CtrlK
BlogDocsLog inGet started
Tessl Logo
SkillPublic

methods-reverse-engineer

Reverse-engineers the methods section of a biomedical paper into a structured, reproducible workflow. Use this skill when a user wants to understand how a study was actually executed, extract data sources, inclusion/exclusion logic, preprocessing, analytical sequence, software/tools, validation path, and critical parameters, or build a replication checklist from a paper, abstract, DOI, PMID, title, screenshot, or partial methods text. Do not treat this as generic summarization. Focus on reconstructing the operational method pipeline, surfacing missing reproducibility details, and distinguishing explicitly reported steps from inferred or unresolved ones. Never fabricate references, methods details, identifiers, software versions, parameters, datasets, or validation steps.

Quality

88%

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

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

73%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 well-structured instruction skill with an excellent reference-module architecture, explicit workflow checkpoints, and concrete output specifications. Its main weaknesses are redundancy across the Core Function / Hard Rules / What This Skill Should Not Do sections (partially duplicating both each other and the reference modules) and the absence of a worked output example.

Suggestions

Merge 'Sample Triggers' into 'Input Validation' and consolidate the overlapping prohibitions from 'Core Function', 'Hard Rules', and 'What This Skill Should Not Do' into a single anti-patterns section, trusting the reference modules to carry the detailed rules.

Remove the inline design-family list in Step 2 (it duplicates references/study-design-routing-rules.md) and the rules in 'Hard Rules' that restate references/literature-integrity-rules.md, keeping only pointers.

Add a short worked example (e.g., one filled-in Section F workflow step and one Section I gap entry from a real paper) so the output format is unambiguous without reading output-section-guidance.md.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The text is dense with actionable rules and free of filler explaining known concepts, but redundancy spans multiple sections: trigger examples appear in both 'Input Validation' and 'Sample Triggers', prohibitions on inventing details appear in 'Core Function', 'Hard Rules' (rules 7, 13-14), and 'What This Skill Should Not Do', and the explicit/inferred distinction is stated twice. This is 'mostly efficient but could be tightened' rather than padded with unnecessary explanation.

3 / 5

Actionability

Guidance is highly concrete and executable for an instruction-only skill: ten sequenced execution steps, eleven output sections with per-section content requirements, a copy-paste redirect script for out-of-scope requests, and explicit labeling vocabulary ('explicitly reported / strongly inferable / missing'). A minor gap keeps it below 5: no worked example of the output format (e.g., a sample Section F workflow entry).

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

Steps 1-10 are clearly sequenced and mapped to output sections A-K, with explicit checkpoints: coverage gating ('Use the coverage rules... before attempting full reconstruction'), a stop-and-redirect rule for out-of-scope inputs, a dedicated audit step (Step 9), and a completeness validation rule ('If any output section is generated without using its corresponding reference module, the output should be treated as incomplete').

5 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

All 11 reference files exist, are one level deep, and are clearly signaled with per-module use points ('references/study-design-routing-rules.md → use when identifying the dominant design family before reconstruction in Section B'), repeated at the relevant execution steps. Minor organization gap: the body re-inlines content that lives in the reference modules — Step 2's design-family list duplicates study-design-routing-rules.md and the 17 Hard Rules overlap literature-integrity-rules.md.

4 / 5

Total

16

/

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: it states a concrete capability set, gives an explicit 'Use this skill when...' trigger clause covering natural user phrasings and input types, defines negative scope, and stays in third person. It both distinguishes the skill from generic summarization and covers its niche comprehensively.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Multiple concrete actions are listed with comprehensive coverage: 'Reverse-engineers the methods section... into a structured, reproducible workflow', 'extract data sources, inclusion/exclusion logic, preprocessing, analytical sequence, software/tools, validation path, and critical parameters', 'build a replication checklist', and 'surfacing missing reproducibility details'. No vague filler or buzzwords are present.

5 / 5

Completeness

The first sentence explicitly answers 'what' (reverse-engineers methods into a structured, reproducible workflow) and 'Use this skill when a user wants to understand how a study was actually executed... or build a replication checklist' explicitly answers 'when' with concrete trigger phrases. Uses third person voice throughout.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Natural user-facing terms are comprehensively covered: 'methods section', 'biomedical paper', 'replication checklist', plus input-type synonyms 'paper, abstract, DOI, PMID, title, screenshot, or partial methods text'. Both task phrasings and identifier-level synonyms users would actually say are present.

5 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Clear niche with distinct triggers (methods reconstruction, replication checklist, DOI/PMID handling) and explicit conflict avoidance ('Do not treat this as generic summarization'), minimizing overlap risk with summarization or literature-review skills.

5 / 5

Total

20

/

20

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.

Validation — 15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

Total

15

/

16

Passed

Repository

aipoch/medical-research-skills

Path

awesome-med-research-skills/Evidence Insight/methods-reverse-engineer/SKILL.md

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.