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writing-skills

Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment

56

Quality

71%

Does it follow best practices?

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Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

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SecuritybySnyk

Passed

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Fix and improve this skill with Tessl

tessl review fix ./plugins/superpowers/skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md

The canonical home for this skill is writing-skills in obra/superpowers

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

66%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.

The body delivers a strong, original methodology with an unusually clear validated workflow (baseline testing, micro-tests, refactor loops) and actionable checklists. Its two real weaknesses are systematic internal redundancy and a broken bundle: all five files it directs readers to are absent, so the promised heavy reference material is unreachable.

Suggestions

Ship the referenced bundle files (anthropic-best-practices.md, testing-skills-with-subagents.md, graphviz-conventions.dot, render-graphs.js, persuasion-principles.md) or remove/inline the pointers — currently every reference in the body is dead.

Consolidate the triplicated description guidance ("NEVER summarize the skill's process or workflow" in SKILL.md Structure, SDO section 1, and the checklist) into a single section cross-referenced once.

Move the persuasion-research and testing-methodology detail into the referenced files and keep only the operational rules inline, closing the gap with the skill's own <500-word token-efficiency target.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The material is dense and original (TDD mapping, micro-testing protocol, form-matching guidance) rather than re-teaching known concepts, but there is systematic redundancy: "NEVER summarize the skill's process or workflow" appears in three sections, description-format rules are given twice (SKILL.md Structure and SDO section 1), and the REQUIRED BACKGROUND pointer is repeated. Not 4 because this repetition could be consolidated; not 2 because nothing pads with knowledge Claude already has.

3 / 5

Actionability

Provides executable commands (wc -w, render-graphs.js invocations), a concrete 5-step micro-test protocol with control conditions and rep counts, good/bad YAML and markdown examples, and a phased checklist. Not 5 because the core pressure-scenario methodology is deferred to testing-skills-with-subagents.md, which is not present in the bundle, leaving key steps unretrievable.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle is explicitly sequenced with validation at every phase: run baseline without the skill and document verbatim, re-run with the skill to verify compliance, then "Re-test until bulletproof" — a full feedback loop, reinforced by a phased creation checklist. Matches the top anchor (clear sequence, explicit validation, feedback loops, checklist).

5 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

Scored against the actual bundle: every locally referenced file — anthropic-best-practices.md, testing-skills-with-subagents.md, graphviz-conventions.dot, render-graphs.js, persuasion-principles.md — is missing (no references/, scripts/, or assets/ directories exist), so navigation to the heavy material resolves to nothing. Not 3 because the references are not merely unclearly signaled but broken; not 1 because the body itself is well-sectioned with only one-level references intended.

2 / 5

Total

14

/

20

Passed

Description

66%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 well-formed trigger-only description that follows the "Use when..." convention and names the three lifecycle actions it covers, in third person. Its main weakness is one-sidedness: it omits any statement of what the skill does, and lacks synonym coverage (writing/authoring, SKILL.md, testing).

Suggestions

Add a brief capability statement before the trigger clause so both 'what' and 'when' are explicit, e.g. "Applies test-driven development to authoring agent skills. Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment."

Include natural synonym triggers users and agents would actually search for: "writing skills", "authoring", "SKILL.md", "testing a skill", "skill quality".

Mention the artifacts involved (SKILL.md, frontmatter) to sharpen distinctiveness against neighboring testing/debugging skills.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists several specific actions — "creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment" — covering the full skill lifecycle with only minor gaps. Not 5 because "verifying skills work" is generic and no capability beyond the three verbs is stated; not 3 because coverage exceeds the 1-2 action anchor.

4 / 5

Completeness

The description is entirely a "when" clause with no explicit "what" — it never states what the skill provides (TDD-based skill authoring methodology). Falls between anchor 2 (only 'when', no 'what') and anchor 4 (both present): the trigger verbs weakly imply the supported tasks, putting it noticeably above 2 but below 4.

3 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Natural phrases a user would say ("creating new skills", "editing existing skills", "verifying skills") are present. Not 5 because common synonyms and concrete artifacts are missing ("writing skills", "authoring", "SKILL.md", "testing a skill", "deploy").

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The skill-authoring niche is distinct with clear triggers ("creating new skills", "editing existing skills"). Not 5 because it could overlap with sibling authoring/testing skills in the same ecosystem, which would trigger on similar phrasing.

4 / 5

Total

15

/

20

Passed

Validation

87%

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

Validation — 14 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

skill_md_line_count

SKILL.md is long (680 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking

Warning

relative_links

Relative link issues: 1 missing, 2 suspicious

Warning

Total

14

/

16

Passed

Repository

openai/plugins

Path

plugins/superpowers/skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

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