Conciseness

There is no padding or explanation of concepts Claude already knows — every sentence is operational — which is above the level-3 'could be tightened' anchor. It stops short of level 5 because of real duplication: the dependency and effort checks appear in both Sweep step 3 ("judge its dependencies as step 5 does", "check its effort ... as step 5 does") and again in full in step 5, and the "A runtime with no session tool" caveat recurs three times.

Actionability

Mostly executable: concrete commands appear throughout ("node .agents/pstack/decisions-check.mjs <command>", "chips cleanup --sessions <file> --session <id>", the near-verbatim append TSV invocation in Offer step 3). It misses level 5 because the core row-logging operations ("log `landed` with `patch:`", "log `updated` with its waits") never show the exact command or row syntax — that syntax is delegated to chips.md — and tools like "the dismiss tool" and "the suggest tool" are named generically.

Workflow Clarity

The 7-step Sweep and the numbered Offer/Start/Drop sequences include explicit feedback loops and error recovery ("Run `chips --session <id>` again and repeat until the Do list shows only the card pass", "When `append` refuses a batch, fix or drop the refused row ... and append the rest", "once the cleanup scan's `--landed` check passes"), so the destructive/batch cap of 3 does not apply. It falls below level 5 because checkpoints are buried inside dense paragraphs — step 5 alone interleaves five distinct checks (dependencies, effort, carding, the 20-card limit, active-plan writes) in a single block, and many checkpoints are delegated to chips.md sections rather than stated inline.

Progressive Disclosure

The bundle is a single SKILL.md (no references/, scripts/ or assets/ exist), well organized with a mode table linking to Sweep/Offer/Start/Drop sections, and one clearly signaled one-level external reference ("The law is `.agents/pstack/rules/chips.md` ... Read it in full before this session's first ledger write"). It misses level 5 because the body inlines a large amount of orchestration detail that a reader must hold at once, and secondary tool references ("status.mjs", "scan.mjs", "pageTopic.field in `.agents/pstack.json`") are buried mid-paragraph in Sweep step 5 rather than surfaced as a navigation aid.

Specificity

The description lists multiple concrete actions covering every mode: "applies what the ledger helper says, settles stale and split tasks, cards what can start and reports the board", plus offer, start and drop. This is comprehensive coverage of the ledger's operations, matching the level-5 anchor rather than the 'minor gaps' of level 4.

Completeness

Both halves are explicit: the 'what' is stated concretely ("brings every open task up to date", settle/card/report actions) and the 'when' is an explicit "Use for ..." clause listing concrete trigger phrases. This mirrors the level-5 exemplar; the level-4 anchor's 'when could be more explicit' does not apply.

Trigger Term Quality

Trigger phrases are natural user utterances with synonyms covering the space: "/chips, /chips offer, start or drop", "what chips are open", "suggest a task for X", "update the chips", "clean up the chips", "which chips are stale", plus pstack-filing conditions. Coverage includes command, question, and imperative phrasings, so it fits the comprehensive level-5 anchor better than the 'a few natural terms missing' level-4 anchor.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The niche is clear and distinctive — "the project's suggested-task ledger, the chips", /chips commands, and pstack-specific triggers carry minimal conflict risk. It falls short of level 5 only because "suggest a task for X" is a broadly applicable phrase that could overlap with general task-suggestion skills outside a chips-equipped project.