building-api-gateway
Create API gateways with routing, load balancing, rate limiting, and authentication. Use when routing and managing multiple API services. Trigger with phrases like "build API gateway", "create API router", or "setup API gateway".
69
63%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
Pending
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./plugins/api-development/api-gateway-builder/skills/building-api-gateway/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
92%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 well-structured description that clearly communicates specific capabilities and includes explicit trigger guidance. It covers the what/when effectively and uses natural language trigger phrases. The main weakness is potential overlap with related API or infrastructure skills, though the 'API gateway' focus does provide reasonable distinctiveness.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: routing, load balancing, rate limiting, and authentication. These are distinct, well-defined capabilities. | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (create API gateways with routing, load balancing, rate limiting, authentication) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when' clause and 'Trigger with phrases' providing concrete activation scenarios). | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes natural trigger phrases like 'build API gateway', 'create API router', 'setup API gateway', plus keywords like 'routing', 'load balancing', 'rate limiting', and 'authentication' that users would naturally use. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | While 'API gateway' is fairly specific, there could be overlap with skills for general API development, reverse proxy configuration, or authentication/authorization skills. The description could better delineate its boundaries from adjacent skills. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 11 / 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 provides a well-structured overview of building an API gateway with clear organization (prerequisites, instructions, output, error handling, examples), but critically lacks executable code or concrete configuration examples, making it more of a design document than an actionable skill. The error handling table is a strength, but the instructions read as abstract descriptions rather than specific guidance Claude can act on.
Suggestions
Add executable code examples for at least the core components: a concrete route configuration YAML, a JWT validation middleware snippet, and a circuit breaker implementation—these should be copy-paste ready, not descriptions.
Add validation checkpoints between major steps, e.g., 'After configuring routes, test with: curl -v http://localhost:8080/users/1 and verify routing to user-service before proceeding to auth middleware.'
Replace the descriptive examples section with concrete input/output pairs showing actual gateway configuration and expected behavior, such as a complete routes.yaml with corresponding curl commands and expected responses.
Trim the overview paragraph—Claude already knows what an API gateway is. Start directly with the routing and configuration approach.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is moderately verbose with some unnecessary elaboration. The overview restates concepts Claude already understands (what an API gateway does), and the instructions contain explanatory parentheticals that could be trimmed. However, it's not egregiously padded—most content serves a purpose. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | Despite listing 9 steps, the skill provides no executable code, no concrete configuration examples, no copy-paste-ready snippets. Instructions like 'implement authentication at the gateway layer' and 'add rate limiting' are descriptive rather than instructive. The examples section describes scenarios but shows no actual implementation code or configuration. | 1 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | Steps are sequenced logically (inventory → routing → auth → rate limiting → transformation → aggregation → circuit breaker → health → tests), but there are no validation checkpoints between steps. For a complex multi-step process involving service configuration, the absence of explicit verification steps (e.g., 'test routing before adding auth') and feedback loops is a notable gap. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill references external files (implementation.md, errors.md, examples.md) for deeper content, which is good structure. However, no bundle files are provided, so these references are unverifiable. The main file itself is somewhat long with inline content that could be better distributed, and the output section is detailed but could be in a reference file. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 7 / 12 Passed |
Validation
81%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 9 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
allowed_tools_field | 'allowed-tools' contains unusual tool name(s) | Warning |
frontmatter_unknown_keys | Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata | Warning |
Total | 9 / 11 Passed | |
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