This skill should be used when the user asks to "design multi-agent system", "implement supervisor pattern", "create swarm architecture", "coordinate multiple agents", or mentions multi-agent patterns, context isolation, agent handoffs, sub-agents, or parallel agent execution.
52
39%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
Pending
No eval scenarios have been run
Advisory
Suggest reviewing before use
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./skills/multi-agent-patterns/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
44%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 description is heavily lopsided: it excels at trigger terms and distinctiveness but completely lacks any explanation of what the skill actually does. It reads as a pure 'Use when...' clause with no capability description, making it impossible for Claude to understand the skill's actual functionality or outputs. Adding concrete actions (e.g., 'Designs and implements multi-agent architectures including supervisor patterns, swarm coordination, and agent handoff protocols') would dramatically improve it.
Suggestions
Add a 'what it does' clause listing concrete actions, e.g., 'Designs multi-agent system architectures, implements supervisor and swarm patterns, configures context isolation between agents, and sets up agent handoff protocols.'
Restructure to lead with capabilities before the 'Use when...' trigger clause, following the pattern: '[What it does]. Use when [triggers].'
Use third-person active voice for capability statements (e.g., 'Generates coordination logic for parallel agent execution') rather than relying solely on quoted user requests.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description lists no concrete actions or capabilities. It only describes when to use the skill via trigger phrases but never explains what the skill actually does (e.g., 'designs multi-agent architectures', 'generates supervisor coordination code'). The actions are embedded only as quoted user requests, not as capability statements. | 1 / 3 |
Completeness | The description answers 'when' extensively but completely fails to answer 'what does this do'. There is no explanation of the skill's capabilities, outputs, or concrete actions it performs. The 'what' component is entirely missing. | 1 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural trigger terms: 'design multi-agent system', 'implement supervisor pattern', 'create swarm architecture', 'coordinate multiple agents', 'context isolation', 'agent handoffs', 'sub-agents', 'parallel agent execution'. These are terms users would naturally use when requesting this type of work. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The description targets a very specific niche—multi-agent systems with patterns like supervisor, swarm, handoffs, and context isolation. These are highly distinctive terms unlikely to conflict with other skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 8 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
35%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill reads more like a comprehensive tutorial or whitepaper on multi-agent systems than a concise, actionable skill file. Its main strengths are thorough coverage of patterns, failure modes, and gotchas, but it significantly over-explains concepts Claude already knows and lacks the executable, step-by-step workflows needed for practical implementation. The content would benefit greatly from aggressive trimming and restructuring into a lean overview with detailed references.
Suggestions
Cut the 'Why Multi-Agent Architectures' section by 80% — remove explanations of context windows, parallelization benefits, and specialization arguments that Claude already understands. Reduce to a decision table: 'Use multi-agent when: [criteria]. Don't use when: [criteria].'
Add a complete, end-to-end executable example showing how to build a minimal supervisor pattern with actual working code (e.g., using one of the referenced frameworks), including validation checkpoints between agent handoffs.
Move the detailed pattern descriptions, token economics table, and consensus mechanisms into a separate reference file (e.g., references/patterns-detail.md) and keep only a summary table with pattern selection criteria in the main skill.
Add an explicit step-by-step workflow section: 'Building a multi-agent system: 1. Identify context isolation boundaries → 2. Select pattern (see table) → 3. Define handoff protocols → 4. Validate: test with single agent first → 5. Add agents incrementally, measuring token cost at each step.'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is extremely verbose at ~300+ lines, extensively explaining concepts Claude already understands (what context windows are, why parallelization helps, what token economics means). Sections like 'The Parallelization Argument' and 'The Specialization Argument' explain basic distributed systems concepts that add little actionable value. The 'Why Multi-Agent Architectures' section alone could be reduced by 80%. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | There are some concrete code snippets (handoff protocol, forward_message function) but most guidance remains conceptual rather than executable. The code examples are incomplete fragments — the forward_message function isn't integrated into a working system, the transfer_to_agent_b example lacks implementation details, and there's no complete end-to-end example that could be copy-pasted to build a working multi-agent system. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The skill describes patterns and failure modes but lacks explicit step-by-step workflows with validation checkpoints. There's no clear 'do step 1, validate, do step 2' sequence for actually building a multi-agent system. The failure modes section lists mitigations but doesn't integrate them into a workflow. For a skill involving complex coordination with error propagation risks, the absence of explicit validation steps and feedback loops is a significant gap. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The References section has well-signaled links to external resources and related skills, and there's a frameworks reference file. However, the main body is a monolithic wall of text that inlines extensive conceptual content (token economics tables, detailed pattern descriptions, lengthy gotchas) that could be split into separate reference files. The ratio of inline content to referenced content is heavily skewed toward inline. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 7 / 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.
7a95d94
Table of Contents
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