Tessl Public Publication Skill

Ensure Tessl plugins meet all requirements for public registry publication, including evaluation scenario coverage, quality thresholds, and proper plugin configuration.

Principles

Public plugins represent a quality commitment to every agent that installs them. Apply this skill when you need to validate, prepare, or execute a public registry publication.

When to use: Publishing a plugin to the public Tessl registry, verifying publication readiness, or enforcing quality gates before release.

When not to: Private workspace publishing, internal-only plugins, or pre-alpha prototypes where A-grade quality is not yet expected.

The three non-negotiable gates are:

1. Quality audit passes (>=126/140 A-grade via skill-quality-auditor's nine-dimension framework)
2. Evaluation scenarios exist (minimum 5 scenarios with measurable success criteria)
3. plugin.json is correctly configured (private: false, valid fields)

Workflow

1. Pre-Publication Quality Audit

sh skills/agentic-harness/skill-quality-auditor/scripts/evaluate.sh <domain>/<skill-name> --json --store
cat .context/audits/<domain>/<skill-name>/latest/analysis.md

If below A-grade, review the remediation plan and re-audit after improvements.

2. Create Evaluation Scenarios

mkdir -p skills/<domain>/<skill-name>/evals/scenario-01

Each scenario needs: task.md, criteria.json (checklist summing to 100), capability.txt. Target 5-8 scenarios covering the full trigger surface.

3. Configure .tessl-plugin/plugin.json

{
  "name": "workspace/skill-name",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "private": false,
  "description": "Descriptive text with use cases. Keywords: term1, term2",
  "skills": ["SKILL.md"]
}

All 5 fields are required. private: false must be boolean, not string. skills is an array of path strings.

See references/plugin-json-schema.md for field validation rules and examples.

4. Run Tessl Review

tessl review run skills/<domain>/<skill-name>
tessl review run skills/<domain>/<skill-name> --optimize

Target >=90% from Tessl (independent of skill-quality-auditor).

5. Validate Agent-Agnostic Compliance

Prohibited: harness-specific tool references, IDE-specific commands, platform-specific paths. Required: universal tools only (Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob).

6. Publish

sh scripts/check-publication-readiness.sh skills/<domain>/<skill-name>
tessl plugin publish --workspace pantheon-ai skills/<domain>/<skill-name> --bump patch
tessl search <skill-name>

Anti-Patterns

• NEVER skip evaluation scenarios -- WHY: public registry requires proof of effectiveness via measurable scenarios

  # BAD - publish with no evals/ directory at all
  tessl plugin publish --workspace pantheon-ai skills/domain/skill-name --bump patch
  
  # GOOD - scenarios exist and pass before publishing
  ls skills/domain/skill-name/evals/scenario-*/  # >= 5 scenarios present
  tessl plugin publish --workspace pantheon-ai skills/domain/skill-name --bump patch

• NEVER publish below A-grade (126/140) -- WHY: sub-threshold plugins erode registry quality and may be flagged

  # BAD - trusts memory of a score from a previous session
  tessl plugin publish --workspace pantheon-ai skills/domain/skill-name --bump patch
  
  # GOOD - re-run the audit immediately before publishing, on the current content
  sh skills/agentic-harness/skill-quality-auditor/scripts/evaluate.sh domain/skill-name --json --store
  # confirm total >= 126/140 before proceeding
  tessl plugin publish --workspace pantheon-ai skills/domain/skill-name --bump patch

• NEVER set private: true -- WHY: plugin.json defaults to private; must be explicitly set to false

  // BAD - field omitted, defaults to private and publish is a no-op for the public registry
  { "name": "workspace/skill-name", "version": "1.0.0" }
  
  // GOOD - explicitly false
  { "name": "workspace/skill-name", "version": "1.0.0", "private": false }

• NEVER skip --optimize when below 90% -- WHY: optimization routinely lifts scores from 85% to 99%

• NEVER use harness-specific tool calls -- WHY: public plugins must work across all agent platforms

Gotchas

• Eval scenarios are NOT optional: Public plugins require evaluation scenarios
• Quality audit != Tessl review: Both are independent checks; both must pass
• Version bumping required: Republishing requires a version increment via --bump
• No rollback: Published versions are immutable; only newer versions supersede

References

• Plugin JSON Schema -- field documentation, validation rules, and examples for .tessl-plugin/plugin.json
• Public Publication Requirements -- full checklist of gates, compliance rules, and registry acceptance criteria