Conciseness

The body is lean, imperative, and free of padding — e.g., 'Execute one bounded unit per owner at a time, check its result, and record the observed evidence before dependent work' — with no explanation of concepts Claude already knows. Every section (role, workflow, output, references) earns its place, matching the 'lean and efficient; assumes Claude's competence' anchor rather than the 4 anchor's 'minor instances of over-explanation'.

Actionability

Concrete, usable structures throughout: the four contract fields (Outcome, Scope and constraints, Verification, Completion condition), a Compact/Structured/Design-intensive depth-selection table with explicit 'Select when' criteria, per-stage 'Ready when' gates, and a five-field output checklist. It falls short of 5 because several directives deliberately defer specifics to the environment ('Discover concrete commands and conventions from the environment') and no worked instance is inlined (examples live in worked-examples.md); it is well above 3's pseudocode-level vagueness.

Workflow Clarity

Five numbered stages each end in an explicit validation checkpoint ('**Ready when:**...'), stage 4 contains a full error-recovery feedback loop ('When a check fails, use its evidence to diagnose and correct the unit; when attempts repeat the same failure, revisit the premise'), and stage 5 covers interruption/resume reconciliation. The output section is itself a checklist, matching the 5 anchor (explicit validation steps, feedback loops, checklist); the destructive/batch cap does not apply since this skill coordinates rather than performs risky operations.

Progressive Disclosure

All four bundle references (task-contracts.md, decomposition.md, verification.md, worked-examples.md) exist and are exactly one level deep. Each is signalled inline at its decision point ('Read [task contracts](references/task-contracts.md) when creating a structured or design-intensive plan...') and again in a References section with a one-line 'read for' purpose, plus the guard note 'Select the current decision; these are not additional mandatory phases.' This matches the clear-overview, well-signaled one-level-deep 5 anchor; the ../sibling-skill links are cross-family navigation, not nested bundle references.

Specificity

The description lists several specific actions — 'decomposing work, resuming a tracked effort, or revising a plan after evidence changes its premises' — plus 'Reuse the active environment's work record and authorization', matching the 'several specific actions; minor gaps' anchor. It falls short of 5 because the actions stay at the coordination level ('coordinate substantial work') rather than the concrete artifact-level operations of the 5 anchor, and it clearly exceeds the 1-2-action scope of 3.

Completeness

It explicitly answers both: what ('Coordinate substantial work with multiple outcomes, dependencies, handoffs, or durable checkpoints... Reuse the active environment's work record and authorization') and when ('Use when decomposing work, resuming a tracked effort, or revising a plan after evidence changes its premises'). The 'when' clause carries three concrete trigger phrases, making it more explicit than the 4 anchor's example, so anti-drift confirms 5 over 4.

Trigger Term Quality

It includes natural planning terms users would say — 'decomposing work', 'resuming a tracked effort', 'revising a plan', 'dependencies', 'handoffs' — giving good keyword coverage. Not 5 because common synonyms like 'break down', 'project', or 'milestone' are missing and 'durable checkpoints' is jargon users would not naturally say; above 3 since several genuinely natural trigger phrases are present.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The description carves a distinct coordination/resumption niche ('durable checkpoints', 'resuming a tracked effort', 'revising a plan after evidence changes its premises'), but the skill's own references to closely related planning skills (task-breakdown, writing-plans) indicate minor overlap risk for generic 'plan this work' requests. This matches 'mostly distinct; minor overlap risk' rather than the clear-niche 5 or the still-overlapping 3.