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backlog-grooming

Break down an epic into well-refined subtasks. Use when the user wants to groom a backlog, create subtasks from an epic, break down an epic into tickets, or refine tasks from user stories. Triggers on "groom", "backlog grooming", "break down epic", "create subtasks from epic", or any request to turn an epic's user stories into individual tickets.

Quality

85%

Does it follow best practices?

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SecuritybySnyk

Low

Low-risk findings worth noting

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

80%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 concise and well-structured with a clear conversational workflow. Its main weakness is the batch-creation step, which skips validation and confirmation despite the rubric requiring feedback loops for batch operations.

Suggestions

Add a validation/checkpoint step after Step 2's bulk creation (e.g., list created subtasks and confirm counts before refining) to satisfy the batch-operation feedback-loop requirement.

Specify how errors during bulk creation are detected and retried (API failure handling) to strengthen the workflow's error-recovery loop.

Include a brief verification step in Step 4's summary (e.g., confirm all subtasks are linked to the epic parent) to close the workflow with an explicit check.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

Lean and efficient body with no padding or over-explanation; every section earns its place and assumes Claude's competence.

5 / 5

Actionability

Concrete, sequenced guidance with specific API/CLI usage and a referenced sub-skill workflow, but execution leans on the external create-ticket skill, leaving minor gaps.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The four-step sequence is clear, but Step 2 explicitly skips preview/confirmation for bulk subtask creation and has no validation checkpoint; a batch operation without a feedback loop caps this at 3.

3 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

Well-organized sections in a compact, single-purpose skill under 50 lines with no need for external references, satisfying the simple-skill exception.

5 / 5

Total

17

/

20

Passed

Description

83%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 strong: it concretely states the skill's purpose, provides an explicit "Use when" clause, and lists natural trigger phrases in third person. Minor gaps in synonym coverage and slight overlap with general ticketing skills prevent a perfect score.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Names the domain and multiple concrete actions ("Break down an epic", "create subtasks from an epic", "break down an epic into tickets", "refine tasks from user stories"); minor coverage gaps keep it below a 5.

4 / 5

Completeness

Clearly states what it does ("Break down an epic into well-refined subtasks") and explicitly answers when with a concrete "Use when..." clause and trigger phrases.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Explicit trigger list ("groom", "backlog grooming", "break down epic", "create subtasks from epic") covers natural user phrasings well, though a few synonyms are missing.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Clear niche (epic-to-subtask backlog grooming) with distinct triggers and minimal conflict risk, with minor overlap against generic ticket-creation skills.

4 / 5

Total

17

/

20

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 — 16 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Repository

foogunlana/skills

Path

.claude/skills/backlog-grooming/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

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