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skill-authoring

Guidelines for writing Agent Skills that comply with the agentskills.io specification. WHEN: "create a skill", "new skill", "write a skill", "skill template", "skill structure", "review skill", "skill PR", "skill compliance", "SKILL.md format", "skill frontmatter", "skill best practices".

68

Quality

81%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

72%

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 skill that effectively uses progressive disclosure and maintains good conciseness. Its main weaknesses are the lack of a concrete example of a complete skill (frontmatter + body) and the absence of a clearly sequenced authoring workflow with validation feedback loops. The reference structure is exemplary for a meta-skill of this complexity.

Suggestions

Add a concrete, minimal example of a complete SKILL.md (frontmatter + body) that demonstrates the constraints described, making the skill more actionable and copy-paste ready.

Restructure the authoring process as a numbered workflow with explicit validation checkpoints and error recovery steps (e.g., 1. Create directory → 2. Write frontmatter → 3. Write body → 4. Validate links → 5. If errors, fix and re-validate → 6. Check tokens → 7. Submit).

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The content is lean and efficient. It avoids explaining concepts Claude already knows (like what YAML is or how markdown works) and focuses on specific constraints, rules, and values that are unique to this skill specification. Every section earns its place.

3 / 3

Actionability

The skill provides concrete constraints (character limits, token budgets, naming conventions) and executable validation commands, but lacks concrete examples of a complete, well-formed SKILL.md with frontmatter. The guidance is specific but mostly descriptive rather than showing copy-paste-ready templates.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The validation section provides a clear checklist of integrity checks, and the validation commands are explicit. However, the overall authoring workflow (create → write → validate → fix → submit) is not sequenced as a clear step-by-step process with feedback loops. The integrity checks are listed but lack explicit error recovery steps.

2 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

Excellent progressive disclosure structure. The SKILL.md serves as a concise overview with well-signaled, one-level-deep references to detailed documentation (guidelines, token budgets, reference loading, checklist, validation). Links are clearly labeled and point to specific files rather than folders.

3 / 3

Total

10

/

12

Passed

Description

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 description with excellent trigger term coverage and clear completeness, explicitly answering both what the skill does and when to use it. The main weakness is that the 'what' portion is somewhat general — it says 'guidelines for writing Agent Skills' without listing specific concrete actions like generating frontmatter, validating fields, or structuring sections. Overall it would perform well in skill selection scenarios.

Suggestions

Add more specific concrete actions to the 'what' portion, e.g., 'Generates SKILL.md files with proper frontmatter YAML, validates required fields, structures markdown sections, and ensures compliance with the agentskills.io specification.'

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description names the domain ('Agent Skills') and a general action ('writing...that comply with the agentskills.io specification'), but doesn't list specific concrete actions like 'generate frontmatter YAML', 'validate required fields', 'structure markdown sections', etc.

2 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both 'what' (guidelines for writing Agent Skills compliant with agentskills.io spec) and 'when' (explicit WHEN clause with a comprehensive list of trigger phrases).

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Excellent coverage of natural trigger terms users would say: 'create a skill', 'new skill', 'write a skill', 'skill template', 'skill structure', 'review skill', 'skill PR', 'skill compliance', 'SKILL.md format', 'skill frontmatter', 'skill best practices'. These are highly natural and varied.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Very distinct niche — writing Agent Skills per the agentskills.io specification. The trigger terms are highly specific to this domain ('SKILL.md format', 'skill frontmatter', 'skill compliance') and unlikely to conflict with other skills.

3 / 3

Total

11

/

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.

Validation11 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Repository
microsoft/github-copilot-for-azure
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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