Helps faculty and mentors draft standardized recommendation letters for.
33
Quality
17%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
Pending
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./scientific-skills/Academic Writing/recommendation-letter-assistant/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
22%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
This description is severely weakened by being truncated mid-sentence, making it impossible to understand the full scope. Even the visible portion is vague ('Helps...draft') and lacks any explicit trigger guidance. The academic context provides some distinctiveness, but the description fails to communicate concrete capabilities or when Claude should select this skill.
Suggestions
Complete the truncated sentence to specify what the letters are for (e.g., 'for graduate school applications, scholarships, or job references')
Add a 'Use when...' clause with trigger terms like 'recommendation letter', 'letter of recommendation', 'reference letter', 'academic reference', 'student recommendation'
List specific concrete actions beyond 'draft' such as 'generate personalized content based on student achievements, format according to institutional standards, include specific competency assessments'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description uses vague language ('Helps...draft') and the sentence appears truncated ('for.' with no object). It names only one action (draft) without concrete details about what the letters contain or how they're structured. | 1 / 3 |
Completeness | The description is incomplete (truncated sentence ending in 'for.'), provides only a weak 'what' (draft letters), and completely lacks any 'when' clause or trigger guidance. | 1 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Contains some relevant keywords ('faculty', 'mentors', 'recommendation letters') that users might naturally say, but missing common variations like 'letter of recommendation', 'reference letter', 'academic reference', or 'student recommendations'. | 2 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The mention of 'faculty', 'mentors', and 'recommendation letters' provides some specificity to an academic context, but could overlap with general letter-writing or academic document skills. The truncation makes the scope unclear. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 6 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
12%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill file is heavily templated boilerplate that fails to teach the actual task of writing recommendation letters. It contains extensive infrastructure documentation (security checklists, risk assessments, lifecycle status) but lacks any concrete guidance on letter structure, tone, content, or examples. The core competency—helping draft recommendation letters—is entirely absent from the actionable content.
Suggestions
Remove boilerplate sections (Risk Assessment, Security Checklist, Lifecycle Status) that don't contribute to letter writing guidance and add actual letter templates with examples
Add concrete examples showing input (applicant info, strengths) mapped to output (actual letter paragraphs) rather than just JSON schema
Replace generic workflow steps with recommendation-letter-specific guidance: how to open, structure body paragraphs around competencies, frame weaknesses constructively, and close effectively
Fix circular references ('See ## Features above' pointing to content below) and consolidate the Features section with Key Features to eliminate redundancy
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | Extremely verbose with excessive boilerplate, redundant sections (e.g., 'See ## Features above' when Features is below), and unnecessary meta-content like Risk Assessment tables and Security Checklists that don't add value for a recommendation letter writing task. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | Despite having code blocks, the actual recommendation letter writing guidance is absent. The 'scripts/main.py' is referenced but no actual letter-writing logic, templates, or concrete examples of how to draft letters are provided. The skill describes infrastructure without teaching the core task. | 1 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | There is a numbered workflow section with steps, but it's generic boilerplate applicable to any skill rather than specific to recommendation letter writing. No validation checkpoints specific to letter quality, no examples of the actual letter drafting process. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The document is a monolithic wall of text with poor organization. Sections reference each other circularly ('See ## Features above' when Features is below), and there's no clear hierarchy. Content that should be separate (security checklists, risk assessment) clutters the main skill file. | 1 / 3 |
Total | 5 / 12 Passed |
Validation
90%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 10 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
frontmatter_unknown_keys | Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata | Warning |
Total | 10 / 11 Passed | |
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Table of Contents
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