implementing-backup-strategies
Execute use when you need to work with backup and recovery. This skill provides backup automation and disaster recovery with comprehensive guidance and automation. Trigger with phrases like "create backups", "automate backups", or "implement disaster recovery".
38
37%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
—
No eval scenarios have been run
Advisory
Suggest reviewing before use
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./plugins/devops/backup-strategy-implementor/skills/implementing-backup-strategies/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
40%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
The description identifies a clear domain (backup and recovery) and includes some trigger phrases, but it is severely lacking in specificity about what concrete actions the skill performs. The language is padded with vague terms like 'comprehensive guidance and automation' without detailing actual capabilities such as scheduling, restoring, verifying, or managing specific backup types.
Suggestions
Replace vague phrases like 'comprehensive guidance and automation' with specific concrete actions (e.g., 'Schedule automated backups, configure retention policies, restore from snapshots, verify backup integrity').
Expand trigger terms to include common variations users would say, such as 'restore data', 'backup schedule', 'snapshot', 'data loss', 'backup strategy', and specific technologies if applicable.
Specify the scope more clearly—what types of backups (database, filesystem, cloud storage), what platforms or tools are supported—to reduce conflict risk with other potential backup-related skills.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description uses vague language like 'backup automation and disaster recovery with comprehensive guidance and automation.' It does not list specific concrete actions—there's no mention of what it actually does (e.g., schedule cron jobs, snapshot databases, restore from backups, verify backup integrity). | 1 / 3 |
Completeness | It has a weak 'what' (backup automation and disaster recovery) and does include trigger phrases serving as a 'when' clause. However, the 'what' is so vague that the completeness is undermined—it doesn't clearly explain what the skill actually does beyond the domain name. | 2 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | It includes some natural trigger phrases like 'create backups', 'automate backups', and 'implement disaster recovery', which users might say. However, it misses common variations like 'restore', 'snapshot', 'backup schedule', 'data recovery', 'backup strategy', or specific tools/technologies. | 2 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The domain of 'backup and recovery' is somewhat specific, but the description is so generic within that domain that it could overlap with any backup-related skill. It doesn't specify what kind of backups (database, filesystem, cloud), what platforms, or what tools, making it hard to distinguish from similar skills. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 7 / 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 reads more like a high-level planning checklist than an actionable technical guide. While it covers the right topics (backup types, encryption, retention, verification, alerting) and has a useful error handling table, it critically lacks executable code examples—no actual backup scripts, cron entries, or restore commands are provided. The skill would benefit significantly from concrete, copy-paste-ready implementations rather than abstract descriptions of what to generate.
Suggestions
Add complete, executable backup script examples (e.g., a full pg_dump-to-S3 script with logging, error handling, and lock files) rather than just listing tool flags inline.
Include a concrete cron entry or systemd timer/service unit file example that can be directly used or adapted.
Add a step-by-step restore verification workflow with actual commands (e.g., restore pg_dump to a test database, run a validation query, compare checksums) to replace the abstract 'restore to a test environment' instruction.
Replace the natural-language 'Examples' section with actual input/output pairs showing a user request and the resulting generated script or configuration.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The content is reasonably organized but includes some unnecessary verbosity. The 'Examples' section lists vague prompt-style descriptions rather than executable examples, and the overview restates things Claude would already understand. The prerequisites section is useful but could be tighter. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | Despite mentioning specific tools and flags, the skill provides no executable code—no actual backup scripts, no cron entries, no systemd unit files. The instructions are a high-level checklist of abstract steps ('Inventory all data sources', 'Classify data by RPO') rather than concrete, copy-paste-ready commands or scripts. The 'Examples' section contains natural language prompts, not actual code examples. | 1 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | Steps are listed in a logical sequence and step 8 mentions backup verification, which is a validation checkpoint. However, the verification is described abstractly ('restore to a test environment') without concrete commands or a feedback loop for handling failures within the backup creation process itself. For destructive/batch operations like backup automation, this lacks the explicit validate-fix-retry loops needed for a score of 3. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The content is structured with clear sections (Overview, Prerequisites, Instructions, Output, Error Handling, Examples, Resources), which is good organization. However, there are no bundle files or referenced sub-documents, and the content is somewhat monolithic—the error handling table, detailed retention policies, and restore runbook guidance could benefit from being split into separate referenced files for a skill of this breadth. | 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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