Conciseness

The operational sections are lean, but roughly a fifth of the body could be trimmed: the 11-line Table of Contents adds navigation tokens with no new information, the Overview restates the frontmatter description, and the Philosophy section ('Separate symptom from cause', 'Preserve operator trust by avoiding speculative config edits') repeats the Workflow and Constraints sections. This fits 'mostly efficient but includes some unnecessary explanation or could be tightened' rather than the minor-trimmings anchor at 4.

Actionability

The guidance is fully executable and copy-paste ready: exact commands ('bash scripts/codex-preflight.sh --repo-fragment local-memory --mode optional', 'codex mcp list', 'lsof -nP -iTCP:3002'), exact error strings to match ('connection closed: initialize response', 'No version is set for shim'), a concrete default repo root, and real referenced files (failure-taxonomy.md, contract.yaml, evals.yaml all exist). The Examples cover the common requests, matching the anchor for fully executable coverage rather than the minor-gaps anchor at 4.

Workflow Clarity

The five-step Workflow is clearly sequenced, the Validation section adds an explicit fail-fast feedback loop ('stop at the first failed gate and fix it before continuing') with three concrete gate commands, and the Failure mode section gives error-recovery behavior when classification is ambiguous (report competing hypotheses instead of speculative edits). This matches the anchor for explicit validation steps plus feedback loops; nothing is missing that would drop it to 4.

Progressive Disclosure

The body is a concise overview that delegates detail to three real, one-level-deep bundle files, each well-signaled with a 'Read when:' condition (failure-taxonomy.md for classification, contract.yaml for the machine-checkable contract, evals.yaml for routing/pressure-test cases), and the taxonomy file is also linked inline at the point of use. Verified bundle files contain no nested second-level references, matching the anchor for a clear overview with well-signaled one-level-deep references.

Specificity

The description states 'Diagnose and classify MCP and Local Memory startup failures in this repo' — it names the domain clearly and gives exactly two concrete actions (diagnose, classify), matching the anchor for 1-2 concrete actions without comprehensive coverage. It does not list several specific actions (e.g., separating handshake, auth, trust, and listener failures), so it is not a 4.

Completeness

It explicitly answers both questions: what it does ('Diagnose and classify MCP and Local Memory startup failures in this repo') and when to use it ('Use this skill when codex mcp list, Codex startup, hook startup, mise trust, or Local Memory listener checks fail') with concrete trigger phrases — a clear anchor-5 match. Voice is third person, so no penalty applies.

Trigger Term Quality

Concrete trigger phrases are present: 'codex mcp list, Codex startup, hook startup, mise trust, or Local Memory listener checks fail' — natural terms an operator would say. A few natural terms users might emit are missing (e.g., the error strings 'initialize response', 'No version is set for shim', or port 3002, which appear only in the body), so it falls short of comprehensive synonym coverage at 5.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The niche is highly specific — MCP and Local Memory startup failures gated on named tools (codex mcp list, mise trust, Local Memory listener) — giving distinct triggers with minimal overlap risk against generic debugging or config skills. It does not drift into broad territory that a 4-anchor ('minor overlap risk with closely related skills') would describe.