Conciseness

The body is dense and assumes competence — no space is spent explaining YAML, WebSockets, or systemd — and every section carries iii-specific facts (e.g., "engine.url defaults to ws://127.0.0.1:49134", "compose::add never edits engine: or restarts the engine"). It falls short of the lean 5 anchor because version-number references ("Since 0.25 the engine reads...", "(0.25 engine)") and a few trimmable asides ("Check the rbac-proxy worker's docs for the version that forwards the observe messages") are not isolated in a deprecation/versions section.

Actionability

Both configuration modes have complete, copy-paste-ready YAML blocks and exact CLI invocations ("iii compose --namespace orders-daemon --up --file worker-compose.yaml", "iii trigger -n orders-daemon compose::add worker=rbac-proxy", "iii --config config.yaml"), plus concrete error codes (UNSUPPORTED_CONFIG_WORKERS, LIMIT_EXCEEDED, FORBIDDEN), named metrics, and the full observers defaults block. This fully covers the common cases with executable material, matching the top anchor.

Workflow Clarity

The two modes are clearly separated, each with its own start command, and operational verification is provided ("Use compose::status for process ownership and engine::workers::list for live connections", "Use iii ps to find iii processes... and iii kill --orphans"). It is not a 5 because there is no explicit ordered change → restart → verify sequence, and validation around risky operations (engine restart, iii kill) is listed as tools rather than explicit checkpoints with recovery steps.

Progressive Disclosure

Section headers (Managed Compose engine, Observers, RBAC, Directly supervised engine, Security and operations, When to Use, Boundaries) are clear and navigation is easy, but the skill is ~185 lines with no bundle files at all: the full observers defaults table, the metric name reference, and the multi-paragraph RBAC schema details are sizable reference material inlined in SKILL.md that belong in one-level-deep reference files. This matches the 'content that should be separate is inline' anchor rather than the good-but-minor-gaps anchor at 4.

Specificity

"Configure a managed iii engine through worker-compose.yaml or a directly supervised engine through config.yaml" names concrete actions tied to specific artifacts, and "engine ports, RBAC via the rbac-proxy worker, observer limits, streams, sandboxes, and configuration storage" covers the domain comprehensively. This matches the anchor for multiple specific concrete actions with comprehensive coverage, not the score-4 anchor which expects minor gaps.

Completeness

The 'what' is explicit (configure a managed engine via worker-compose.yaml or a supervised engine via config.yaml) and the 'when' is an explicit "Use for" clause listing concrete triggers: engine ports, RBAC via the rbac-proxy worker, observer limits, streams, sandboxes, and configuration storage. Both are clearly and explicitly answered with concrete trigger phrases, matching the top anchor; the 'missing Use when clause' cap of 3 does not apply.

Trigger Term Quality

Terms like "engine ports", "RBAC", "rbac-proxy", "worker-compose.yaml", "config.yaml", "observer limits", "streams", and "sandboxes" are the natural vocabulary an iii user would say. It falls short of the 5 anchor because a few natural phrasings users might use (e.g., "engine setup", "supervisor", "restart the engine", "systemd/Kubernetes") are absent, but it is well above the 3 anchor's 'missing common variations'.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The niche (iii engine configuration, two named config files, rbac-proxy) is distinct and unlikely to trigger generic skills, matching 'mostly distinct; minor overlap risk'. It is not a 5 because topics like streams, sandboxes, and observers border on sibling iii skills (e.g., iii-observe) whose docs cover the code-level side, creating minor overlap risk.