appinsights-instrumentation
Guidance for instrumenting webapps with Azure Application Insights. Provides telemetry patterns, SDK setup, and configuration references. WHEN: how to instrument app, App Insights SDK, telemetry patterns, what is App Insights, Application Insights guidance, instrumentation examples, APM best practices.
79
73%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
Pending
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./.github/plugins/azure-skills/skills/appinsights-instrumentation/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
89%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 solid skill description that clearly identifies its niche (Azure Application Insights instrumentation) and provides explicit trigger terms via a WHEN clause. The main weakness is that the 'what' portion could be more specific about concrete actions beyond general categories like 'telemetry patterns' and 'SDK setup'. Overall it performs well for skill selection purposes.
Suggestions
Expand the capability description with more concrete actions, e.g., 'configure custom metrics, set up distributed tracing, add exception tracking, configure sampling and filtering' instead of the more general 'telemetry patterns, SDK setup, and configuration references'.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Names the domain (Azure Application Insights) and some actions (telemetry patterns, SDK setup, configuration references), but doesn't list multiple concrete actions like 'configure custom metrics, set up distributed tracing, add exception tracking'. | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (guidance for instrumenting webapps with Azure Application Insights, telemetry patterns, SDK setup, configuration references) and 'when' with an explicit WHEN clause listing trigger scenarios. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes a strong set of natural keywords users would say: 'instrument app', 'App Insights SDK', 'telemetry patterns', 'Application Insights', 'instrumentation examples', 'APM best practices'. Good coverage of common variations and natural phrasing. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Highly specific to Azure Application Insights instrumentation, which is a clear niche. The trigger terms like 'App Insights SDK', 'Application Insights guidance' are distinct and unlikely to conflict with other monitoring or Azure skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 11 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
57%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This is a well-structured orchestration skill that effectively delegates to specialized reference files, demonstrating strong progressive disclosure. Its main weaknesses are the lack of validation/verification steps in the workflow (e.g., confirming telemetry is flowing after instrumentation) and the absence of any inline executable examples. The routing logic between this skill and azure-prepare is clearly communicated.
Suggestions
Add a verification step at the end of the workflow (e.g., 'Verify telemetry is flowing by checking the App Insights Live Metrics blade or running a test request and confirming it appears in Transaction Search')
Include at least one minimal inline code example (e.g., the Azure CLI command to create an App Insights resource) so the skill body itself has some executable content rather than deferring everything to references
Trim the 'When to Use This Skill' and 'When to Use azure-prepare Instead' sections—the callout box already covers the key routing decision, and these lists are partially redundant
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill has some unnecessary sections like 'When to Use This Skill' vs 'When to Use azure-prepare Instead' which are somewhat redundant with the callout box. The 'Collect context information' section explains things Claude could infer, and some phrasing is wordy (e.g., 'This determines how the application can be instrumented'). However, it's not egregiously verbose. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | The skill provides a decision tree and references to external files with concrete examples (Bicep templates, PowerShell scripts, language-specific guides), but the skill body itself contains no executable code or commands. The guidance is procedural but relies entirely on referenced files for concrete implementation details. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The workflow has a reasonable sequence (collect context → decide auto vs manual → create resource → modify code) but lacks explicit validation checkpoints. There's no step to verify the App Insights resource was created successfully, no validation that telemetry is flowing, and no error recovery guidance. For an instrumentation workflow involving infrastructure changes, this is a notable gap. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | Excellent use of progressive disclosure with a clear overview in the main file and well-signaled one-level-deep references to language-specific guides (aspnetcore.md, nodejs.md, python.md), SDK references, infrastructure examples (bicep, ps1), and the auto-instrumentation guide. Navigation is clear and organized by decision path. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 9 / 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.
Validation — 11 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
No warnings or errors.
- Repository
- microsoft/azure-skills
- Commit
742d20b
- Reviewed
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