Conciseness

The body is lean and assumes Claude's competence throughout — no basic-concept explanations, no padding — with every rule stated as a terse imperative. It is not a 5 because a few lines spend tokens on rationale rather than instruction (e.g., "This is what stops the agent from using twenty words where one will do next session"), and not a 3 because such instances are minor and isolated.

Actionability

Concrete, executable guidance for an instruction-only skill: exact ledger format ("Decision - Choice - Source (user | inferred: <path>)"), a concrete file location and collision-avoidance rule for decision records ("docs/decisions/NNNN-slug.md... number from the highest existing record"), and DEFERRED semantics. It falls short of 5 only because no worked example of a ledger line or a sample question is given; it is above 3 because the guidance is specific and directly executable, not pseudocode.

Workflow Clarity

The seven-step Method is clearly sequenced with dependency ordering, explicit validation checkpoints ("Do not proceed on a mis-restatement"; "Before asking, check whether the answer already lives in the codebase"), feedback loops (the user confirms, picks another option, or pushes back), and an unambiguous exit criterion ("Exit only when zero nodes are open"). This matches the top anchor's sequence plus validation plus error-recovery loop; the operations are non-destructive so no additional validation cap applies.

Progressive Disclosure

The skill is self-contained with no bundle files (references/, scripts/, assets/ do not exist) and nothing inlined that belongs in a separate file; sections (Method, Anti-patterns, Outputs, Output contract) are well organized and easy to navigate. No nested or dangling references exist, fitting the top anchor's appropriate content placement for a single-file skill.

Specificity

"Stress-test a plan by walking its decision tree one question at a time" names the domain and one concrete action, but coverage of what the skill produces (ledger, CONTEXT.md, decision records) is absent from the description. This matches the anchor for naming the domain with 1-2 concrete actions; it is not score 4 because several specific actions are not listed, and not score 2 because the action given is concrete rather than generic.

Completeness

Both parts are explicit: the what ("Stress-test a plan by walking its decision tree one question at a time") and the when ("Use when the user wants to pressure-test a design before implementation"). It is not a 5 because the when-clause covers a single trigger phrasing rather than multiple concrete trigger phrases, and not a 3 because the when is explicitly stated, not merely implied.

Trigger Term Quality

"Stress-test a plan", "pressure-test a design", and "before implementation" are natural phrases a user would say, giving good keyword coverage. It falls short of a 5 because common variations like "review my plan", "validate the design", or "finalize the plan before coding" are missing.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The plan/decision-tree interrogation niche with triggers like "stress-test a plan" and "pressure-test a design before implementation" is mostly distinct. Minor overlap risk remains with generic plan-review or design-discussion skills, keeping it below the clear-niche anchor at 5.