Guide for creating effective skills. This command should be used when users want to create a new skill (or update an existing skill) that extends Claude's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations. Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment - applies TDD to process documentation by testing with subagents before writing, iterating until bulletproof against rationalization
55
62%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
—
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./plugins/customaize-agent/skills/create-skill/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
89%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 solid description that clearly identifies its meta-purpose (creating and editing skills) with explicit trigger guidance. The 'Use when...' clause is well-constructed with multiple trigger scenarios. The main weakness is that some capability descriptions are slightly vague (e.g., 'specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations') and the TDD/subagent methodology mention at the end, while distinctive, could be more clearly articulated.
Suggestions
Make the specific actions more concrete—instead of 'extends Claude's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations', list specific outputs like 'generates SKILL.md files with proper YAML frontmatter, step-by-step instructions, and example usage patterns'.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description names the domain (creating/editing skills) and some actions (creating, updating, verifying skills, TDD with subagents), but the actions are not comprehensively listed as concrete steps—phrases like 'extends Claude's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations' are somewhat vague. | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (guide for creating effective skills, applies TDD to process documentation by testing with subagents) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment'). The 'Use when...' clause is present and explicit. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Good coverage of natural terms users would say: 'create a new skill', 'update an existing skill', 'editing existing skills', 'verifying skills', 'skill' repeated multiple times. These are terms a user would naturally use when wanting to create or modify a skill. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | This is a meta-skill about creating skills themselves, which is a very distinct niche. The triggers ('create a new skill', 'update an existing skill', 'verifying skills') are unlikely to conflict with other skills that perform domain-specific tasks. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 11 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
35%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 but overly verbose meta-skill about creating skills. Its main strength is the thorough coverage of the skill creation process with a clear TDD-adapted methodology and useful checklist. However, it significantly suffers from redundancy (the TDD concept is explained 4+ different ways), explains concepts Claude already understands (what skills are, what TDD is), and tries to inline too much content that should be in reference files. The skill would benefit enormously from being cut to ~40% of its current length.
Suggestions
Cut the 'About Skills', 'What is a Skill?', and 'TDD Mapping for Skills' table sections entirely - Claude understands these concepts and the information is repeated in the actual workflow steps.
Move the CSO optimization, bulletproofing/rationalization, and anti-patterns sections into separate reference files (e.g., references/cso-guide.md, references/bulletproofing.md) and add one-line summaries with links in SKILL.md.
Consolidate the redundant TDD explanations - the concept appears as a mapping table, prose overview, RED-GREEN-REFACTOR section, checklist, and 'Bottom Line' summary. Keep only the checklist and one brief framing paragraph.
Add concrete validation commands or checks in Step 5 beyond structural verification - e.g., word count checks, a command to test the skill with a subagent, or specific criteria for when to iterate vs. ship.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | This skill is extremely verbose at ~2800+ words. It explains concepts Claude already knows (what a skill is, what TDD is, what PDFs are in examples), repeats the same ideas multiple times (the TDD mapping appears as a table, then prose, then checklist, then 'bottom line' summary), and includes extensive sections that could be dramatically compressed. The 'About Skills' and 'What is a Skill?' sections are largely redundant. Anti-patterns, CSO optimization, and bulletproofing sections all contain information that could be 50-70% shorter. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | The skill provides a structured process (Steps 1-6) with concrete directory structures and YAML examples, which is good. However, much of the guidance is meta-level advice rather than executable instructions. The TDD testing methodology references a sub-skill (testing-skills-with-subagents) rather than providing concrete commands. Code examples are mostly illustrative directory structures rather than executable code. The checklist is actionable but the surrounding content is more descriptive than instructive. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The skill has a clear multi-step process (Steps 1-6) and a detailed checklist with RED-GREEN-REFACTOR phases. However, validation steps are weak - Step 5 'Validating the Skill' only checks structural requirements (frontmatter, naming) rather than functional validation. The actual testing methodology is deferred to another skill (testing-skills-with-subagents). There's no explicit feedback loop for what to do when validation fails in the creation process itself. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill references external resources (testing-skills-with-subagents, graphviz-conventions.dot, persuasion-principles.md, apply-anthropic-skill-best-practices) which is good progressive disclosure. However, the SKILL.md itself is monolithic - it contains extensive inline content (CSO optimization, bulletproofing, anti-patterns, file organization examples) that could be split into reference files. The main document tries to be both a quick reference and comprehensive guide simultaneously, making it hard to navigate. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 7 / 12 Passed |
Validation
90%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 10 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
skill_md_line_count | SKILL.md is long (843 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking | Warning |
Total | 10 / 11 Passed | |
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Table of Contents
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