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skill-creator

Guide for creating effective skills. This skill should be used when users want to create a new skill (or update an existing skill) that extends Claude's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations.

77

1.25x
Quality

70%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

79%

1.25x

Average score across 7 eval scenarios

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No findings from the security scan

Fix and improve this skill with Tessl

tessl review fix ./plugins/vertical-plugins/financial-analysis/skills/skill-creator/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

66%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 body is a strong, well-structured authoring guide with concrete init/package commands, a clear sequenced workflow with auto-validation on packaging, and real one-level-deep reference files. Its main weaknesses are token padding in the introductory/principles sections and minor navigation/reference inconsistencies.

Suggestions

Trim the 'About Skills' and 'Core Principles' sections to essentials — drop the bridge metaphor and the 'what skills provide' enumeration that restate knowledge Claude already has, lifting conciseness from 3 toward 4-5.

Turn reference pointers into actual markdown links (e.g., 'See [workflows.md](references/workflows.md)') and fix the 'reference/' vs 'references/' inconsistency so navigation is unambiguous, pushing progressive_disclosure toward 5.

Surface an explicit validate->fix->retry loop in the body for the script-authoring step (not only inside the packaging script) to move workflow_clarity from 4 toward 5.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is mostly efficient and uses imperative form with minimal concept-explaining, but several sections pad tokens explaining what Claude already knows (e.g., the opening 'Skills are modular, self-contained packages...think of them as onboarding guides', the verbose 'Degrees of Freedom' bridge metaphor, and the lengthy enumeration of what skills provide) that could be trimmed, matching 'Mostly efficient but includes some unnecessary explanation or could be tightened'. Not a 4 because the padding is more than minor (the ~60-line intro/principles block largely restates known skill mechanics); not a 2 because the operational sections are tight and code examples are lean.

3 / 5

Actionability

Provides concrete, executable guidance — real commands ('scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <output-directory>', 'scripts/package_skill.py <path/to/skill-folder>'), concrete file-tree examples, and an example description template — with only minor gaps (no copy-pasteable sample frontmatter in the workflow, references are descriptive), matching 'Mostly executable guidance; concrete code or commands with minor gaps'. Not a 5 because the Step 1-2 guidance is somewhat question-prompt-driven rather than command-driven; not a 3 because the core build/package actions are fully concrete.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The six-step creation process is clearly numbered and sequenced, with an explicit validation checkpoint in packaging ('The packaging process automatically validates the skill first... if validation fails, fix errors and run again') and a 'test added scripts' requirement, matching 'Clear sequence with most checkpoints present; minor validation gaps'. Not a 5 because validation is delegated to the packaging script rather than shown as an explicit verify-fix-retry loop in the body, and Step 6 iteration lacks concrete validation checkpoints; not a 3 because checkpoints (auto-validation on package, representative-sample testing) are present.

4 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

SKILL.md is a well-organized overview with explicit one-level-deep references to real bundle files ('See references/workflows.md', 'See references/output-patterns.md') plus clear guidance on when to split content and the three-level loading model, matching 'Good structure; most content is appropriately placed; references mostly clear; minor organization gaps'. Not a 5 because references are described rather than linked with markdown link syntax and the 'reference/' vs 'references/' directory name is inconsistent across examples, slightly weakening navigation; not a 3 because structure and signaling are clearly above the inline-buried bar.

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 answers both 'what' and 'when' clearly with a concrete trigger clause and natural user phrasing, placing it in the upper tier. It is held back from the top by abstract capability language and a lack of concrete authoring actions and synonyms.

Suggestions

Add concrete authoring actions to the description (e.g., 'scaffold, structure, validate, and package a skill') to lift specificity from 3 toward 4-5.

Include natural synonyms and tooling hooks a user might say ('build a skill', 'author a skill', 'skill template', '.skill packaging') to broaden trigger coverage.

Sharpen distinctiveness by naming the deliverable explicitly (e.g., 'produces a packaged .skill bundle') so it cannot be confused with general-purpose helper skills.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Names the domain (skill creation/update) but actions are minimal and abstract ('creating effective skills', 'extends Claude's capabilities') — it lists the types of content (specialized knowledge, workflows, tool integrations) but no concrete skill-authoring actions, matching the anchor 'Names domain and 1-2 concrete actions, but not comprehensive'. Not a 2 because the 'create' and 'update' actions plus the enumerated extension types give a little more than minimal; not a 4 because no specific authoring tasks (init, package, structure) are mentioned.

3 / 5

Completeness

Explicitly answers 'what' (creating effective skills that extend capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, tool integrations) and 'when' with a concrete trigger clause ('should be used when users want to create a new skill (or update an existing skill)'), matching the anchor 'Clearly and explicitly answers both what AND when with concrete trigger phrases'. Not a 4 because 'when' is explicit and specific, not weakly implied.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Includes natural phrases a user would say ('create a new skill', 'update an existing skill') with good coverage of skill terminology; a few natural variations (e.g., 'build a skill', 'author', 'skill template') are missing, matching 'Good keyword coverage; a few natural terms missing'. Not a 5 because it lacks synonyms and lacks file-extension or tool-name hooks; not a 3 because the core natural phrases are present and specific rather than generic.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The skill-authoring niche is fairly distinct ('create a new skill (or update an existing skill)') with limited overlap risk against domain skills, but the phrase 'extends Claude's capabilities' is broad enough to brush against general-purpose skills, matching 'Mostly distinct; minor overlap risk with closely related skills'. Not a 5 because it is not anchored to unique concrete triggers; not a 3 because it is more specific than 'Works with document files'-level generality.

4 / 5

Total

16

/

20

Passed

Validation

87%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation14 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

relative_links

Relative link issues: 6 missing

Warning

referenced_paths_exist

Referenced path issues: 12 missing

Warning

Total

14

/

16

Passed

Repository
anthropics/financial-services
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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