test-driven-development

Use when implementing any feature or bugfix, before writing implementation code

Quality

38%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

Pending

No eval scenarios have been run

Securityby

Passed

No known issues

Optimize this skill with Tessl

npx tessl skill review --optimize ./skills/test-driven-development/SKILL.md

Quality

Discovery

14%

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 critically incomplete: it provides only a vague timing directive ('before writing implementation code') without any explanation of what the skill actually does. The lack of concrete actions, specific domain, or clear purpose makes it nearly impossible for Claude to distinguish this skill from others or understand when it's truly appropriate to select it.

Suggestions

Add concrete actions describing what this skill does (e.g., 'Creates a step-by-step implementation plan by analyzing requirements, identifying affected files, and outlining code changes').

Make the 'Use when' clause more specific with natural trigger terms (e.g., 'Use when the user asks to plan an implementation, design a solution, or wants to think through an approach before coding').

Narrow the scope to reduce conflict risk—specify what kind of planning or pre-implementation activity this covers (e.g., architecture review, test planning, requirements analysis) to distinguish it from other development skills.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	The description contains no concrete actions whatsoever. It doesn't describe what the skill does—only vaguely when to use it ('before writing implementation code'). There are no specific capabilities listed.	1 / 3
Completeness	The 'what does this do' is entirely missing—there is no description of the skill's capabilities or actions. It only provides a vague 'when' clause without explaining what the skill actually does.	1 / 3
Trigger Term Quality	Contains some relevant terms like 'feature', 'bugfix', and 'implementation code' that users might naturally mention, but these are very broad and lack specificity about what domain or tooling is involved.	2 / 3
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	Extremely generic—'implementing any feature or bugfix' could apply to virtually any development-related skill. This would conflict with many other coding or development skills.	1 / 3
	Total	5 / 12 Passed

Implementation

62%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

The skill excels at actionability and workflow clarity with concrete code examples, explicit verification steps, and clear feedback loops for the TDD cycle. However, it is severely undermined by extreme verbosity—the 'Why Order Matters', 'Common Rationalizations', and 'Red Flags' sections are largely redundant with each other and over-explain motivations that Claude doesn't need. Cutting the philosophical content by 70% and extracting it to a reference file would dramatically improve this skill.

Suggestions

Remove or drastically condense the 'Why Order Matters' section—Claude doesn't need multi-paragraph persuasive arguments for TDD; a single sentence per point suffices.

Merge the 'Common Rationalizations' table and 'Red Flags' list into a single compact section, eliminating the heavy duplication between them.

Move philosophical/motivational content to a separate reference file (e.g., tdd-rationale.md) and keep SKILL.md focused on the actionable workflow.

Remove the dot graph definition—it's not renderable in most contexts and the workflow is already clearly described in the step-by-step sections.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	Extremely verbose at ~300+ lines. Contains extensive philosophical justifications ('Why Order Matters' section with multiple multi-paragraph arguments), a large 'Common Rationalizations' table that largely duplicates the 'Why Order Matters' section, and a 'Red Flags' list that repeats the same rationalizations again. Claude already understands TDD conceptually; this over-explains motivations rather than focusing on actionable instructions.	1 / 3
Actionability	Provides fully executable TypeScript code examples for each TDD phase (RED, GREEN, REFACTOR), concrete bash commands for verification, good/bad comparisons, and a complete bug fix walkthrough. The examples are copy-paste ready and specific.	3 / 3
Workflow Clarity	The Red-Green-Refactor cycle is clearly sequenced with explicit mandatory verification steps at each phase ('Verify RED - Watch It Fail', 'Verify GREEN - Watch It Pass'). Includes feedback loops (test errors → fix → re-run, test passes unexpectedly → fix test) and a comprehensive verification checklist before completion.	3 / 3
Progressive Disclosure	Has some structure with sections and a reference to @testing-anti-patterns.md, but the massive amount of inline content (rationalizations, philosophy, multiple redundant tables) should be split into separate files or drastically reduced. The skill is monolithic with content that could be externalized.	2 / 3
	Total	9 / 12 Passed

Validation

100%

Warnings & errors only

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: obra/superpowers
Commit: b7a8f76

Reviewed: 3 days ago

Table of Contents

Discovery Implementation Validation

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