base
Universal coding patterns, constraints, TDD workflow, atomic todos
39
38%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
—
No eval scenarios have been run
Risky
Do not use without reviewing
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./skills/base/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
14%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 a comma-separated list of abstract topics with no concrete actions, no explicit trigger guidance, and no clear niche. It reads more like a set of tags than a functional description, making it very difficult for Claude to determine when to select this skill over others.
Suggestions
Rewrite using active verbs describing concrete actions, e.g., 'Enforces TDD workflow by writing failing tests before implementation, breaks tasks into atomic todos, and applies universal coding constraints.'
Add an explicit 'Use when...' clause with natural trigger terms, e.g., 'Use when the user asks about test-driven development, coding best practices, task decomposition, or writing tests first.'
Narrow the scope to reduce conflict risk — clarify what 'universal coding patterns' and 'constraints' specifically refer to, distinguishing this skill from general coding assistance skills.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description lists abstract concepts ('coding patterns', 'constraints', 'TDD workflow', 'atomic todos') but does not describe any concrete actions. There are no verbs indicating what the skill actually does. | 1 / 3 |
Completeness | The description weakly addresses 'what' (listing topics rather than actions) and completely omits 'when' — there is no 'Use when...' clause or any explicit trigger guidance. | 1 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Terms like 'TDD', 'coding patterns', and 'atomic todos' are somewhat relevant keywords a user might mention, but they are broad and missing common variations (e.g., 'test-driven development', 'unit testing', 'task breakdown', 'code style'). | 2 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | 'Universal coding patterns' and 'constraints' are extremely generic and would overlap with virtually any coding-related skill. The description lacks a clear niche. | 1 / 3 |
Total | 5 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
62%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill is highly actionable and has excellent workflow clarity with well-defined TDD processes, validation checkpoints, and blocking conditions. However, it is severely over-length and verbose, explaining many concepts Claude already understands (functional programming principles, composition over inheritance, basic testing philosophy) and including extensive templates inline that inflate token cost. The content would benefit greatly from aggressive trimming and moving templates/examples to referenced bundle files.
Suggestions
Cut sections Claude already knows: 'Architectural Patterns' (functional core/imperative shell, composition over inheritance), 'Testing Philosophy' basics, and 'Anti-Patterns' list are all well-known software engineering principles that waste tokens. Keep only project-specific constraints and thresholds.
Move the todo format template, bug report template, and example todo into separate bundle files (e.g., templates/todo-format.md, templates/bug-report.md) and reference them from the main skill to reduce inline bulk.
Consolidate the 'Execution Commands by Stack' section into a single compact table or move to a separate reference file, since the commands are nearly identical across stacks with only tool names changing.
Remove the 'Documentation Structure' directory tree and 'What Goes Where' table — these are project scaffolding details that could live in a separate setup/scaffolding skill file rather than a universal coding patterns skill.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | At ~350+ lines, this skill is extremely verbose. It explains many concepts Claude already knows (TDD workflow, what pure functions are, composition over inheritance, basic error handling philosophy). The todo format templates, bug fix templates, and extensive ASCII box diagrams consume enormous token budget. Much of this could be condensed to 1/3 the size without losing actionable information. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | The skill provides concrete, executable commands for multiple stacks (Node.js, Python, React), specific file paths, exact thresholds (200 lines, 20 lines/function, 80% coverage), copy-paste ready templates for todos and bug reports, and specific key patterns for credential detection. The guidance is highly specific and directly usable. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | Multi-step workflows are clearly sequenced with explicit validation checkpoints throughout. The TDD workflow (RED → GREEN → VALIDATE → COMPLETE) has clear blocking conditions, the enforcement protocol has explicit stop-and-fix steps, the bug fix workflow includes test gap analysis before fixing, and the session management has clear start/end procedures. Feedback loops are well-defined. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill references external files (credentials.md, security.md, session-management.md, iterative-development skill) which is good progressive disclosure, but the main file itself is monolithic with massive inline templates and examples that could be split into referenced files. The todo format template, bug report template, and execution commands by stack are all candidates for separate reference files. No bundle files are provided to support the references. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 9 / 12 Passed |
Validation
81%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 9 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
skill_md_line_count | SKILL.md is long (526 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking | Warning |
frontmatter_unknown_keys | Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata | Warning |
Total | 9 / 11 Passed | |
- Repository
- alinaqi/claude-bootstrap
- Commit
65efb33
- Reviewed
Table of Contents
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