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principle-fix-root-causes

Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there; reproduce first, ask why until you reach it, resist nil-check guards that silence crashes.

66

Quality

83%

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SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No findings from the security scan

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

86%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.

An exemplary compact instruction skill: every line is directive, the restart-bugs heuristic is genuinely non-obvious knowledge, and the structure suits its size. The only refinements are trimming the rationale text and making fix verification an explicit final step. No bundle files exist, and none are needed at this scope.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

Lean and punchy ("Code doesn't change between runs. State does."), assuming Claude's competence throughout. Not 5: the "Why:" paragraph and bullet parentheticals restate rationale Claude largely already knows and could be trimmed; not 3: nothing is noticeably verbose or padded.

4 / 5

Actionability

Concrete, executable instruction-only guidance: "grep for the same pattern, fix all instances", "add logging, read the actual error", and named artifacts for restart bugs (config files, caches, lock files, serialized state). Per the scoring notes, absence of code is not penalized when guidance is this specific and directive.

5 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The Pattern is a well-ordered checklist (reproduce → ask why → resist guards → grep pattern → instrument) with a validation seed ("if you can't reproduce it, you can't verify your fix"). Not 5: verifying the fix is implicit rather than an explicit checkpoint step; not 3: sequence and most checkpoints are present.

4 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

A sub-50-line, single-purpose skill with no need for external references and well-organized sections (title, Why, Pattern, restart-bugs subsection). Per the simple-skill guideline, this scores 5 with just well-organized sections.

5 / 5

Total

18

/

20

Passed

Description

71%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.

A strong, action-oriented description with an explicit when-clause and several concrete behaviors. Its main weaknesses are the broad single-word trigger ("debugging"), which creates overlap risk with other debugging skills, and the absence of trigger synonyms that would improve matching. It uses third person and stays concise throughout.

Suggestions

Expand the when-clause with concrete trigger phrases, e.g. "Apply when debugging or troubleshooting bugs, errors, or crashes" — this would raise both completeness and trigger-term coverage.

Add natural synonyms users say when they need this skill ("troubleshooting", "fixing a bug", "recurring failure") to reduce missed invocations.

Sharpen distinctiveness by stating what makes this skill different from generic debugging, e.g. framing it as a discipline for avoiding symptom-level patches and nil-check guards.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists several specific actions — "Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there", "reproduce first", "ask why until you reach it", "resist nil-check guards that silence crashes" — with minor gaps in coverage of the debugging workflow. Not 5: coverage is not comprehensive; not 3: it clearly lists several concrete actions beyond 1-2.

4 / 5

Completeness

Explicitly answers both: what ("Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there") and when ("Apply when debugging"). Not 5: the when is a single broad term rather than concrete trigger phrases; not 3: the when is explicitly stated, not missing or weakly implied.

4 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Contains natural, user-sayable terms — "debugging", "root cause", "reproduce", "crashes" — with good keyword coverage. Not 5: misses common synonyms like "troubleshooting", "bug", "fixing errors"; not 3: the natural phrases users actually say are present, not merely generic keywords.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

"Apply when debugging" is a broad trigger with real overlap risk against general debugging/troubleshooting/verification skills. Not 4: the trigger domain is broad rather than a clear niche; not 2: the root-cause-fixing framing is specific and unlikely to fire for unrelated skills.

3 / 5

Total

15

/

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

adamsardo/pstack-claude

Path

plugins/pstack/skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

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