CtrlK
BlogDocsLog inGet started
Tessl Logo

apply-anthropic-skill-best-practices

Comprehensive guide for skill development based on Anthropic's official best practices - use for complex skills requiring detailed structure

42

Quality

43%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

Fix and improve this skill with Tessl

tessl review fix ./plugins/customaize-agent/skills/apply-anthropic-skill-best-practices/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

47%

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

This is a comprehensive meta-skill about writing skills that demonstrates excellent workflow patterns and examples but suffers significantly from verbosity. It explains many concepts Claude already understands (naming conventions, what progressive disclosure is, why consistency matters) and includes massive image srcset markup that wastes tokens. The irony is that a skill teaching conciseness is itself not concise—it violates its own 500-line recommendation.

Suggestions

Reduce content by 60-70%: Remove explanations of concepts Claude already knows (what gerund form is, why consistency matters, what PDFs are, how progressive disclosure works conceptually) and keep only the actionable patterns and examples.

Remove all inline image markup—these are not renderable in Claude's context and waste hundreds of tokens on srcset attributes.

Practice the progressive disclosure the skill teaches: split into SKILL.md (core principles + patterns overview), PATTERNS.md (template/examples/conditional patterns), EVALUATION.md (testing methodology), and ADVANCED.md (executable code guidance).

Remove the lengthy 'Develop Skills iteratively with Claude' section—Claude understands iterative development. A 2-line summary would suffice.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

This is extremely verbose at 500+ lines. It extensively explains concepts Claude already knows (what PDFs are, what progressive disclosure means, why consistency matters, what gerund form is). It includes lengthy explanations of naming conventions, description writing, and evaluation methodology that are general knowledge. The embedded images with full srcset attributes add massive bloat. Much of this reads like documentation for humans, not concise instructions for Claude.

1 / 3

Actionability

The skill provides many concrete code examples and patterns (PDF extraction, commit messages, form filling workflows) that are copy-paste ready. However, it's a meta-skill about writing skills rather than performing a specific task, so much of the content is advisory rather than directly executable. The examples are good but serve as illustrations of patterns rather than actionable steps for a specific workflow.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The skill excels at demonstrating workflow clarity with explicit multi-step processes, validation checkpoints, feedback loops (validate → fix → retry), and checklists. The PDF form filling workflow, document editing process, and research synthesis workflow all show clear sequencing with validation gates. The evaluation-driven development process is also well-sequenced.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

While the skill extensively teaches progressive disclosure patterns and references external documentation (Skills overview, code execution tool docs), the SKILL.md itself is a monolithic wall of text that doesn't practice what it preaches. There are no bundle files to split content into, and the content that could be separated (advanced executable code section, anti-patterns, evaluation methodology) remains inline. The external links point to docs.claude.com pages rather than bundled files.

2 / 3

Total

8

/

12

Passed

Description

40%

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 is too vague and abstract, relying on buzzwords like 'comprehensive guide' and 'detailed structure' without specifying concrete actions the skill performs. While it partially addresses when to use it ('complex skills requiring detailed structure'), it lacks specific trigger terms and actionable capability descriptions that would help Claude reliably select this skill from a large pool.

Suggestions

Replace vague language with concrete actions, e.g., 'Generates SKILL.md files with proper YAML frontmatter, structured sections, and example content following Anthropic's best practices.'

Add explicit trigger guidance with natural user terms, e.g., 'Use when the user asks to create a skill, write a SKILL.md file, build a skill template, or structure a new skill following best practices.'

Clarify what distinguishes this from simpler skill-related tasks by specifying what 'complex skills requiring detailed structure' means in practice (e.g., multi-step workflows, conditional logic, tool integration).

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description uses vague, abstract language like 'comprehensive guide' and 'detailed structure' without listing any concrete actions. It does not specify what the skill actually does (e.g., generate skill files, write YAML frontmatter, structure markdown sections).

1 / 3

Completeness

The 'what' is weakly stated ('guide for skill development') and the 'when' is partially addressed with 'use for complex skills requiring detailed structure,' but it lacks explicit trigger guidance (e.g., 'Use when the user asks to create or improve a skill file'). The when clause is present but vague.

2 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

It includes some relevant terms like 'skill development' and 'best practices' that a user might mention, but misses natural variations such as 'SKILL.md', 'skill file', 'create a skill', 'write a skill', or 'skill template'. 'Anthropic's official best practices' is somewhat niche but relevant.

2 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The mention of 'Anthropic's official best practices' and 'skill development' provides some distinctiveness, but 'comprehensive guide' and 'detailed structure' are generic enough to potentially overlap with other documentation or template-related skills.

2 / 3

Total

7

/

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.

Validation9 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

skill_md_line_count

SKILL.md is long (1022 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking

Warning

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

Total

9

/

11

Passed

Repository
NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit
Reviewed

Table of Contents

Is this your skill?

If you maintain this skill, you can claim it as your own. Once claimed, you can manage eval scenarios, bundle related skills, attach documentation or rules, and ensure cross-agent compatibility.