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kb-research

Structured approach to finding and synthesizing information from the user's knowledge base

58

Quality

67%

Does it follow best practices?

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Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

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SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No findings from the security scan

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tessl review fix ./surfsense_backend/app/agents/chat/multi_agent_chat/main_agent/skills/builtin/kb-research/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

100%

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

The body is a tight, actionable research playbook: it sequences the work, specifies exact tools and quantities, and enforces citation discipline plus an anti-fabrication guardrail, with no wasted tokens. It is an exemplary concise instruction-only skill body.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is lean and assumes Claude's competence, with no padding explaining what a knowledge base is; every line ('run one targeted KB search', 'Use grep instead of re-reading', 'Cite every claim with the [n] label') earns its place, matching the score-3 anchor.

3 / 3

Actionability

It gives concrete, tool-specific guidance with concrete numbers ('2-4 specific citation-worthy sub-questions', 'Open the most relevant 2-3 documents fully via read_file', 'Use grep'), and per the code_vs_instruction note the absence of code in this instruction-only skill is not penalized since the guidance is highly actionable.

3 / 3

Workflow Clarity

A clearly sequenced 4-step Plan is paired with an explicit anti-fabrication checkpoint ('an explicit Not found in your knowledge base callout when a sub-question has no support'), and as a non-destructive research task it does not require a validate-fix-retry feedback loop.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

No bundle files exist and the body references none; at ~24 lines with well-organized sections (When to use / Plan / What good output looks like) it qualifies for the score-3 simple-skill exception for self-contained skills under 50 lines with no external references.

3 / 3

Total

12

/

12

Passed

Description

35%

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

The description identifies a clear niche and two core actions but lacks any explicit 'Use when...' trigger and natural trigger terms, leaving it generic on when Claude should invoke it. It reads more as a capability summary than a trigger-rich activation prompt.

Suggestions

Add an explicit 'Use when...' clause naming natural trigger phrases, e.g. 'Use when the user asks to find, look up, or research something inside their knowledge base, or to synthesize across their notes and repos.'

Replace abstract verbs ('finding and synthesizing information') with more concrete actions and natural keywords a user would actually say, such as 'search the knowledge base', 'pull up my notes on', or 'summarize across my docs'.

Strengthen distinctiveness by contrasting with web search, e.g. note it targets the user's existing knowledge base rather than the open web.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

It names the domain ('knowledge base') and two actions ('finding and synthesizing information') but these are broad verbs rather than a list of multiple specific concrete actions, matching the 'names domain and some actions' anchor.

2 / 3

Completeness

It states what the skill does ('finding and synthesizing information from the user's knowledge base') but has no 'Use when...' clause or equivalent explicit trigger, capping completeness at 2 per the missing-trigger guideline.

2 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

The description contains no natural trigger keywords a user would say ('find/look up/research X in my notes'); it uses abstract framing ('Structured approach to...') with no concrete natural phrasing, matching the 'no natural keywords' anchor.

1 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The knowledge-base niche is somewhat specific, but 'find/synthesize information' is generic enough to overlap with general research or web-search skills, matching the 'somewhat specific but could overlap' anchor.

2 / 3

Total

7

/

12

Passed

Validation

93%

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

Validation15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

allowed_tools_field

'allowed-tools' contains unusual tool name(s)

Warning

Total

15

/

16

Passed

Repository
MODSetter/SurfSense
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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