release

Orchestrate an MSBuild release: create the tracking issue, branch, configure DARC channels and subscriptions, bump version in main, final-brand the release branch, insert into VS, and publish post-GA. Covers the full monthly release lifecycle aligned with VS shipping cadence.

Quality

78%

Does it follow best practices?

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Securityby

Passed

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tessl review fix ./.github/skills/release/SKILL.md

Quality

Content

81%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 well-sequenced, actionable orchestration guide that adds real domain knowledge with strong workflow clarity and validation feedback loops. It is appropriately concise and uses one-level-deep references, with only minor room to tighten inline detail and complete literal command examples.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	Dense with genuinely novel, domain-specific knowledge (DARC batching, VMR backflow rotation, baseline-version wrong-answer table, branch retirement with historical incidents) with little padding and no basic-concept over-explanation; a few sections could still be tightened.	4 / 5
Actionability	Provides concrete executable commands and file paths (pwsh helper script, git branch/tag patterns, exact DARC flags, pipeline IDs and feed URLs) with templated inputs; minor gaps where some DARC commands are given as flag patterns rather than full literal command lines.	4 / 5
Workflow Clarity	Six timeline-gated phases each with an explicit trigger, an ordered 'Executing a Phase' sequence, a 7-point Validation checklist, and feedback loops in Error Recovery and the '[NOT on feed]' re-run guidance — clear sequence with explicit validation and error-recovery loops.	5 / 5
Progressive Disclosure	Acts as an overview deferring operational detail to a single source-of-truth checklist plus a Key Files table of one-level-deep repo doc/script references; some substantial content (branch retirement, baseline resolution) is inlined rather than moved to referenced detail files.	4 / 5
	Total	17 / 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 is specific and distinct, enumerating the full release lifecycle with concrete actions and a clear niche. Its main weakness is the absence of an explicit trigger clause, which caps completeness at 3.

Suggestions

Add an explicit 'Use when…' clause, e.g. 'Use when running the monthly MSBuild release or when the user asks to ship/branch/insert a VS-aligned MSBuild release.'

Soften jargon with a plain-language trigger phrase ('ship a release', 'VS insertion') alongside the DARC/GA terminology to improve natural trigger-term quality.

Consider naming the monthly cadence as a user-facing trigger ('monthly MSBuild release') rather than only describing it as scope.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	Lists multiple specific concrete actions — create tracking issue, branch, configure DARC channels/subscriptions, bump version, final-brand, insert into VS, publish post-GA — giving comprehensive coverage of the release lifecycle.	5 / 5
Completeness	Clearly answers 'what' with a concrete action sequence, but lacks any explicit 'Use when…' trigger clause — 'when' is only weakly implied by the scope sentence, so completeness is capped at 3 per the rubric.	3 / 5
Trigger Term Quality	Good keyword coverage with natural release terms ('MSBuild release', 'insert into VS', 'publish post-GA', 'bump version'), though it leans on jargon and misses some plain conversational phrasings a user would naturally say.	4 / 5
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	Targets a narrow, well-defined niche (MSBuild release orchestration with DARC/VS-insertion specifics) with distinct triggers and minimal overlap risk against other skills.	5 / 5
	Total	17 / 20 Passed

Validation

81%

Warnings & errors only

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

Validation — 13 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

Criteria	Description	Result
frontmatter_unknown_keys	Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata	Warning
relative_links	Relative link issues: 13 suspicious	Warning
referenced_paths_exist	Referenced path issues: 2 missing	Warning

	Total	13 / 16 Passed

Repository: dotnet/msbuild
Path: .github/skills/release/SKILL.md
Commit: 22771ef

Reviewed: 2 days ago

Table of Contents

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