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progressive-building

Load before build-workflow and before scoping or planning new workflows and feature additions, including requests spanning multiple workflows. Implement one increment per user message. Finish setup and inspect a successful real execution before offering another increment. Then wait for the next user reply. Partial setup is incomplete. A first setup or test refusal pauses building. Follow the skill's full-build exceptions. Also supports workflow edits and repairs. For workflows that create or write Data Tables, load data-table-manager first. Requests only to run, inspect, or manage existing resources use their normal tools and skills.

64

Quality

78%

Does it follow best practices?

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SecuritybySnyk

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tessl review fix ./packages/@n8n/instance-ai/skills/progressive-building/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

81%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.

A high-quality, lean policy skill with a clearly sequenced multi-step build workflow, explicit validation gates, and concrete tool references. It is an instruction-only skill that is highly actionable without needing code, and its workflow clarity with feedback loops is exemplary.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is lean policy prose with no concept explanations or padding — every line states a rule — but some sentences are long and dense and could be tightened without loss, keeping it just below fully lean.

4 / 5

Actionability

Highly concrete guidance with specific thresholds ('one trigger and at most two credentialed services') and named tools/signals (executions, <workflow-setup-required>, partial: true, nodesStillNeedingSetup); as instruction-only policy it is actionable, with only minor gaps in edge-case handling.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The 'Build, set up, and run' section gives a clear six-step sequence with explicit validation checkpoints ('Extend only after a successful, non-simulated execution'), feedback loops ('Repair failures before extending', 'Report simulated verification as simulated'), and a decision-tree checklist in step 6 — matching the top anchor.

5 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

No bundle files exist; the skill is a single self-contained file with well-organized headers ('Choose the first version', 'Build, set up, and run', 'Finish without staging when asked') and no nested references, which is appropriate, though at ~90 lines it sits above the under-50 simple-skill threshold that would merit a 5.

4 / 5

Total

17

/

20

Passed

Description

75%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.

A dense, specific, third-person description that clearly states both what the skill does and when to load it, with explicit boundary guidance. It is policy-heavy rather than a clean capability/trigger format, which keeps it just short of exemplary.

Suggestions

Lead with a concise capability sentence ('Stages workflow builds one increment at a time...') before the procedural rules so the 'what' reads as capabilities first.

Add an explicit 'Use when...' trigger clause (e.g., 'Use when building, extending, or repairing workflows') alongside the 'Load before...' phrasing.

Surface a few more natural user-facing synonyms ('build a workflow', 'add a step to my workflow') to broaden trigger coverage.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Names the domain (workflow building/scoping) and several concrete actions ('Implement one increment per user message', 'Finish setup and inspect a successful real execution', 'load data-table-manager first'), but the actions are procedural policy rather than a clean capability list, leaving minor coverage gaps.

4 / 5

Completeness

Both 'what' (one-increment-per-message staging with setup and execution inspection) and 'when' ('Load before build-workflow and before scoping or planning new workflows and feature additions') are present and explicit, though the trigger is phrased as a load prerequisite rather than a clean 'Use when...' clause.

4 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Includes natural trigger phrases a user would say ('scoping or planning new workflows', 'feature additions', 'workflow edits and repairs', 'requests spanning multiple workflows'), with good though not exhaustive keyword coverage.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

It carves a distinct niche (progressive staging of workflow builds) and explicitly boundary-clarifies ('Requests only to run, inspect, or manage existing resources use their normal tools and skills'), with only minor overlap risk against build-workflow and data-table-manager.

4 / 5

Total

16

/

20

Passed

Validation

93%

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

Validation15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

Total

15

/

16

Passed

Repository
n8n-io/n8n
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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