Comprehensive guide to the Hookdeck Event Gateway for receiving, routing, and delivering webhooks and events. Covers setup, connections, authentication, local development, monitoring, and API automation. Use when receiving webhooks, setting up webhook endpoints, testing webhooks locally, configuring webhook relay or event queue, event routing, webhook retry, webhook monitoring, third-party routing, asynchronous APIs, or local webhook development. For provider webhooks (Stripe, Shopify, Chargebee, GitHub, etc.), use together with the matching skill from hookdeck/webhook-skills; do not only parse JSON — use provider SDK verification and event construction (e.g. Stripe constructEvent).
74
67%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
Pending
No eval scenarios have been run
Advisory
Suggest reviewing before use
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./skills/event-gateway/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
100%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 strong, well-crafted skill description that covers specific capabilities, includes an explicit and comprehensive 'Use when...' clause with many natural trigger terms, and clearly distinguishes itself from related provider-specific webhook skills. The cross-referencing guidance for provider webhooks is a particularly thoughtful addition that reduces ambiguity in skill selection.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: receiving, routing, delivering webhooks; covers setup, connections, authentication, local development, monitoring, and API automation. Also mentions provider SDK verification and event construction. | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (comprehensive guide to Hookdeck Event Gateway for receiving, routing, and delivering webhooks) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when...' clause with extensive trigger scenarios). Also includes guidance on when to combine with other skills. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural terms users would say: 'webhooks', 'webhook endpoints', 'testing webhooks locally', 'webhook relay', 'event queue', 'event routing', 'webhook retry', 'webhook monitoring', 'local webhook development', plus specific provider names like Stripe, Shopify, GitHub. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Clearly scoped to Hookdeck Event Gateway and webhook/event management, which is a distinct niche. It even explicitly delineates boundaries with provider-specific webhook skills, reducing conflict risk. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 12 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
35%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill has good structural bones — clear use-case tables, a defined workflow sequence, and well-organized reference material links — but suffers significantly from verbosity and repetition. The same guidance about provider webhooks, context verification, and CLI prerequisites is restated multiple times across different sections. The extensive CLI vs API vs Dashboard decision framework, while thorough, explains reasoning patterns Claude already possesses and would be better as a concise reference file.
Suggestions
Reduce repetition by stating provider webhook guidance, context verification steps, and CLI prerequisite reminders once each, then cross-referencing — currently these appear 2-3 times in the body.
Move the 'How agents choose: CLI, API, or Dashboard' section (which is ~40 lines of decision logic Claude can largely infer) to a reference file and replace with a 3-line summary.
Add explicit validation checkpoints between Workflow Stages (e.g., 'Verify source URL is active before proceeding to scaffold', 'Confirm test event received before iterating').
Trim explanatory prose throughout — phrases like 'This is the recommended path for a new integration' and 'Use as needed (not sequential)' add no actionable value for Claude.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is extremely verbose with extensive repetition — provider webhook guidance is restated across multiple sections (Provider webhooks, Signature Verification, Workflow Stages Stage 02), CLI/API/Dashboard decision logic is exhaustively explained with concepts Claude already understands (what CI is, what credentials are), and the context verification instructions are repeated nearly verbatim in two places. Much of this content could be cut by 50%+ without losing actionable information. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | The Quick Start section provides concrete, executable commands (`hookdeck listen 3000 <source_name> --path /webhooks`), and there are specific CLI commands throughout. However, most actionable content is delegated to reference files rather than shown inline, and much of the skill body is meta-guidance about when to use which reference file rather than directly executable instructions. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The Workflow Stages section provides a clear 4-step sequence (setup → scaffold → listen → iterate), and the context verification flow has explicit steps. However, validation checkpoints are weak — there's no explicit 'verify this worked before proceeding' between stages, and the production deployment section lacks a clear validation/verification step after switching destinations. The CLI/API/Dashboard decision tree, while detailed, adds complexity without clear sequencing. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill does reference many external files (references/*.md, examples/*/) with tables organizing them by area and use case, which is good structure. However, the main SKILL.md itself is too long and includes substantial inline content that should be in reference files (the entire CLI vs API vs Dashboard decision framework, the repeated provider webhook guidance, the production deployment details). The reference tables are well-organized but the surrounding prose bloats the overview. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 7 / 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.
94c610d
Table of Contents
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