CtrlK
BlogDocsLog inGet started
Tessl Logo
SkillPublic

simplify-and-harden

Post-completion self-review for coding agents that runs simplify, harden, re-verification, and micro-documentation passes on non-trivial code or high-impact configuration changes. Use when a task is complete in a general agent session and you want a bounded quality and security sweep before signaling done. For CI pipeline execution, use simplify-and-harden-ci.

Quality

83%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

View guide
SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No findings from the security scan

The canonical home for this skill is simplify-and-harden in pskoett/pskoett-ai-skills

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

73%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 delivers excellent actionability and workflow clarity: concrete checklists, copy-paste templates, a strict four-pass sequence with mandatory re-verification and a failure feedback loop, and a real, well-signaled one-level-deep reference file. Its main weakness is token efficiency: design-justification essays, metadata/install/compatibility filler, and rules restated across five-plus sections inflate the file well beyond what the operational guidance requires.

Suggestions

Cut the Rationale and Philosophy, Design Decisions, Metadata, Install, Agent Compatibility, and Future Considerations sections (or move them to a reference file); they justify the skill to human readers rather than instruct the agent executing it.

State the scope lock, 20% budget cap, and refactor-approval rule once in a single 'Core rules' section and reference it from the Simplify/Harden passes instead of restating them in Scope Constraints, the Refactor Stop Hook, Harden Actions, Execution Model, and Core invariants.

Move the ~110-line example output schema and the configuration block into references/ (e.g., references/output-schema.md and references/configuration.md), keeping only the field summary and the review_followup_required rule inline in SKILL.md.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is noticeably verbose: the Rationale, Design Decisions, Metadata table, Install, Agent Compatibility list, and Future Considerations sections are human-oriented padding, and the scope/approval/budget rules are restated across at least five sections (Scope Constraints, Refactor Stop Hook, Harden Actions, Execution Model, Core invariants, and the prompt block). It is not 1 because most sections are operational policy rather than explanations of concepts Claude already knows, and not 3 because the padding and internal redundancy exceed "some unnecessary explanation".

2 / 5

Actionability

Guidance is fully executable: exact review checklists ("Dead code and scaffolding -- Did I leave behind debug logs, commented-out attempts, unused imports"), explicit categorization rules, copy-paste refactor-proposal templates, a complete copy-paste YAML output schema, a config example, and a copy-paste prompt-injection block. The only generic code snippet (agent.on('task:complete', ...)) is explicitly labeled as a suggested pattern to adapt, which is justified.

5 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The four passes are explicitly sequenced ("Four phases -- simplify, harden, document, re-verify (in that order)"), with explicit trigger conditions, budget caps, and a mandatory re-verification pass containing a true feedback loop ("If verification fails, return to implementation with the diagnostics; do not emit a successful completion"). The destructive/batch cap does not apply because explicit validation is present.

5 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

The single bundle file (references/agent-context-snippets.md) exists, is clearly signaled, and is one level deep with load-only-what-you-need guidance ("Load only the snippet for your active agent"), and the body is well-sectioned with clear headers. It is not 5 because roughly 150 lines of the SKILL.md body (the full example output schema, configuration block, and agent compatibility lists) are inlined content that could live in reference files to keep the overview lean.

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.

A strong description: explicit what-and-when structure, concrete pass names, clear niche, third-person voice, and an explicit boundary to the CI variant. The only improvements are spelling out what the harden/simplify passes concretely do and adding a few more natural trigger phrasings.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description lists several concrete named actions ("runs simplify, harden, re-verification, and micro-documentation passes") against a concrete target ("non-trivial code or high-impact configuration changes"), matching the anchor that lists several specific actions with minor gaps. It is not 5 because the pass names themselves (e.g., "harden") do not state what operation each performs, leaving a minor coverage gap.

4 / 5

Completeness

It explicitly answers both what ("Post-completion self-review for coding agents that runs simplify, harden, re-verification, and micro-documentation passes") and when ("Use when a task is complete in a general agent session and you want a bounded quality and security sweep before signaling done"), plus a boundary pointer to the CI variant. This matches the anchor example that clearly and explicitly answers both what and when with concrete triggers.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Natural terms are present and well-covered: "self-review", "task is complete", "quality and security sweep", "non-trivial code", "high-impact configuration changes", "before signaling done". It is not 5 because common user phrasings such as "review your work", "clean up the code before finishing", or "code review" are missing as trigger variations.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

It carves a clear niche (post-completion, peak-context self-review in interactive agent sessions) with a distinct trigger unlikely to fire for user-initiated review skills, and explicitly disambiguates the sibling skill ("For CI pipeline execution, use simplify-and-harden-ci"). Voice is third person throughout, so no voice penalty applies.

5 / 5

Total

18

/

20

Passed

Validation

93%

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

Validation — 15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

skill_md_line_count

SKILL.md is long (597 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking

Warning

Total

15

/

16

Passed

Repository

pskoett/pskoett-ai-skills

Path

.agents/skills/simplify-and-harden/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

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.