fix-errors

Guidelines for fixing unhandled errors from the VS Code error telemetry dashboard. Use when investigating error-telemetry issues with stack traces, error messages, and hit/user counts. Covers tracing data flow through call stacks, identifying producers of invalid data vs. consumers that crash, enriching error messages for telemetry diagnosis, and avoiding common anti-patterns like silently swallowing errors.

Quality

81%

Does it follow best practices?

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Securityby

High

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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.

The body is a well-organized, actionable diagnostic guide that teaches a non-obvious principle (fix the producer, not the consumer) with concrete code and a clear investigative workflow. It is efficient and self-contained, with minor room to tighten prose and add inline validation checkpoints.

Suggestions

Add an inline validation checkpoint earlier in the workflow (e.g., verify the identified producer against the stack trace before editing) rather than only terminal test/build checks.

Tighten the opening of section 1 and the 'Wrong fix' paragraph, which restate the same masking-the-problem idea twice.

Consider moving the detailed ListenerLeakError worked example into a reference file so the core approach stays lean.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	Largely efficient and conveys non-obvious domain principles (fix at the producer, not the crash site) without padding with basic concepts Claude already knows; a few explanatory sentences could be trimmed but most tokens earn their place.	4 / 5
Actionability	Provides concrete, executable-style TypeScript examples (reviveUri guard, enriched _validateUri message, ListenerLeakError construction code) and a specific search instruction, but the examples are illustrative of VS Code internals rather than copy-paste ready, leaving minor gaps.	4 / 5
Workflow Clarity	A clear numbered investigative sequence (do not fix at crash site -> trace data flow -> handle unknown producer -> handle known producer) with validation steps at the end ('Run the relevant unit tests', 'Check for compilation errors via the build task'), though checkpoints are terminal rather than inline feedback loops.	4 / 5
Progressive Disclosure	Single-file skill with no bundle files, organized under clear section headers (Approach, Example, Understanding error construction, Guidelines); well-structured for its scope, with only minor opportunity to split the detailed ListenerLeakError walkthrough into a reference.	4 / 5
	Total	16 / 20 Passed

Description

87%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.

The description is strong, clearly scoped to VS Code error-telemetry unhandled errors with explicit 'what' and 'when' guidance. Trigger terms and specificity are good but could add a few more natural synonyms to reach the top anchor.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	Names the domain and lists several concrete actions ('tracing data flow through call stacks', 'identifying producers of invalid data vs. consumers that crash', 'enriching error messages', 'avoiding common anti-patterns'), though they are process-oriented rather than a list of discrete executable capabilities, leaving minor gaps versus a fully comprehensive 5.	4 / 5
Completeness	Explicitly answers both what ('Guidelines for fixing unhandled errors from the VS Code error telemetry dashboard') and when ('Use when investigating error-telemetry issues with stack traces, error messages, and hit/user counts') with concrete trigger phrases.	5 / 5
Trigger Term Quality	Includes natural domain terms ('unhandled errors', 'stack traces', 'error messages', 'hit/user counts', 'error-telemetry issues') a user would say, but lacks some synonyms or alternative phrasings (e.g., 'crash', 'bug') that would push it to a 5.	4 / 5
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	Targets a clear, narrow niche (VS Code error telemetry dashboard unhandled errors) with distinct triggers, giving minimal conflict risk with other skills.	5 / 5
	Total	18 / 20 Passed

Validation

100%

Warnings & errors only

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: posit-dev/positron
Path: .github/skills/fix-errors/SKILL.md
Commit: 10323ef

Reviewed: 5 days ago

Table of Contents

Discovery Implementation Validation

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