CtrlK
BlogDocsLog inGet started
Tessl Logo

codebase-onboarding

Analyze an unfamiliar codebase and generate a structured onboarding guide with architecture map, key entry points, conventions, and a starter CLAUDE.md. Use when joining a new project or setting up Claude Code for the first time in a repo.

57

Quality

66%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

View guide

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No findings from the security scan

Fix and improve this skill with Tessl

tessl review fix ./skills/codebase-onboarding/SKILL.md

The canonical home for this skill is tdg-personal/codebase-onboarding

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

55%

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

A well-sequenced, instruction-oriented skill with clear phases and good guidance, but it is held back by verbosity and a monolithic single-file structure with no progressive disclosure or reference bundle.

Suggestions

Split large reusable templates (e.g., the onboarding guide and CLAUDE.md templates) into reference files under references/ and link to them from the body, reducing the inline token load.

Tighten or remove restated example tables and template placeholders that duplicate content Claude can derive, keeping only the non-obvious detection heuristics and conventions inline.

Add a couple of concrete executable commands for the most common stacks (e.g., a sample directory-snapshot or manifest-detection command) to lift actionability from skeleton templates to copy-paste-ready guidance.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

It assumes Claude's competence and avoids explaining basic concepts, but the body is long and padded with large template scaffolding and example tables that largely restate what Claude could derive, so it is mostly efficient but could be tightened.

2 / 3

Actionability

It gives concrete reconnaissance checks and clear deliverable templates, but the "code" blocks are mostly detection heuristics and template skeletons rather than fully executable commands, leaving key execution details to inference.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The four phases are clearly sequenced with parallelized recon, explicit conditional handling (shallow git history skips conventions), and best-practice checkpoints like "verify, don't guess" and "flag unknowns," giving a coherent end-to-end process.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

No bundle files exist and the entire body is a monolithic single-file guide with no external references or one-level-deep pointer structure, so all content is inline despite the skill being sizable.

1 / 3

Total

8

/

12

Passed

Description

77%

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 description that clearly states both capabilities and explicit use-when triggers, with concrete named deliverables. Its main weakness is trigger-term phrasing and some residual overlap risk with general code analysis skills.

Suggestions

Surface natural user phrasings directly in the description (e.g., "Use when the user says 'onboard me', 'help me understand this codebase', or asks to generate a CLAUDE.md") so trigger terms live in the description rather than only the body.

Sharpen distinctiveness by contrasting with general code Q&A, e.g., note it is for first-time onboarding/guide generation rather than ad-hoc codebase questions.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

It names multiple concrete actions: "Analyze an unfamiliar codebase and generate a structured onboarding guide with architecture map, key entry points, conventions, and a starter CLAUDE.md," listing several distinct deliverables rather than vague language.

3 / 3

Completeness

It explicitly answers both what (analyze a codebase and generate an onboarding guide + CLAUDE.md) and when ("Use when joining a new project or setting up Claude Code for the first time in a repo").

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

It includes some natural phrases a user might say ("help me understand this codebase", "onboard me"), but these are not in the description itself and the description relies more on internal jargon like "architecture map" and "entry points" than on common user phrasings.

2 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

It occupies a reasonably distinct niche (codebase onboarding / CLAUDE.md generation), but the broad framing of "analyze a codebase" could overlap with general code-comprehension or doc-generation skills, so it is not a fully unambiguous trigger.

2 / 3

Total

10

/

12

Passed

Validation

93%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

metadata_version

'metadata.version' is missing

Warning

Total

15

/

16

Passed

Repository
affaan-m/ECC
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.