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shepherd-driver

Use only as the composed drive-to-merge stage of an APM batch orchestrator (batch-bug-shepherd, apm-issue-autopilot) that has already selected ONE open pull request in microsoft/apm. Do NOT use for user-facing requests to triage issues, sweep a queue, or open PRs -- the parent orchestrator owns those. Spawn one shepherd-driver subagent per PR: it classifies copilot-pull-request-reviewer[bot] inline review, runs the apm-review-panel, folds (by default) every recommendation inside the PR's stated scope, pushes to the head branch or a superseding PR that preserves authorship via commit trailers, watches CI to green, and iterates under fixed caps until ready-to-merge, advisory-with-deferred, superseded, or blocked. Also provides the cross-PR conflict-resolution and mergeability-gate phase. This is NOT a standalone entrypoint.

71

Quality

88%

Does it follow best practices?

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SecuritybySnyk

Low

Low-risk findings worth noting

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

85%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

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

The content is well-structured, actionable, and shows excellent progressive disclosure with a clearly sequenced, validation-rich workflow — every referenced bundle file exists. The main improvement area is conciseness: trim restated rationale and meta-labels to reduce token overhead.

Suggestions

Dedupe the fold-by-default and probe/dependency rationale that recurs across the loop contract, disciplines, and dependency sections; cite one authoritative location.

Drop or contextualize the genesis/anti-drift meta-labels ('A9 SUPERVISED EXECUTION; truth #2 CONTEXT EXPLICIT', 'genesis R3 EXTRACT') unless they drive an action, to trim token overhead.

Inline the one or two highest-leverage loop steps from the spawn body (e.g. the exact terminal-return decision tree) so the SKILL.md is more directly executable without a context switch.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is dense with operational specifics rather than concept-padding (no 'what is a PR/CI' explanations) and assumes Claude's competence, but it carries some redundancy — fold-by-default and probe rationale are restated across the loop contract, disciplines, and dependency sections — plus meta-labels ('genesis R3 EXTRACT', 'A9 SUPERVISED EXECUTION; truth #2') that don't fully earn their tokens.

4 / 5

Actionability

It provides an executable probe shell command, concrete lint commands ('uv run --extra dev ruff check src/ tests/'), and phase-by-phase pointers to real scripts/assets, but the full loop mechanics are delegated to the spawn body rather than shown inline, leaving minor execution gaps.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The convergence loop is a clearly numbered X.0–X.8 sequence with explicit validation checkpoints (X.2.5 owner gate FAIL CLOSED, X.4 lint until silent, X.6 CI recovery) and feedback loops (schema-validate every return, re-spawn once on malformed), satisfying the batch/destructive validation requirement.

5 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

SKILL.md acts as a concise overview with well-signaled one-level-deep references to assets/, scripts/, and references/; all referenced paths resolve to real bundle files, and a dedicated 'Bundled assets' section aids navigation.

5 / 5

Total

18

/

20

Passed

Description

92%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

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, highly specific description that clearly bounds both what the skill does and when it should be used, with explicit negative-scope guidance that sharply lowers conflict risk. Its only weakness is trigger-term naturalness — the phrasing is technical-jargon heavy and could include a few more user-sayable synonyms.

Suggestions

Add one or two plain-language trigger phrases (e.g. 'drive a single pull request to merge-ready') so non-specialist invocations still match.

Consider including the file/asset extension cues or a short 'Use when the parent batch orchestrator has already picked one PR' clause to broaden natural-term coverage.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description enumerates many concrete actions — classifies the copilot inline review, runs the apm-review-panel, folds recommendations, pushes to the head branch or a superseding PR, watches CI to green, and iterates under fixed caps — giving comprehensive coverage of the skill's capabilities.

5 / 5

Completeness

It explicitly answers what (per-PR drive-to-merge convergence loop) and when ('Use only as the composed drive-to-merge stage of an APM batch orchestrator... after ONE open pull request... has been selected') with concrete trigger phrases and an explicit 'Do NOT use' scope.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

It uses strong domain-specific trigger terms an orchestrator would naturally invoke ('drive-to-merge', 'CI to green', 'ready-to-merge', 'copilot-pull-request-reviewer[bot]'), but the language is technical-jargon heavy and lacks natural synonyms or file extensions, so it falls just short of comprehensive.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

It carves a clear niche as a non-standalone composed building block of two named orchestrators, with explicit negative scope ('NOT a standalone entrypoint', 'Do NOT use for... triage... sweep... or open PRs'), minimizing conflict risk.

5 / 5

Total

19

/

20

Passed

Validation

87%

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

Validation14 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

relative_links

Relative link issues: 2 suspicious

Warning

referenced_paths_exist

Referenced path issues: 1 missing

Warning

Total

14

/

16

Passed

Repository
microsoft/apm
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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