avoid-acting-on-assumptions

Common mistake — proceeding with assumptions about ambiguous requirements instead of asking a clarifying question first. This skill reminds you to stop and ask before acting on uncertain interpretations.

Quality

75%

Does it follow best practices?

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Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

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Securityby

Passed

No findings from the security scan

Fix and improve this skill with Tessl

tessl review fix ./memory_data/skills/avoid-acting-on-assumptions/SKILL.md

Quality

Content

100%Weight 40%Scale 1-3

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

The content is a lean, well-organized reminder that delivers one clear, actionable instruction with concrete examples of risky assumptions. For a simple single-purpose skill it hits all the rubric anchors for a strong result.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	The body is ~10 lean lines with no padding and no explanation of concepts Claude already knows; every token earns its place.	3 / 3
Actionability	As an instruction-only skill it gives a concrete single action ('ask ONE clarifying question') plus specific risky-assumption examples; per scoring notes, absence of code is not penalized when the guidance is actionable.	3 / 3
Workflow Clarity	This is a single-task skill with an unambiguous action (ambiguous -> ask one question); scoring notes allow a 3 for clear simple skills, and no destructive/batch operation requires a validation checkpoint.	3 / 3
Progressive Disclosure	The skill is under 50 lines, needs no external references, and is organized into clearly labeled sections (Mistake pattern, Fix, Especially risky assumptions), which scores 3 per the simple-skills note.	3 / 3
	Total	12 / 12 Passed

Description

50%Weight 40%Scale 1-3

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 communicates the skill's purpose clearly and concisely, but lacks an explicit 'Use when...' trigger clause and relies on a single action rather than multiple concrete capabilities. It is distinguishable but its trigger is generic.

Suggestions

Add an explicit 'Use when...' clause naming natural user triggers, e.g. 'Use when requirements are ambiguous, vague, or underspecified, or before acting on an uncertain interpretation.'

Broaden trigger-term coverage with common user phrasings like 'vague request', 'unclear instructions', or 'not sure what they mean'.

Sharpen distinctiveness by anchoring the trigger to the decision point (before starting work) rather than the generic state of ambiguity.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	Names the domain ('assumptions about ambiguous requirements') and one concrete action ('asking a clarifying question first'), but does not list multiple specific concrete actions as the score-3 anchor requires.	2 / 3
Completeness	It clearly states what the skill does ('reminds you to stop and ask'), but the 'when' is only implied ('before acting on uncertain interpretations') with no explicit 'Use when...' clause, capping completeness at 2 per the guidelines.	2 / 3
Trigger Term Quality	Phrases like 'ambiguous requirements' and 'clarifying question' are relevant, but coverage of natural trigger variations a user would actually say is partial and no explicit trigger clause is present.	2 / 3
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	The common-mistakes framing gives it a distinct niche, but the trigger ('ambiguous requirements') is generic enough to overlap with many other skills.	2 / 3
	Total	8 / 12 Passed

Validation

93%

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 — 15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

Criteria	Description	Result
frontmatter_unknown_keys	Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata	Warning

	Total	15 / 16 Passed

Repository: aiming-lab/MetaClaw
Path: memory_data/skills/avoid-acting-on-assumptions/SKILL.md
Commit: 922caf3

Reviewed: 9 days ago

Table of Contents

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