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troubleshoot

Use when user reports an error, bug, or something not working. Search-first troubleshooting with diagnostic phase. Triggers: debug, error, broken, not working, failing, crash, exception.

60

Quality

72%

Does it follow best practices?

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SecuritybySnyk

Low

Low-risk findings worth noting

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tessl review fix ./skills/software-engineering/troubleshoot/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

75%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, token-efficient workflow skill with clear sequencing, explicit guard procedures, and a properly split reference bundle. The main issues are small: duplicated reference sections, an orphaned bundle file, pseudocode usage examples, and a thin completion checklist.

Suggestions

Merge the "Refs" and "References" sections into one — they list the same three files twice.

Link references/troubleshoot-to-frame-problem-llm.md from the body (e.g. from the Cynefin routing note in the Usage Examples) so the handoff template is discoverable.

Replace the comment-only bash Usage Examples with the actual prompts/outputs as text, or drop them; and name the concrete learnings-file path and thinking-store environment variable instead of "a known location".

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is written in terse, imperative bullets with no explanation of concepts Claude already knows (e.g. "Wolf Fence (binary search)", "OODA" are named, not taught). It misses the 5 anchor because the "Refs" and "References" sections duplicate the same three files almost verbatim, and the Usage Examples blocks add bulk with limited instructional value.

4 / 5

Actionability

Mostly concrete, executable guidance for an instruction skill: exact qualification questions ("Stack? Environment? Changed recently?"), an explicit search query pattern "[error] [stack] [framework]", enumerated required artifact sections, and a precise AskUserQuestion fallback procedure. Below the 5 anchor because the Usage Examples are comment-only pseudocode blocks, and the learnings file and thinking-store locations are vague ("a known location", "an environment variable").

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The workflow is a clearly numbered 0-6 sequence with explicit skip conditions ("Solution found → skip to 5.Learn"), entry conditions ("Only if diagnosis inconclusive"), an exit condition ("Exit when root cause confirmed and fix verified"), and an OODA feedback loop. Below the 5 anchor because the completion checklist contains only a single item and verification of the fix is named but not operationalized as a checkpoint step.

4 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

The body is an appropriate overview pointing to three real, one-level-deep bundle files (references/protocols/diagnose.md, references/protocols/search-multi-source.md, references/reference.md), each of which exists and is well-scoped. Below the 5 anchor because the reference list is duplicated across two sections ("Refs" and "References"), and the bundle file references/troubleshoot-to-frame-problem-llm.md is never linked from the body despite the Usage Examples alluding to routing to another skill.

4 / 5

Total

16

/

20

Passed

Description

70%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 solid description with an explicit use-when trigger and good natural trigger keywords. Its main weakness is a thin capability statement — it says the approach (search-first, diagnostic phase) but not the concrete actions the skill performs.

Suggestions

Expand the what-clause to name concrete actions, e.g. "Reproduces and isolates bugs via search-first diagnosis, bisection, and 5-Whys root cause analysis, ending at a specific file and line".

Add common trigger synonyms users say: "stack trace", "traceback", "flaky test", "regression", "throws".

Keep the description in the same style but consider merging the trigger list into the use-when clause to avoid restating "error" and "not working" twice.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

"Search-first troubleshooting with diagnostic phase" names the domain and 1-2 actions (search, diagnose) but does not enumerate concrete capabilities like reproduce, isolate, or locate the failing file:line. It is below the 4 anchor ("lists several specific actions") because only two generic actions are given, and above the 2 anchor because the domain and both actions are explicitly stated.

3 / 5

Completeness

Both parts are present: an explicit "Use when user reports an error, bug, or something not working" trigger clause and a what-clause ("Search-first troubleshooting with diagnostic phase"). It is below the 5 anchor because the "what" is terse and does not concretely state what the skill does end-to-end, and above the 3 anchor because the "when" is fully explicit rather than implied.

4 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

"Triggers: debug, error, broken, not working, failing, crash, exception" plus "bug" and "something not working" gives good natural-phrase coverage a user would actually say. It falls short of the 5 anchor (comprehensive synonyms/extensions) because common variations like "stack trace", "traceback", "flaky", and "regression" are missing.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The troubleshooting/debugging niche with distinct trigger words ("crash", "exception", "not working") is mostly distinguishable from other skills. Minor overlap risk remains with general debugging or code-review skills that also fire on "error" and "bug", keeping it below the 5 anchor's "minimal conflict risk".

4 / 5

Total

15

/

20

Passed

Validation

75%

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

Validation12 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

allowed_tools_field

'allowed-tools' contains unusual tool name(s)

Warning

frontmatter_unknown_keys

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

Warning

relative_links

Relative link issues: 2 deeper-than-1-level

Warning

referenced_paths_exist

Referenced path issues: 5 deeper-than-1-level

Warning

Total

12

/

16

Passed

Repository
pantheon-org/tekhne
Reviewed

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