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propose-security-hardening

Develop evidence-backed structural and architectural security hardening proposals from vulnerability disclosures, supplied findings, incident or assessment documents, source code, or a completed Codex Security scan. Use when a user asks for systemic improvements, alternatives beyond per-finding patches, before-and-after security architecture views, engineering tradeoff analysis, or an implementation-ready plan for a selected hardening option. Also use automatically after a Codex Security scan with reportable findings when the top-level scan workflow requests final-report hardening guidance.

66

Quality

83%

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SecuritybySnyk

Low

Low-risk findings worth noting

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

73%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 well-structured, highly actionable instruction-only skill: a ten-step workflow with explicit validation and feedback loops, concrete artifact names and label vocabularies, and proper delegation of the detailed format contract to a one-level-deep reference file. The main costs are repetition of the voice and evidence-ID rules across four separate sections of the body and two reference paths that escape the skill bundle.

Suggestions

State each cross-cutting rule once in an authoritative location: the first-person voice guidance (currently in the Objective, step 9, and the Quality Bar) and the evidence-ID readability rule (currently in steps 3, 8, 9, and the Quality Bar) can each be consolidated into a single section, cutting roughly 30-40 lines without losing any distinct requirement.

Since references/proposal-format.md already contains a 'Writing Voice And Narrative' section, replace the duplicated voice guidance in the body with a one-line pointer to that section, keeping SKILL.md strictly as the workflow overview.

Fix or inline the two out-of-bundle reference paths ('../../references/artifact-storage.md' and '../../references/scan-artifacts.md'): they resolve outside the skill directory, are not verifiable from the bundle, and break if the skill is relocated — either bundle the storage/scan-artifact policies under references/ or summarize the essential rule inline.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is dense and almost entirely skill-specific contract detail Claude could not infer (no padded explanation of general concepts), but it repeats the same norms across sections: the first-person voice rules appear in the Objective (lines 25-31), again in Review And Validate (193-195), and again in the Quality Bar (230-231, 236-237); the evidence-ID-readability rule is stated four times (109-110, 180-181, 197, 239-240). This matches 'mostly efficient but could be tightened' rather than the more severe verbose anchors, since no section explains concepts Claude already knows.

3 / 5

Actionability

Concrete, executable guidance throughout: exact artifact paths ('hardening.json', 'hardening.md', 'proposals/<opportunity-id>.md', 'diagrams/<opportunity-id>-before.mmd', '<hardening_dir>/context.md'), a named tool ('get_codex_security_scan_context'), a stable analysis id ('hardening_final'), fixed label vocabularies ('measured', 'source-derived', 'analogous', 'hypothetical'; 'addresses', 'mitigates', 'unaffected', 'unknown'), and specified delta-table columns. Not a 5 because the hardening.json structure and full format contract live in the reference and some judgment-heavy steps (clustering by invariant) lack worked examples; well above a 3 for an instruction-only skill with this level of specificity.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

Ten clearly sequenced workflow steps culminate in an explicit validation checklist (step 9: 'hardening.json parses, IDs and cross-references agree, relative links stay inside the analysis directory... Do not hand off until these checks pass') with feedback loops ('Reject and rewrite a proposal if...', fix-and-revalidate semantics), and step 10 adds drift re-checks and a post-selection implementation sequence. This matches the anchor of clear sequence with explicit validation steps, error-recovery loops, and checklists.

5 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

The 454-line format contract is properly delegated to references/proposal-format.md (verified to exist) and clearly signaled at the point of use ('Read references/proposal-format.md completely before drafting'), keeping the body as a navigable workflow overview. Not a 5 because the narrative-voice guidance in the body duplicates the reference's own 'Writing Voice And Narrative' section, and two referenced paths ('../../references/artifact-storage.md', '../../references/scan-artifacts.md') point outside the skill bundle and are not resolvable from it; above a 3 because the major content split and reference signaling are good.

4 / 5

Total

16

/

20

Passed

Description

83%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 strong description: explicit third-person 'what' with enumerated inputs, an explicit 'Use when' clause with concrete user-side triggers, and a well-scoped automatic-trigger condition for scan final reporting. Voice is consistently third person and there is no fluff. Only minor synonym coverage and slight action-level granularity keep it from full marks.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description names a concrete core action — 'Develop evidence-backed structural and architectural security hardening proposals' — and enumerates both the input sources ('vulnerability disclosures, supplied findings, incident or assessment documents, source code, or a completed Codex Security scan') and the deliverables (before-and-after architecture views, tradeoff analysis, implementation-ready plan). It falls short of a 5 because these deliverables appear as trigger phrases rather than a comprehensive list of distinct actions, and above a 3 because coverage goes well beyond 1-2 generic actions.

4 / 5

Completeness

The 'what' is explicit ('Develop evidence-backed structural and architectural security hardening proposals from...') and the 'when' is explicit with concrete trigger phrases ('Use when a user asks for systemic improvements, alternatives beyond per-finding patches, before-and-after security architecture views, engineering tradeoff analysis, or an implementation-ready plan...'), plus a second automatic-use clause for post-scan final reporting. This matches the anchor-5 pattern of clearly answering both what and when with concrete triggers.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Natural trigger phrases are strong: 'security hardening', 'vulnerability disclosures', 'before-and-after security architecture views', 'engineering tradeoff analysis', 'implementation-ready plan', and 'alternatives beyond per-finding patches' are all phrases a user asking for this work would plausibly say. Not a 5 because common synonyms like 'remediation plan', 'security architecture review', or 'defense in depth' are absent; clearly above a 3 since multiple natural phrasings and an explicit automatic-trigger condition are covered.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The niche is distinct — hardening proposals tied to evidence collections and Codex Security scans, with distinctive triggers like 'before-and-after security architecture views'. Not a 5 because fairly broad phrases ('systemic improvements', 'engineering tradeoff analysis') create minor overlap risk with general security-review or architecture-design skills; well above a 3 because the overall combination of triggers is unlikely to fire for the wrong skill.

4 / 5

Total

17

/

20

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 — 16 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Repository

openai/plugins

Path

plugins/codex-security/skills/propose-security-hardening/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

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