	The body clearly signals one-level-deep references to reference.md and forms.md, but those files are absent from the bundle while the real scripts/ bundle (form-filling scripts) is never linked from the body — scoring against the actual bundle structure reveals the navigation does not resolve.	3 / 5
	Total	16 / 20 Passed

Description

100%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

An exemplar description: it enumerates concrete capabilities, supplies explicit 'Use when' trigger guidance with synonyms and the .pdf extension, and occupies a clearly distinct niche. No fluff, no over-claims, third-person trigger voice consistent with the reference good examples.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	Lists multiple concrete actions — 'reading or extracting text/tables', 'combining or merging', 'splitting PDFs apart', 'rotating pages', 'adding watermarks', 'filling PDF forms', 'encrypting/decrypting', 'extracting images', 'OCR' — giving comprehensive coverage with no significant gaps.	5 / 5
Completeness	Explicitly answers both 'what' (the enumerated action list) and 'when' via two concrete trigger clauses: 'Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files' and 'If the user mentions a .pdf file or asks to produce one, use this skill'.	5 / 5
Trigger Term Quality	Covers natural terms and synonyms users would say — 'PDF files', 'PDFs', 'forms', and the '.pdf file' extension — matching the comprehensive anchor including synonyms and file extensions.	5 / 5
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	The PDF niche is unambiguous and the triggers (.pdf file, produce a PDF, PDF forms) are distinct, giving minimal overlap risk with other skills.	5 / 5
	Total	20 / 20 Passed

Validation

100%

Warnings & errors only

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 16 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Repository: K-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-writer
Path: .claude/skills/pdf/SKILL.md
Commit: 0c72606

Reviewed: 1 day ago

Table of Contents

Discovery Implementation Validation

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