exa-known-pitfalls
Identify and avoid Exa anti-patterns and common integration mistakes. Use when reviewing Exa code, onboarding new developers, or auditing existing Exa integrations for correctness. Trigger with phrases like "exa mistakes", "exa anti-patterns", "exa pitfalls", "exa what not to do", "exa code review".
85
83%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
Pending
No eval scenarios have been run
Advisory
Suggest reviewing before use
Quality
Discovery
89%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 skill description with strong completeness and trigger term coverage. Its main weakness is that the 'what' portion could be more specific about the concrete anti-patterns or categories of mistakes it addresses, which would help Claude better understand when this skill adds value beyond general Exa knowledge. Overall it is a solid description that clearly carves out its niche.
Suggestions
Add specific examples of the anti-patterns or mistake categories covered (e.g., 'incorrect query formatting, missing pagination handling, improper result filtering') to improve specificity.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description names the domain (Exa anti-patterns/mistakes) and some actions (identify, avoid, review, audit), but doesn't list specific concrete anti-patterns or integration mistakes. It stays at a moderate level of specificity without enumerating what kinds of mistakes or what specific corrections it provides. | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | The description clearly answers both 'what' (identify and avoid Exa anti-patterns and common integration mistakes) and 'when' (reviewing Exa code, onboarding new developers, auditing existing integrations) with explicit trigger phrases provided. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | The description explicitly lists natural trigger phrases like 'exa mistakes', 'exa anti-patterns', 'exa pitfalls', 'exa what not to do', 'exa code review'. It also includes contextual triggers like 'reviewing Exa code', 'onboarding new developers', and 'auditing existing Exa integrations', providing good coverage of terms users would naturally say. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The skill is narrowly scoped to Exa-specific anti-patterns and integration mistakes, which is a clear niche. The 'exa' prefix on all trigger terms and the focus on anti-patterns (rather than general Exa usage) makes it unlikely to conflict with a general Exa integration skill. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 11 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
77%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This is a well-structured anti-patterns guide with excellent actionability — every pitfall has executable BAD/GOOD code examples that clearly demonstrate the issue and fix. The main weakness is length: 9 pitfalls with full code blocks creates a large token footprint that could be better managed through progressive disclosure. The overview paragraph adds minor unnecessary context, but overall the content is practical and immediately useful for code review.
Suggestions
Consider moving pitfalls 6-9 to a separate detailed reference file and keeping only the top 4-5 most critical pitfalls inline to reduce token footprint.
Remove the overview paragraph explaining what embeddings-based search is — Claude already knows this, and the pitfalls themselves demonstrate the implications.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The overview paragraph explaining that Exa uses embeddings-based search is somewhat unnecessary context for Claude. The BAD/GOOD pattern is efficient but the sheer number of pitfalls (9) with full code blocks makes this lengthy. Some pitfalls could be more terse, though most code examples earn their place. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | Every pitfall includes fully executable TypeScript code with clear BAD/GOOD contrasts. The code is copy-paste ready with real API calls, proper imports, and realistic parameters. The checklist at the end provides a concrete review workflow. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | This is a reference/review skill rather than a multi-step process, so the single-task clarity standard applies. Each pitfall is unambiguous with clear wrong/right patterns. The checklist provides a clear sequential review workflow. Pitfall 4 includes a fallback/retry pattern for empty results. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill includes references to related skills (exa-sdk-patterns, exa-common-errors) and external docs, which is good. However, 9 pitfalls with full code blocks inline makes this a long document that could benefit from splitting — e.g., keeping top 3-4 pitfalls inline and linking to a detailed pitfalls reference file. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 10 / 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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