Template for creating new Agent Skills for context engineering. Use this template when adding new skills to the collection.
63
54%
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 ./template/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
67%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
The description adequately covers the what and when, earning full marks for completeness. However, it lacks specificity about what the template actually contains or produces, and the trigger terms could be expanded to include more natural user phrases like 'create a skill' or 'new SKILL.md'.
Suggestions
Add specific capabilities the template provides, e.g., 'Provides YAML frontmatter structure, description guidelines, and content sections for new Agent Skills'
Expand trigger terms to include natural phrases like 'create a skill', 'new SKILL.md', 'skill boilerplate', or 'add a skill file'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Names the domain ('Agent Skills for context engineering') and one action ('creating new'), but lacks concrete details about what the template contains or what specific actions it enables. | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | Explicitly answers both what ('Template for creating new Agent Skills') and when ('Use this template when adding new skills to the collection') with a clear trigger clause. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes some relevant terms ('template', 'new skills', 'Agent Skills') but misses common variations users might say like 'skill file', 'SKILL.md', 'add skill', or 'skill boilerplate'. | 2 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Somewhat specific to skill creation but 'context engineering' is vague and could overlap with other template or documentation skills. The niche is identifiable but not sharply defined. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 9 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
42%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This is a meta-template for creating skills rather than an operational skill itself. While it demonstrates good structural organization and progressive disclosure patterns, it suffers from verbosity (explaining concepts Claude knows) and lacks the concrete, executable examples that would make it actionable. The template format inherently limits actionability since placeholders replace real content.
Suggestions
Remove explanatory commentary that tells Claude what it already knows (e.g., 'Default assumption: Claude is already very smart') and instead demonstrate these principles through the template structure itself
Add a concrete, minimal example skill alongside the template to show what a completed skill looks like rather than describing it abstractly
Include a validation checklist or workflow for verifying a completed skill meets quality criteria before use
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | This is a meta-template with extensive explanatory text about how to write skills, not an actual skill. It explains concepts Claude already knows (what descriptions are, how to write examples) and includes verbose instructional commentary that wouldn't be needed in a real skill. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | Provides structural guidance and some concrete patterns (input/output example format, section headers), but the content is placeholder-heavy with bracketed instructions rather than executable examples. The guidance is about how to write skills rather than how to perform a task. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The template implies a workflow through its section ordering, but lacks explicit sequencing or validation checkpoints. For a template, the structure is clear but there's no guidance on verifying the resulting skill is well-formed. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | Demonstrates good progressive disclosure principles by showing how to link to references/ directory, keeping main content concise with pointers to detailed files, and organizing content into clear sections with appropriate depth. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 8 / 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.
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Table of Contents
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