Conciseness

The body is dense and environment-specific (path keys, mise dot deployment, hook behavior) and assumes git competence without re-explanding basics, so nearly every token earns its place. It is not a 5 because of minor trims available: the announce-at-start line and several long parenthetical asides (e.g. the bin/vi dispatch explanation).

Actionability

Guidance is concrete and copy-paste ready in the key places: "git rev-parse --path-format=absolute --git-common-dir", "just home-deploy <ref>", "just home-live", "wt shell <branch>", plus an explicit path-key rule and worked table examples. Not 5 because path-key computation is described but not given as a command, and the core create/switch/delete procedure is delegated to another skill.

Workflow Clarity

The Quick Reference situation-to-action table and the Never list act as clear decision checkpoints, and the detection step ("Resolve via git rev-parse ... not --show-toplevel") is an explicit verification method with rationale. Not 5 because the "promote changes to live $HOME" flow (merge/checkout, home-deploy, home-live) is described but not sequenced with validation checkpoints.

Progressive Disclosure

This is a single-purpose skill with no bundle files; the ~60-line body is well-organized into clearly headed sections (Core Convention, Dotfiles Repo, Quick Reference, Never, Integration) with no content that belongs in a separate file. The only pointers are clearly signaled cross-skill references (git-worktree, branch-finish) and repo-internal spec paths, all one level deep.

Specificity

The description names the domain and three concrete topics with a literal path pattern ("Explains the ~/.worktrees/<path-key>/<branch> worktree convention, the dotfiles-repo opt-in, and what a dotfiles worktree cannot validate"), which lists several specific items with minor gaps. It is not a 5 because it does not enumerate what the constraints or coverage actually are.

Completeness

Both halves are present: the what ("Explains the ~/.worktrees/<path-key>/<branch> worktree convention... what a dotfiles worktree cannot validate") and an explicit when ("Use to understand or explain worktree layout and its constraints"). Not 5 because the 'when' clause lacks concrete user-side trigger phrases; not 3 because an explicit 'Use to...' clause exists and routing to the sibling skill is stated.

Trigger Term Quality

"worktree" recurs in several natural phrasings ("worktree convention", "worktree layout", "dotfiles worktree", "git-worktree skill") that users would plausibly say. It falls short of 5 because common variations like "git worktree", "parallel branches", or "multiple checkouts" are absent.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

It carves out a clear niche (layout and constraints, not execution) and explicitly disambiguates from the closest competing skill: "use the git-worktree skill to actually create, switch to, or delete one." This gives it distinct triggers with minimal conflict risk.