Conciseness

The body is lean and assumes Claude's competence — it never explains what Parallel Change or Flyway is — but the 'What is covered in this Skill?' list and the 'When to use this skill' phrase list substantially duplicate the frontmatter description, which could be trimmed. Fits 'efficient; minor instances that could be trimmed' rather than the every-token-earns-its-place 5.

Actionability

Concrete, specific guidance throughout: MUST constraints and a workflow naming exact verification artifacts ('previous-release fixture checks, row-count expectations, duplicate detection, backfill monitoring, rollback behavior') and exact routing targets. Not a 5 because some steps remain at the design-instruction level ('identify the schema shape... data meaning... rollout window') without worked examples inline, though the reference file carries those.

Workflow Clarity

Six clearly sequenced steps with verification embedded in steps 4 and 6 ('verification evidence, cleanup trigger, tradeoffs, skipped checks, and remaining risks'). Not a 5 because there is no explicit validate-then-fix-then-retry feedback loop despite database operations being a context where the rubric calls for them; not a 3 because validation and verification checkpoints are explicitly present in the workflow.

Progressive Disclosure

The body is a concise overview with a single, clearly signaled, one-level-deep reference: a MUST constraint ('read references/055-design-parallel-change.md before applying Parallel Change guidance'), a dedicated Reference section with a link, and the referenced file exists and is well-organized (constraints, steps, five worked examples, output format, safeguards). This matches the clear-overview anchor exactly.

Specificity

The description lists concrete capabilities and comprehensive scenario coverage: 'expand, migrate, and contract sequencing for column renames, type or data reinterpretation, large-table backfills, relationship-table changes, enum/status transitions, timezone/default changes, and index or uniqueness changes' — seven specific scenarios plus the sequencing action, matching the comprehensive-coverage anchor.

Completeness

Both are present: 'when' is explicit via 'Use when a database schema or data-meaning change needs Parallel Change' and 'what' is embedded in the enumerated change types and expand/migrate/contract sequencing. Not a 5 because the 'what' is stated only inside the trigger enumeration rather than as an explicit capability statement, and not a 3 because the when-clause is explicit and specific.

Trigger Term Quality

Good natural keyword coverage ('column rename', 'backfill', 'schema change', 'compatibility window', 'Flyway') but missing common variations users would say such as 'zero-downtime migration', 'online schema change', or file extensions like '.sql'. Fits the 'good coverage, a few natural terms missing' anchor rather than the 5, and is clearly above the 3 with its multiple relevant natural phrases.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The explicit boundary 'This should trigger before framework-specific Flyway implementation guidance' distinguishes it from sibling Flyway skills and the enumerated scenario list gives it a clear niche. Minor overlap risk remains with the Spring/Quarkus/Micronaut migration skills it deliberately routes to, so it sits at 'mostly distinct' rather than the 5 anchor.