Conciseness

The body is dense, imperative, and entirely task-specific — e.g., "Never edit generated dist/ payloads by hand", "Use a distinct local marketplace name such as `<name>-local"" — with no explanations of concepts Claude already knows and no padding. Every section earns its place, matching the lean/efficient 5 anchor. The 4 anchor ("minor instances of over-explanation") does not apply since nothing reads as trimmable filler.

Actionability

Mostly concrete guidance: named validation gates ("MCP handshake smoke: `initialize` and `tools/list`"), explicit dogfood requirements, a file-creation order, and specific doc URLs. It falls short of the 5 anchor because several steps stay at the specification level without runnable detail — e.g., "For Codex, run marketplace registration and plugin add/materialization" names operations but gives no actual commands, and no example manifest fragments or validation tool invocations appear. It clears the 3 anchor because the guidance is specific and checklist-driven rather than pseudocode or vague.

Workflow Clarity

The Workflow is a clearly sequenced six-step process (classify scope → define contract → split source/outputs → transforms → dogfood → validation gates) with validation explicitly built in ("fail on stale generated files", "Never publish from an unvalidated local tree") and checklists throughout. It misses the 5 anchor because the error-recovery feedback loop is only implied — there is no explicit "if validation fails, fix and re-run" step — which that anchor requires alongside the sequence and checklists.

Progressive Disclosure

The body is a well-organized overview of ~120 lines, and its single bundle reference (references/related-skills.md, verified to exist) is one level deep and explicitly signaled with read conditions: "read references/related-skills.md when the user asks for skill links or when routing adjacent work". No content that belongs in a separate file is inlined; this matches the 5 anchor (clear overview, well-signaled one-level-deep references).

Specificity

The description lists several concrete aspects of the domain — "requirements, host-specific payloads, local dogfood, release sync, and validation" — beyond just naming the domain. It falls short of the 5 anchor because these are design facets under a single verb ("Design") rather than multiple distinct concrete actions (e.g., create, audit, publish flows), and coverage of the body's full scope (auditing an existing marketplace) is absent.

Completeness

Both questions are explicitly answered: "Design AI-IDE plugin marketplaces - requirements, host-specific payloads, local dogfood, release sync, and validation" is a concrete what, and "Use when the user wants to create or publish a plugin marketplace" is an explicit when with concrete trigger phrases. This matches the 5 anchor directly; the 4 anchor's caveat ("'when' could be more explicit") does not apply since the when-clause is specific and actionable.

Trigger Term Quality

"Use when the user wants to create or publish a plugin marketplace" captures the natural core phrase a user would say, with two trigger verbs. It misses the 5 anchor because there are no synonyms or variations (e.g., "marketplace catalog", "plugin store", "assess/audit a marketplace"), so a few natural terms are missing.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

"AI-IDE plugin marketplaces" carves out a clear niche — marketplace-level distribution rather than single plugins, MCP servers, or hooks — and the trigger phrase "plugin marketplace" is a distinct keyword unlikely to fire for adjacent skills. The 4 anchor ("minor overlap risk with closely related skills") fits less well since 'marketplace' itself disambiguates from single-plugin work.