CtrlK
BlogDocsLog inGet started
Tessl Logo

022-root-cause-analysis

Use when a framed problem needs root-cause investigation rather than a symptom-level fix, applying Five Whys, Fishbone (Ishikawa), Current Reality Tree, and constraint identification. This should trigger when an issue's Root Cause Analysis point of view needs evaluation, or when a maintainer directly asks to find the root cause of a problem before proposing a fix. Part of Plinth Toolkit

68

Quality

85%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

View guide
SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No findings from the security scan

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

71%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.

A well-structured interactive skill: clear sequencing, appropriate delegation to a single well-signaled reference, and concrete conditions for choosing among the four techniques. The main weakness is redundancy — the technique descriptions are repeated across the coverage list, constraints, and workflow sections, which inflates token cost without adding guidance.

Suggestions

Consolidate the four technique descriptions: state each technique once (in the workflow, where it is applied) and reduce the MUST constraint bullets to hard rules like 'MUST NOT invent a root cause' that are not already covered in the workflow, cutting roughly a third of the body.

Cut the 'What is covered in this Skill?' bullet list or reduce it to a one-line summary naming the four techniques, since the description and workflow already enumerate them.

Add one short inline worked example (e.g., a 3-step Five Whys chain that stops at the evidence boundary) so the actionability does not depend entirely on the reference file.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

Each of the four techniques is described three times across the coverage list, the MUST constraint bullets, and the workflow steps (e.g., Fishbone's "when more than one causal dimension (people, process, technology, environment) is plausible" appears nearly verbatim twice), so the body could be meaningfully tightened. It is not a 4 because the repetition goes beyond minor over-explanation, but not a 2 since nothing is padded filler or basic-concept explanation.

3 / 5

Actionability

The workflow is directive and condition-specific ("Read `references/022-root-cause-analysis.md`, then identify the symptom(s)", "Apply Fishbone… when more than one causal dimension… is plausible"), which is concrete, executable guidance for an instruction-only skill. It falls short of 5 only because worked examples and application detail are fully delegated to the reference file rather than partially instantiated inline.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

Six clearly sequenced steps with explicit application conditions, a stopping rule ("stopping when further 'why' steps would require guessing"), and a final checkpoint to flag open findings. No validate-then-fix feedback loop is present, which the 5 anchor expects, though no destructive or batch operation exists that would cap the score at 3.

4 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

SKILL.md is a clean overview with all detail split into a single real one-level-deep reference (references/022-root-cause-analysis.md exists and contains the detailed guidance plus examples), signaled both in a MUST-read bullet and a dedicated Reference section with a markdown link, making navigation trivial.

5 / 5

Total

16

/

20

Passed

Description

92%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.

A strong description: concrete named techniques, explicit dual trigger conditions, and clear scoping against symptom-level fixes. The only improvement would be adding a few more natural user synonyms for triggering (e.g., "underlying cause", "get to the bottom of").

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description names four concrete, specific techniques ("applying Five Whys, Fishbone (Ishikawa), Current Reality Tree, and constraint identification") plus the symptom-vs-root-cause distinction, giving comprehensive coverage of the skill's actions with no gaps.

5 / 5

Completeness

It explicitly answers both what (apply Four Whys techniques: Five Whys, Fishbone, Current Reality Tree, constraint identification) and when ("This should trigger when an issue's Root Cause Analysis point of view needs evaluation, or when a maintainer directly asks to find the root cause"), with concrete trigger phrases.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Natural trigger phrases are present ("root-cause investigation", "find the root cause", "Root Cause Analysis", "symptom-level fix"), but common user synonyms such as "underlying cause" or "why is this happening" are missing, placing it just below the comprehensive anchor.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Root-cause analysis with four named techniques is a clear niche, and the explicit scoping "rather than a symptom-level fix" plus "before proposing a fix" distinguishes it from generic debugging or fix-oriented skills, leaving only minimal overlap risk.

5 / 5

Total

19

/

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
jabrena/plinth
Reviewed

Table of Contents

Is this your skill?

If you maintain this skill, you can claim it as your own. Once claimed, you can manage eval scenarios, bundle related skills, attach documentation or rules, and ensure cross-agent compatibility.