managing-path-cleaning-rules

Inspects URL paths and proposes, tests, orders, and applies project-level path cleaning rules so dynamic segments (numeric IDs, UUIDs, slugs, dates) collapse into readable aliases. Use when the user says "clean the paths", "normalize URLs", "group similar pages", "too many distinct paths", "/users/123 and /users/456 are the same page", "set up path cleaning", or asks why a Web analytics or Paths breakdown is fragmented across thousands of nearly-identical URLs. Covers regex syntax (re2), alias placeholder convention, rule ordering, the test workflow, and applying rules via the path-cleaning-rules-update MCP tool.

Quality

94%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

View guide

Securityby

Passed

No findings from the security scan

Quality

Content

88%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 high-quality, actionable skill body with a concrete workflow, real validation gates for a destructive operation, and tight domain-specific guidance. Only minor tightening of the pitfalls prose and optional reference splitting would lift it further.

Suggestions

Trim a few explanatory sentences in 'Common pitfalls' (e.g. the backreference cost rationale) to the essential rule and the 3x figure.

Consider moving the full pitfalls list or the regex/alias table into a reference file and summarizing inline, to shorten the SKILL.md overview.

Add a one-line explicit 'verify the preview matches expectations before sending confirm: true' checkpoint in step 6 to make the feedback loop unmistakable.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	Largely lean and assumes competence (no explaining what regex/UUIDs are), with PostHog-specific gotchas like the backreference 3x cost and double-escaping earning their tokens; a few sentences in the pitfalls section could be tightened further.	4 / 5
Actionability	Provides copy-paste-ready SQL to inspect paths, a concrete regex/alias table covering common segment types, executable HogQL test snippets, and a complete MCP tool JSON payload — fully executable across the common cases.	5 / 5
Workflow Clarity	A clearly sequenced six-step workflow with explicit validation checkpoints — test before saving (step 4), preview-without-confirm then confirm (step 6) — and feedback loops for a destructive, globally-applied change, including warnings about historical number impact.	5 / 5
Progressive Disclosure	Well-organized into clear sections (Data model, numbered Workflow, Where rules apply, Common pitfalls) with no nested references; the file is longer than the simple-skill threshold and the pitfalls/table could optionally be split out, but structure is solid as-is.	4 / 5
	Total	18 / 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 exemplary description: third-person voice, concrete actions, comprehensive natural-language triggers, and explicit what/when guidance with minimal conflict risk. No changes needed.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	Lists multiple concrete actions — 'Inspects URL paths and proposes, tests, orders, and applies project-level path cleaning rules' — plus enumerates regex syntax, alias convention, rule ordering, the test workflow, and the MCP tool, giving comprehensive coverage.	5 / 5
Completeness	Explicitly answers both 'what' (inspect/propose/test/order/apply path cleaning rules) and 'when' via a clearly marked 'Use when' clause with concrete trigger phrases and symptom descriptions.	5 / 5
Trigger Term Quality	Includes a rich set of natural phrases users would actually say — 'clean the paths', 'normalize URLs', 'group similar pages', 'too many distinct paths', '/users/123 and /users/456 are the same page', 'set up path cleaning' — covering synonyms and a concrete example utterance.	5 / 5
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	Occupies a clear niche (PostHog path cleaning rules) with highly specific triggers like fragmented Web analytics / Paths breakdowns, making conflict with unrelated skills minimal.	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: PostHog/posthog
Path: products/web_analytics/skills/managing-path-cleaning-rules/SKILL.md
Commit: 6fca5f8

Reviewed: 3 days ago

Table of Contents

Discovery Implementation Validation

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.