Conciseness

The body is largely lean — command blocks with only the caveats that matter ('--force-with-lease is preferred... it refuses if someone else has pushed'). Minor over-explanation a competent agent already knows ('The --signoff (or -s) flag adds this trailer automatically using your user.name and user.email git config', and part of the final Probot section) keeps it just below anchor 5, but it is well above anchor 3's 'some unnecessary explanation'.

Actionability

Fully executable, copy-paste-ready commands for every case: amend+force-with-lease, a concrete git log command to find unsigned commits with trailer formatting, the rebase edit loop, and a verification command with output interpretation. The common cases (last commit, older commit, cherry-pick) are all covered.

Workflow Clarity

Cases are clearly sequenced with an explicit verification step before push ('Before pushing, verify every commit ahead of origin/main has both DCO and GPG') plus output interpretation ('Each line must start with G or U... N / B / E need investigation'), which satisfies the destructive-operation validation requirement. Short of anchor 5 only because bad GPG codes get a pointer ('See .claude/rules/commit-workflow.md') rather than an explicit fix-and-revalidate feedback loop.

Progressive Disclosure

A compact, self-contained skill (~70 lines) with no bundle files; content is organized into well-labeled sections per case (Case 1/2/3, verification, background), nothing that belongs in a separate file is inlined, and the single external pointer (.claude/rules/commit-workflow.md) is clearly signaled and one level deep.

Specificity

Multiple concrete, specific actions are named: 'single-commit amend, older-commit recovery via interactive rebase or cherry-pick', plus explaining the Probot DCO check — comprehensive coverage of the skill's capabilities with no vague filler.

Completeness

Explicitly answers both: what ('Recover from missing DCO sign-off on commits. Handles the single-commit amend, older-commit recovery...') and when ('Use when a PR fails the DCO check, when a commit needs a Signed-off-by trailer added retroactively, or when sign-off was forgotten during rebase / cherry-pick / amend') with concrete trigger phrases — a clear match to the anchor 5 example structure.

Trigger Term Quality

Good natural-term coverage ('PR fails the DCO check', 'Signed-off-by trailer', 'sign-off was forgotten during rebase / cherry-pick / amend') with synonyms (sign-off / Signed-off-by / DCO). Falls just short of anchor 5 because common variations like the spelled-out 'Developer Certificate of Origin' and 'git commit sign-off' phrasing are absent; above anchor 3 because the phrases users would actually say are all present.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Clear niche (DCO sign-off recovery) with distinct triggers tied to the Probot DCO check and Signed-off-by trailers; minimal overlap risk with generic git skills since the triggers are specific to sign-off failures.