Trace downstream data lineage and impact analysis. Use when the user asks what depends on this data, what breaks if something changes, downstream dependencies, or needs to assess change risk before modifying a table or DAG.
60
70%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
—
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./skills/tracing-downstream-lineage/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
89%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 is a well-crafted skill description with excellent trigger terms and completeness. The 'Use when...' clause provides multiple natural-language scenarios that would help Claude correctly select this skill. The main area for improvement is listing more specific concrete actions beyond 'trace lineage' and 'impact analysis' to better communicate the full range of capabilities.
Suggestions
Add more specific concrete actions to improve specificity, e.g., 'Traces downstream data lineage, identifies affected tables and pipelines, generates dependency graphs, and flags breaking changes.'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description names the domain (data lineage/impact analysis) and mentions some actions ('trace downstream data lineage', 'assess change risk'), but doesn't list multiple concrete specific actions like listing affected tables, generating dependency graphs, or identifying breaking queries. | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (trace downstream data lineage and impact analysis) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when...' clause with multiple trigger scenarios including dependency questions, change risk assessment, and DAG modifications). | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes strong natural trigger terms users would actually say: 'what depends on this data', 'what breaks if something changes', 'downstream dependencies', 'change risk', 'table', 'DAG'. These cover common phrasings well. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The focus on downstream lineage, impact analysis, and DAG dependencies creates a clear niche that is unlikely to conflict with other skills. Terms like 'downstream dependencies', 'change risk', and 'DAG' are highly specific to this domain. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 11 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
50%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill provides a solid conceptual framework for downstream impact analysis with a clear 5-step process and useful output templates. Its main weaknesses are the lack of validation checkpoints in the workflow (important for a pre-change risk assessment skill), some verbosity in sections that explain concepts Claude would already understand, and the monolithic structure that could benefit from splitting detailed templates into separate files.
Suggestions
Add explicit validation checkpoints, e.g., 'Verify dependency tree completeness by cross-referencing DAG count against known pipelines before proceeding to risk assessment'
Trim the criticality categorization section — Claude can infer these categories; instead provide a concise rubric or decision matrix
Extract the output report templates (impact diagram, tables, checklist) into a separate TEMPLATES.md file and reference it from the main skill
Make Step 1 more actionable by providing a complete shell script or command sequence that automates the search across DAGs rather than listing manual search instructions
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is reasonably well-structured but includes some unnecessary verbosity. The criticality categorization section (Critical/High/Medium/Low) is somewhat obvious to Claude, and the stakeholder identification section states fairly obvious things. The Astro UI paragraph could be tighter. However, most content earns its place. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | Provides concrete SQL queries and CLI commands (af dags list, af dags source), but much of the guidance is descriptive rather than executable. The dependency tree building is manual/conceptual rather than automated. The output templates (markdown tables, diagrams) are helpful but the actual discovery steps rely heavily on manual searching rather than providing copy-paste-ready scripts. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The 5-step sequence is clearly laid out and logically ordered, progressing from identification through risk assessment. However, there are no explicit validation checkpoints or feedback loops — for instance, no step to verify the dependency tree is complete before proceeding to risk assessment, and no verification that all stakeholders have been identified before making changes. For a skill about assessing change risk (a potentially destructive operation), this is a notable gap. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill references related skills at the bottom which is good navigation, but the content itself is quite long and monolithic. The output templates, criticality categorization, and detailed impact examples could be split into separate reference files. With no bundle files provided, all content is inline, making the skill heavier than necessary for an overview. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 8 / 12 Passed |
Validation
100%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 11 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
No warnings or errors.
535a040
Table of Contents
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