writing-skills

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

Install with Tessl CLI

npx tessl i github:projectbluefin/dakota --skill writing-skills

What are skills?

1.86x

Quality

62%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

93%

1.86x

Average score across 3 eval scenarios

Optimize this skill with Tessl

npx tessl skill review --optimize ./.opencode/skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md

SKILL.md

Review

Evals

Evaluation results

99%

71%

Document the Retry Backoff Pattern as a Skill

Skill structure and frontmatter

Criteria

Without context

With context

Name: allowed characters

50%

100%

Name: verb-first form

87%

Frontmatter: exactly two fields

100%

Description: starts with 'Use when'

100%

Description: third person

100%

Description: no workflow summary

100%

Description: length

100%

Section: Quick Reference

62%

100%

Section: Common Mistakes

37%

100%

Code: single language

100%

Code: complete, not templated

100%

Without context: $0.3064 · 1m 44s · 17 turns · 22 in / 4,974 out tokens

With context: $0.4383 · 1m 41s · 18 turns · 136 in / 4,760 out tokens

82%

21%

Clean Up an Overgrown Database Optimization Skill

File organization and cross-referencing

Criteria

Without context

With context

Heavy reference extracted

100%

Reference file linked

100%

No @ link syntax

100%

Explicit cross-reference markers

100%

Short code kept inline

100%

Single language code

50%

SKILL.md word count reduced

100%

Flat directory structure

100%

Without context: $0.3009 · 1m 37s · 14 turns · 21 in / 5,256 out tokens

With context: $0.6199 · 2m 33s · 21 turns · 270 in / 7,531 out tokens

100%

38%

Strengthen a Code Review Enforcement Skill

Discipline skill bulletproofing

Criteria

Without context

With context

Rationalization table

50%

100%

Red Flags section

83%

100%

Spirit vs letter principle

16%

100%

Authority language

90%

100%

No exceptions clause

100%

Named rationalizations countered

91%

100%

Description: starts with 'Use when'

100%

Description: violation triggers

100%

Description: no workflow summary

100%

Requirement is absolute

100%

Without context: $0.1421 · 47s · 8 turns · 13 in / 2,115 out tokens

With context: $0.4453 · 1m 51s · 23 turns · 303 in / 4,482 out tokens

Evaluated: about 11 hours ago
Agent: Claude Code
Model: Claude Sonnet 4.6

Table of Contents

Document the Retry Backoff Pattern as a Skill Clean Up an Overgrown Database Optimization Skill Strengthen a Code Review Enforcement Skill

Is this your skill?

If you maintain this skill, you can claim it as your own. Once claimed, you can manage eval scenarios, bundle related skills, attach documentation or rules, and ensure cross-agent compatibility.