110-java-maven-best-practices

Use when you need to review, improve, or troubleshoot a Maven pom.xml file — including dependency management with BOMs, plugin configuration, version centralization, multi-module project structure, build profiles, or any situation where you want to align your Maven setup with industry best practices. This should trigger for requests such as Review pom.xml to improve it; Apply Maven best practices to pom.xml; Improve Maven POM configuration; Review Maven dependency management and plugin configuration; Modernize Maven build conventions for a Java project. Part of Plinth Toolkit

Quality

—

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

—

No eval scenarios have been run

Securityby

Passed

No known issues

Quality

Content

70%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

A well-structured, instruction-only skill body with a clear validated workflow and clean single-level progressive disclosure. It loses points on conciseness (repeated multi-module/untrusted-POM points) and on actionability (worked examples live only in the reference).

Suggestions

Consolidate the multi-module scope and untrusted-POM rules into one section; they currently appear three times (coverage list, Constraints, Workflow) and could be stated once and referenced.

Add one short in-body good/bad POM snippet (e.g. hardcoded version vs. managed version) so the core recommendation is copy-paste-ready without opening the reference.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	The body is mostly efficient (bulleted coverage and constraints, no basic-Maven concept explanation), but the multi-module and untrusted-POM points are restated across 'What is covered', 'Constraints', and 'Workflow', creating redundancy that could be tightened.	2 / 3
Actionability	It gives concrete commands ('./mvnw validate' or 'mvn validate'), named XML tooling (DOM/SAX/StAX, xmllint, Maven model APIs), and a precise extraction allowlist, but all worked examples and good/bad POM patterns are deferred to the reference, leaving the body without copy-paste-ready examples.	2 / 3
Workflow Clarity	The four-step workflow has an explicit validation checkpoint with a feedback loop (run validate, stop if it fails, ask the user to fix before continuing), satisfying the rubric's destructive/XML-operation feedback-loop requirement.	3 / 3
Progressive Disclosure	The body is a concise overview pointing to a single one-level-deep, clearly signaled reference (references/110-java-maven-best-practices.md, verified present), with detailed examples appropriately split out.	3 / 3
	Total	10 / 12 Passed

Description

90%

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, specific description with explicit what/when triggers and good natural-language trigger terms. Its only flaw is the second-person 'Use when you need to' voice, which the rubric penalizes on specificity.

Suggestions

Rewrite the opening in third person to avoid the specificity penalty, e.g. 'Reviews, improves, and troubleshoots Maven pom.xml files. Use when reviewing or modernizing a Maven POM...'.

Drop the trailing 'Part of Plinth Toolkit' fragment, which adds no trigger value and dilutes the opening.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	The description lists multiple concrete actions ('review, improve, or troubleshoot a Maven pom.xml file', 'dependency management with BOMs, plugin configuration, version centralization, multi-module project structure, build profiles'), which would be a 3, but the second-person phrasing 'Use when you need to' triggers the rubric's -1 specificity penalty.	2 / 3
Completeness	It explicitly answers both what ('review, improve, or troubleshoot a Maven pom.xml file' with named capability areas) and when ('Use when you need to...', 'This should trigger for requests such as...') with explicit triggers.	3 / 3
Trigger Term Quality	It enumerates natural user phrasings ('Review pom.xml to improve it; Apply Maven best practices to pom.xml; Improve Maven POM configuration; Modernize Maven build conventions'), giving strong coverage of terms a user would actually say.	3 / 3
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	The Maven/pom.xml niche is sharply scoped with Maven-specific triggers, making it unlikely to fire for unrelated skills.	3 / 3
	Total	11 / 12 Passed

Validation

100%

Warnings & errors only

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
Commit: aaee915

Reviewed: 1 day ago

Table of Contents

Discovery Implementation Validation

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.