clinicaltrials-database

Query ClinicalTrials.gov via API v2. Search trials by condition, drug, location, status, or phase. Retrieve trial details by NCT ID, export data, for clinical research and patient matching.

Quality

71%

Does it follow best practices?

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Securityby

Low

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tessl review fix ./scientific-skills/Evidence Insight/clinicaltrials-database/SKILL.md

Quality

Content

68%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 content is highly actionable with comprehensive executable examples and sound progressive disclosure to real bundle files, but it is verbose for a capabilities catalog and lacks explicit validation checkpoints in its batch-retrieval workflows.

Suggestions

Tighten repetitive boilerplate across the 10 capability sections (e.g., consolidate the repeated 'Common use cases' lists and imports) and trim the Overview's explanation of what ClinicalTrials.gov is.

Add an explicit validation checkpoint to the bulk/pagination workflow (e.g., verify totalCount vs retrieved count and handle rate-limit 429s before continuing) so batch operations can score above 3 on workflow clarity.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	Mostly action-oriented but the ~520-line body carries repetitive per-capability boilerplate ('Common use cases' lists, repeated imports) and an Overview that explains ClinicalTrials.gov itself, which Claude already knows.	3 / 5
Actionability	Copy-paste-ready, executable code covers the common cases (search, retrieve, pagination, CSV export, summary) and the referenced helper functions (search_studies, get_study_details, search_with_all_results, extract_study_summary) all exist in the bundled script.	5 / 5
Workflow Clarity	The body is a capabilities catalog rather than a sequenced workflow, and the batch/bulk-retrieval examples lack explicit validation checkpoints, so workflow clarity is capped at 3 per the batch-operations rule.	3 / 5
Progressive Disclosure	Good structure with clearly signaled, one-level-deep references to the real bundle files (scripts/query_clinicaltrials.py, references/api_reference.md); minor organization gaps remain from the large inline capability catalog.	4 / 5
	Total	15 / 20 Passed

Description

75%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 is specific and well-scoped to a distinct niche with strong action coverage, but it omits an explicit 'Use when…' trigger clause, which caps its completeness and limits trigger-term quality.

Suggestions

Add an explicit 'Use when…' clause naming natural trigger phrases (e.g., 'Use when searching ClinicalTrials.gov for trials by condition, drug, location, or NCT ID').

Include common synonyms/extensions users might say (e.g., 'clinical studies', 'trial registry', 'recruiting trials') to broaden trigger coverage.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	Lists multiple concrete actions across the domain — search by condition, drug, location, status, or phase; retrieve by NCT ID; export data — giving comprehensive coverage rather than vague abstractions.	5 / 5
Completeness	Has a clear 'what' but no explicit 'Use when…' clause; the trailing 'for clinical research and patient matching' only weakly implies when, so completeness is capped at 3 per the missing-trigger-guidance rule.	3 / 5
Trigger Term Quality	Includes good natural keywords (clinical trials, condition, drug, NCT ID, patient matching) a user would say, but lacks synonym/extension variants and an explicit trigger phrase.	4 / 5
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	Targets a clear niche (ClinicalTrials.gov via API v2) with domain-specific triggers, making overlap with other skills minimal.	5 / 5
	Total	17 / 20 Passed

Validation

87%

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 — 14 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

Criteria	Description	Result
skill_md_line_count	SKILL.md is long (521 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking	Warning
frontmatter_unknown_keys	Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata	Warning

	Total	14 / 16 Passed

Repository: aipoch/medical-research-skills
Path: scientific-skills/Evidence Insight/clinicaltrials-database/SKILL.md
Commit: 63c61d3

Reviewed: 3 hours ago

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