Optimize token usage and context management. Use when sessions feel slow, context is degraded, or you're running out of budget.
50
53%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
—
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./skills/context-optimizer/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
57%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 has good structural completeness with an explicit 'Use when' clause covering multiple trigger scenarios, but it falls short on specificity—it never explains what concrete actions the skill actually performs. The trigger terms are reasonable but could be broader to capture more natural user phrasings.
Suggestions
Replace the vague 'optimize token usage and context management' with specific concrete actions, e.g., 'Summarizes conversation history, prunes unused context, compresses prompts, and manages context window limits.'
Expand trigger terms to include common variations users might say, such as 'token limit', 'context window', 'long conversation', 'too many tokens', 'cost reduction', or 'hitting limits'.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description uses vague language like 'optimize token usage and context management' without listing any concrete actions. What specific actions does this skill perform? There are no concrete operations described such as 'summarize conversation history', 'prune unused context', or 'compress prompts'. | 1 / 3 |
Completeness | The description does answer both 'what' (optimize token usage and context management) and 'when' (sessions feel slow, context is degraded, running out of budget) with explicit trigger conditions. Despite the 'what' being vague, the structure is complete with a clear 'Use when' clause. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes some relevant terms like 'token usage', 'context', 'budget', 'slow', and 'context is degraded', which users might naturally say. However, it's missing common variations like 'rate limit', 'token limit', 'context window', 'long conversation', 'too many tokens', or 'cost'. | 2 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The terms 'token usage' and 'context management' provide some specificity to a niche area, but 'sessions feel slow' could overlap with performance optimization skills, and 'budget' could conflict with cost management or billing skills. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 8 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
50%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill provides a useful reference card for context management with good structural organization via tables and clear headers. Its main weaknesses are that it mixes advice for the user (prompt engineering tips) with instructions for Claude, includes some guidance Claude already knows, and lacks concrete executable examples for key strategies like subagent delegation. The content would benefit from being split into a concise overview with references to detailed sub-files.
Suggestions
Add concrete subagent delegation syntax/examples (e.g., how to actually invoke a subagent with a specific task) rather than just listing use cases
Remove or minimize sections that teach Claude things it already knows (sycophantic openers, read-before-write) or that are user-facing advice (prompt engineering tips)
Split detailed sections (Token Efficiency, Task Profiles, CLAUDE.md Optimization) into separate reference files and link from the main skill to improve progressive disclosure
Add a validation step after compaction (e.g., 'Run /context again to verify usage dropped below target') to strengthen the diagnostic workflow
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | Generally efficient with good use of tables and bullets, but some sections explain things Claude should already know (e.g., 'No sycophantic openers', 'No closing fluff' are behavioral instructions Claude already understands). The 'Prompt Engineering for Token Efficiency' section teaches users how to prompt, not Claude how to act. Some items like 'Read before write: never modify unread files' are basic operational hygiene Claude already follows. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | Provides concrete commands (/compact, /context, /mcp, /resume) and a specific JSON config snippet, which is good. However, much of the content is advisory rather than executable — 'use subagents for exploration', 'keep <10 MCPs enabled', and the task profiles section describe approaches rather than giving copy-paste-ready implementations. The subagent delegation section lacks any concrete syntax for how to actually delegate. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The 'Quick Diagnosis' section provides a clear decision tree, and the 'Context Budget Planning' table gives phase-based guidance. However, the 'When Context Is Degraded' fix steps lack validation checkpoints — there's no way to verify that compaction actually helped before moving to the next step. The overall flow between sections is more of a reference card than a sequenced workflow. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | Content is well-organized with clear headers and tables, making it scannable. However, this is a fairly long skill (~100 lines of substantive content) with no references to external files. Several sections (Token Efficiency, CLAUDE.md Optimization, Task Profiles) could be split into separate reference files to keep the main skill leaner. No bundle files are provided to offload detail. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 8 / 12 Passed |
Validation
100%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 11 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
No warnings or errors.
9fc35f5
Table of Contents
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