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skill-authoring

Use when authoring, creating, refining, or troubleshooting agent skills — scaffold SKILL.md and frontmatter, write and optimize the trigger description, structure the body with progressive disclosure, validate structure, and test or debug activation. Also when building a new skill from scratch, when a skill won't trigger, loads incorrectly, or the agent ignores it entirely. Use when a skill misbehaved in the current session and needs adjustment based on learnings.

75

Quality

92%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Failed to scan

The risk profile of this skill

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

85%

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

This is a strong meta-skill for authoring agent skills. It excels at actionability with concrete examples, commands, and templates, and demonstrates excellent progressive disclosure by routing to specific workflow and reference files based on the task. The workflow clarity is strong with clear job routing and validation steps. The main weakness is moderate verbosity — some sections could be tightened without losing clarity, though for a complex meta-skill covering multiple jobs, the length is largely justified.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The skill is generally well-structured and avoids explaining basic concepts, but it's somewhat verbose for a meta-skill. Some sections like 'Progressive Disclosure' and 'Writing SKILL.md Bodies' repeat concepts that could be more tightly expressed. The Cardinal Rules table is useful but lengthy. Overall mostly efficient with some room to tighten.

2 / 3

Actionability

Provides concrete, executable commands (scaffold, validate scripts), specific YAML examples for good/bad descriptions, a clear formula for writing descriptions, and a structured shape (Choose/Do/Show/Guard/Check) for writing bodies. The tooling section has copy-paste ready commands. The job routing table gives specific file paths to follow.

3 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The 'Choose the Job' table provides clear routing to specific workflows based on the task at hand. The 'Fast Path' section gives a concise 4-step process for simple edits with an explicit validation step. The body-writing shape (Choose/Do/Show/Guard/Check) includes a validation checkpoint. The skill clearly sequences the loading order and decision points.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

Excellent progressive disclosure structure. The skill routes to specific workflow files (create.md, synthesize.md, test.md, debug.md, refine.md) and reference files based on the job at hand. References are one level deep and clearly signaled with 'Read first' and 'Then use when needed' columns. The three-layer model (name+description → SKILL.md body → references/scripts/assets) is explicitly documented and practiced.

3 / 3

Total

11

/

12

Passed

Description

100%

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 strong description that clearly defines a meta-skill for authoring and troubleshooting agent skills. It excels in specificity with concrete actions, provides excellent trigger coverage for both creation and debugging scenarios, and occupies a clearly distinct niche. The description uses appropriate third-person voice and includes multiple explicit 'Use when' clauses.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists multiple specific concrete actions: scaffold SKILL.md and frontmatter, write and optimize trigger description, structure body with progressive disclosure, validate structure, test or debug activation. These are clearly defined, actionable capabilities.

3 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both what (scaffold SKILL.md, write trigger descriptions, validate structure, debug activation) and when (explicit 'Use when' clauses covering authoring, creating, troubleshooting, skill not triggering, skill misbehaving). Multiple explicit trigger conditions are provided.

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Includes strong natural trigger terms users would say: 'agent skills', 'SKILL.md', 'frontmatter', 'trigger description', 'skill won't trigger', 'loads incorrectly', 'agent ignores it', 'building a new skill', 'misbehaved'. Good coverage of both creation and troubleshooting scenarios.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Highly distinctive niche — meta-skill about authoring and debugging agent skills themselves. Terms like 'SKILL.md', 'frontmatter', 'trigger description', 'skill won't trigger' are very specific and unlikely to conflict with other skills.

3 / 3

Total

12

/

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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