Make sure email actually reaches inboxes. Use this skill when setting up email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), diagnosing emails landing in spam, planning a domain reputation strategy, monitoring sender reputation, or hardening against email spoofing. Triggers on email deliverability, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, spam folder, sender reputation, mailbox provider, soft bounces, bounce rate, BIMI, MTA-STS, deliverability audit. Also triggers when a marketing or transactional email isn't reaching users.
68
83%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
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No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Quality
Discovery
89%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 skill description with excellent trigger term coverage and completeness. It clearly defines both what the skill does and when to use it, with a comprehensive list of trigger terms spanning technical protocols and natural user language. The main weakness is that the opening capability statement is slightly vague ('Make sure email actually reaches inboxes') and the specific actions could be more concrete (e.g., 'generate SPF/DKIM DNS records' rather than 'setting up email authentication').
Suggestions
Replace the vague opening 'Make sure email actually reaches inboxes' with more concrete capability statements like 'Configures SPF/DKIM/DMARC DNS records, diagnoses spam placement issues, and audits sender reputation.'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description names the domain (email deliverability) and some actions like 'setting up email authentication', 'diagnosing emails landing in spam', 'planning a domain reputation strategy', but the opening line 'Make sure email actually reaches inboxes' is somewhat vague and the actions are more like use-case categories than concrete specific operations (e.g., no mention of generating DNS records, validating headers, etc.). | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (email authentication setup, spam diagnosis, reputation strategy, spoofing hardening) and 'when' with explicit 'Use this skill when...' and 'Triggers on...' clauses providing comprehensive trigger guidance. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural trigger terms including SPF, DKIM, DMARC, spam folder, sender reputation, bounce rate, BIMI, MTA-STS, deliverability audit, plus natural language triggers like 'marketing or transactional email isn't reaching users'. These are terms users would naturally use when seeking help with email deliverability. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Highly distinctive niche focused specifically on email deliverability and authentication protocols. The specific technical terms (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI, MTA-STS) and domain-specific language make it very unlikely to conflict with other skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 11 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
77%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This is a strong, comprehensive email deliverability skill with excellent actionability and workflow clarity. The step-by-step processes include concrete commands, specific thresholds, and validation checkpoints. The main weaknesses are moderate verbosity (some explanations Claude doesn't need) and a heavy inline content load that could benefit from splitting into reference files.
Suggestions
Trim explanatory text that Claude already knows (e.g., what DKIM cryptographic signatures do, what SPF stands for) to reduce token usage by ~20-30%.
Move the 'Failure patterns' section and BIMI setup details into separate reference files, keeping only a brief summary and link in the main SKILL.md.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is generally well-written but includes some unnecessary explanation that Claude would already know (e.g., explaining what SPF, DKIM, and DMARC stand for, what cryptographic signatures do, how DNS lookups work). The failure patterns section, while useful, is verbose and could be condensed into a table. Overall it's informative but could be tightened by ~30%. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | Provides concrete DNS record examples, specific dig commands for auditing, exact thresholds (bounce rate under 2%, spam complaints under 0.1%), step-by-step fix orders for SPF/DKIM/DMARC, specific tool recommendations, and a clear IP warmup pattern (start at 50/day, 2x daily). The guidance is specific and executable. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The 8-step workflow is clearly sequenced with logical dependencies (audit → fix auth → monitor → list hygiene → content → growth → BIMI → document). The DMARC rollout includes explicit validation checkpoints (watch reports 2-4 weeks, identify failures, gradually increase pct), and the DKIM fix includes verification via test send. Feedback loops are present for the most critical operations. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill references one external file (references/dmarc-rollout-playbook.md) which is appropriate, but the main document is quite long (~300+ lines) with substantial inline detail that could be split into reference files (e.g., failure patterns, BIMI setup, list hygiene best practices). The structure is good with clear sections, but the content-to-overview ratio is heavy for a SKILL.md. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 10 / 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.
Validation — 10 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
frontmatter_unknown_keys | Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata | Warning |
Total | 10 / 11 Passed | |
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Table of Contents
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