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crafting-effective-readmes

Use when writing or improving README files. Not all READMEs are the same — provides templates and guidance matched to your audience and project type.

78

1.12x
Quality

68%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

92%

1.12x

Average score across 3 eval scenarios

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

Optimize this skill with Tessl

npx tessl skill review --optimize ./crafting-effective-readmes/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

62%

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 workflow for README creation with clear decision paths based on task type and project type. Its main weakness is the lack of concrete output examples — showing a sample README snippet or before/after would significantly improve actionability. The content is reasonably concise but could be tightened in places, and the referenced template/guide files are not present in the bundle.

Suggestions

Add at least one concrete example of a generated README section (e.g., a sample Description + Usage block for an OSS project) to improve actionability.

Include the referenced bundle files (templates/oss.md, section-checklist.md, style-guide.md, etc.) or note them as TODO — currently they are referenced but unverifiable.

Trim the 'Step 1: Identify the Task' table — Claude can infer the difference between creating and updating without a formal table; a single sentence would suffice.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

Mostly efficient but includes some unnecessary scaffolding. The tables and step-by-step process add structure but the 'Always Ask' step and some of the task-specific questions feel like padding for what Claude could infer. The content could be tightened.

2 / 3

Actionability

Provides structured guidance with clear questions to ask and a decision matrix for project types, but lacks concrete examples of actual README output. No example README snippets or before/after comparisons are provided — it describes a process rather than showing executable results.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The three-step process (Identify Task → Task-Specific Questions → Final Check) is clearly sequenced with distinct paths for creating, adding, updating, and reviewing. Each path has explicit checkpoints and the workflow is unambiguous for a non-destructive content generation task.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

References to templates (templates/oss.md, etc.) and supporting files (section-checklist.md, style-guide.md, using-references.md) are well-signaled and one level deep. However, no bundle files were provided, so we cannot verify these references exist. The main content is reasonably sized but the project types table could potentially be offloaded to a reference file.

2 / 3

Total

9

/

12

Passed

Description

75%

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 has a clear 'Use when' clause and targets a distinct niche (README files), which are its main strengths. However, it lacks specific concrete actions (e.g., what kind of templates, what improvements) and could benefit from more natural trigger terms that users might use when they need README help. The use of second person ('your audience') should also be noted as a minor style issue.

Suggestions

Add specific concrete actions like 'generate project badges, create table of contents, write installation/usage sections, structure contributing guidelines'.

Expand trigger terms to include variations like 'README.md', 'project documentation', 'repo description', '.md file for repository'.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Names the domain (README files) and mentions some actions ('writing or improving', 'provides templates and guidance'), but doesn't list specific concrete actions like 'generate badges, create table of contents, add installation instructions'.

2 / 3

Completeness

Explicitly answers both what ('provides templates and guidance matched to your audience and project type') and when ('Use when writing or improving README files'), with a clear trigger clause.

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Includes 'README' as a natural keyword users would say, but misses common variations like 'README.md', 'project documentation', 'repo docs', or 'getting started guide'. Coverage is limited.

2 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

README files are a clear, specific niche. The description is unlikely to conflict with general documentation skills or code writing skills due to the explicit README focus and mention of templates/audience matching.

3 / 3

Total

10

/

12

Passed

Validation

100%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation11 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Repository
joshuadavidthomas/agent-skills
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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