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simplify-and-harden

Post-completion self-review for coding agents that runs simplify, harden, and micro-documentation passes on non-trivial code changes. Use when: a coding 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.

72

Quality

66%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

Pending

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

Optimize this skill with Tessl

npx tessl skill review --optimize ./plugin/skills/simplify-and-harden/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Discovery

85%

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

This is a strong description that clearly defines what the skill does (three specific review passes), when to use it (post-completion of coding tasks), and how it differs from a related skill (CI variant). The main weakness is that trigger terms lean toward internal/technical vocabulary rather than natural user language, which could reduce discoverability when users ask for code review or cleanup in more casual terms.

Suggestions

Add natural user-facing trigger terms like 'code review', 'clean up code', 'refactor', 'security review', or 'before merging' to improve discoverability from typical user requests.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists three specific concrete actions: 'simplify, harden, and micro-documentation passes on non-trivial code changes.' These are distinct, named review passes rather than vague language.

3 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both what ('runs simplify, harden, and micro-documentation passes on non-trivial code changes') and when ('when a coding task is complete in a general agent session and you want a bounded quality and security sweep before signaling done'). Also distinguishes from a related skill (CI variant).

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Includes some relevant terms like 'self-review', 'coding agents', 'quality and security sweep', 'code changes', but misses common natural user phrases like 'review my code', 'clean up', 'refactor', 'code review'. The terms lean more toward internal/technical jargon than what users would naturally say.

2 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Occupies a clear niche as a post-completion self-review for coding agents, explicitly distinguishes itself from the CI pipeline variant ('simplify-and-harden-ci'), and the trigger context ('task is complete... before signaling done') is highly specific and unlikely to conflict with other skills.

3 / 3

Total

11

/

12

Passed

Implementation

47%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

The skill demonstrates strong workflow design with clear sequencing, validation checkpoints, and feedback loops for the three-pass review process. However, it is severely over-engineered for a SKILL.md file — the extensive rationale, design decisions, future considerations, agent compatibility lists, and repeated explanations of the same concepts (e.g., refactor stop hook) inflate the token cost dramatically without proportional actionable value. The core actionable content (the three passes with their checklists) could be expressed in roughly one-third of the current length.

Suggestions

Cut the 'Rationale and Philosophy', 'Design Decisions', 'Future Considerations', and 'Agent Compatibility' sections entirely — move them to a separate DESIGN.md or README.md. Claude doesn't need to understand why the skill exists to execute it.

Move the output schema, configuration example, and integration notes to separate reference files (e.g., OUTPUT_SCHEMA.md, CONFIG.md, INTEGRATION.md) and link to them with one-line references from the main skill.

Remove the metadata table — it adds no actionable value for Claude executing the skill.

Consolidate the refactor stop hook description — it's explained twice (once in Simplify, once in Harden) with nearly identical content. Define it once and reference it.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The skill is extremely verbose at ~400+ lines. It includes extensive rationale sections ('Design Decisions', 'Rationale and Philosophy'), explains concepts Claude already understands (what post-completion review is, why simplification matters), repeats the same ideas multiple times (refactor stop hook explained in both Simplify and Harden passes), and includes speculative future considerations. The metadata table, agent compatibility list, and lengthy design justifications consume significant tokens without adding actionable value.

1 / 3

Actionability

The skill provides concrete checklists for simplify and harden passes, a clear prompt-based integration snippet, and a detailed output schema. However, the integration code is pseudocode (not executable in any real framework), the trigger conditions describe abstract concepts rather than implementable logic, and much of the guidance is descriptive rather than directly executable. The prompt-based integration snippet is the most actionable part.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The three-pass workflow (Simplify → Harden → Document) is clearly sequenced with explicit validation checkpoints. The refactor stop hook provides a concrete feedback loop with approve/reject/skip options. Budget limits serve as explicit constraints. The distinction between cosmetic fixes (auto-applied) and refactors (require approval) is a clear decision framework. Error recovery is addressed via the budget_exceeded flag and timeout handling.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

The skill references external files appropriately (simplify-and-harden-ci for CI, references/agent-context-snippets.md for agent snippets), but the main file itself is a monolithic wall of text that should be split. The output schema, configuration example, design decisions, agent compatibility list, and integration notes could all be separate reference files. The core skill content (the three passes) is buried among hundreds of lines of supporting material.

2 / 3

Total

8

/

12

Passed

Validation

90%

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

Validation10 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

skill_md_line_count

SKILL.md is long (508 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking

Warning

Total

10

/

11

Passed

Repository
pskoett/pskoett-ai-skills
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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