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plan-do-check-act

Iterative PDCA cycle for systematic experimentation and continuous improvement

Quality

63%

Does it follow best practices?

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SecuritybySnyk

Passed

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tessl review fix ./antigravity/skills/plan-do-check-act/SKILL.md

The canonical home for this skill is plan-do-check-act in NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

62%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.

The workflow itself is excellent — clearly sequenced phases with explicit validation checkpoints and feedback loops, plus concrete guidance and worked examples. The main weaknesses are token efficiency (redundant description and three overlapping multi-cycle examples) and the absence of any reference-file structure for the large examples section.

Suggestions

Cut to one exemplar example (ideally the partially-successful one, which best shows the adjust-and-iterate branch) and move the remaining examples to a separate EXAMPLES.md referenced as 'See [EXAMPLES.md](EXAMPLES.md)'.

Remove the redundant "## Description" section and the opening line — both restate the frontmatter description without adding guidance.

Add a compact fill-in template (Problem / Baseline / Hypothesis / Change / Success Criteria / Results / Decision) so Claude has a copy-paste-ready artifact instead of reverse-engineering the format from prose examples.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The "## Description" section and the opening line both restate what the frontmatter already says, and three near-identical multi-cycle examples consume roughly two-thirds of the file (~170 of ~250 lines) where one exemplar would establish the format. This matches anchor 2 ('Noticeably verbose; several unnecessary explanations or padded sections'); not 3 because the redundancy goes beyond minor tightening, not 1 because the phase steps themselves are lean bullets with no explanation of concepts Claude already knows.

2 / 5

Actionability

The guidance is concrete and executable for a process skill: a specific hypothesis template ("If we change X, Y will improve"), defined variables (GOAL, CYCLE_NUMBER), measurable success criteria requirements, and fully worked examples demonstrating the exact output format. This fits anchor 4 ('Mostly executable guidance... with minor gaps'); not 5 because no explicit fill-in template or output format is provided apart from the examples, not 3 because the steps and examples leave little ambiguity about what to do.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The four phases are clearly sequenced with numbered steps, CHECK is an explicit validation checkpoint ("Measure results against success criteria", "Compare to baseline"), and ACT contains explicit feedback loops and branching for error recovery ("If unsuccessful: Understand why it failed / Refine hypothesis / Start new PDCA cycle"). This matches anchor 5 ('Clear sequence with explicit validation steps; feedback loops for error recovery'); not 4 because checkpoints and retry loops are all explicitly present, and the operation is not destructive/batch so no cap applies.

5 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

No bundle files exist, so everything is inline in a single SKILL.md; sections are clearly delineated (Description, Usage, Variables, Steps, Examples, Notes) but ~170 lines of examples clearly belong in a separate examples file that the body would link to. This matches anchor 3 ('Some structure but could be better organized... content that should be separate is inline'); not 4 because the bulk of the file is inlined example content, not 2 because section headers make the file navigable rather than a wall of text.

3 / 5

Total

14

/

20

Passed

Description

45%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.

The description names its niche (PDCA) but relies on abstract methodology language with no concrete actions and no explicit 'Use when' trigger guidance. It would benefit from naming the four phases as actions and adding a trigger clause with common synonyms.

Suggestions

Add an explicit trigger clause, e.g. 'Use when the user wants to iteratively improve a process, run experiments, mentions PDCA / plan-do-check-act / Deming cycle / continuous improvement, or when an initial fix didn't fully solve the problem.'

Replace abstract phrasing with concrete actions: 'Plan a change with a measurable hypothesis, implement it, check results against baseline, then standardize or adjust' rather than 'systematic experimentation and continuous improvement'.

Include common synonyms users say naturally (plan-do-check-act, Deming cycle, kaizen, improvement cycle) to improve trigger coverage and distinctiveness from other problem-solving skills.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description names the domain ("PDCA cycle", "experimentation", "continuous improvement") but the actions are purely abstract — no concrete action verbs like "plan", "measure", or "standardize" are stated as capabilities. It matches anchor 2 ('Names the domain but actions are minimal or generic', e.g. 'Processes PDF files'); it is above anchor 1 because the domain is named, and below anchor 3 because no 1-2 concrete actions are actually listed.

2 / 5

Completeness

There is a reasonable 'what' ("Iterative PDCA cycle for systematic experimentation and continuous improvement") but no 'Use when...' clause or equivalent trigger guidance, which caps completeness at 3 per the judging guidelines. It fits anchor 3 ('Has a clear what but when is missing or only weakly implied'); not 4 because the 'when' is entirely absent, not 2 because the 'what' is present and identifiable.

3 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

"PDCA" and "continuous improvement" are relevant natural terms users would say, but common variations are missing: the spelled-out "plan-do-check-act" (only in the name field, not the description), "Deming cycle", "kaizen", and "improvement cycle". This fits anchor 3 ('Some relevant keywords but missing common variations or synonyms'); not 4 because several natural phrasings are absent, not 2 because more than generic keywords are present.

3 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

"PDCA" is a distinctive methodology marker, but the generic tail "systematic experimentation and continuous improvement" overlaps with closely related process-improvement skills (root-cause analysis, A3, kaizen) that this skill's own body cross-references. This matches anchor 3 ('Somewhat specific but could still overlap with similar skills'); not 4 because the broad improvement language creates real overlap risk beyond minor.

3 / 5

Total

11

/

20

Passed

Validation

100%

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

NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit

Path

antigravity/skills/plan-do-check-act/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

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