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prior-art-search

Search patent databases and academic literature for prior art relevant to an invention. Use when user says "现有技术检索", "prior art search", "专利检索", "check patents", or wants to find relevant prior art.

Quality

84%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

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SecuritybySnyk

Low

Low-risk findings worth noting

The canonical home for this skill is prior-art-search in wanshuiyin/Auto-claude-code-research-in-sleep

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

75%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

The body is a well-structured, lean workflow that tells Claude exactly what to search, how to grade overlap risk, and what report to produce, with a sensible deferral of detail to a shared reference. Main gaps are a few non-executable placeholder steps (espacenet query construction, classification searching) and the absence of explicit validation/retry checkpoints in the search loop.

Suggestions

Add a concrete, executable espacenet pattern (e.g. an example worldwide.espacenet.com query URL with `q=`, `Classification=` parameters) so Step 2 is copy-paste ready.

Add an explicit validation checkpoint, e.g. 'if a WebFetch fails or returns no patent details, retry with an alternate keyword set before dropping the reference' and 'cap detailed analysis at MAX_PATENT_RESULTS, listing the rest as titles only'.

Trim non-operational lines like 'Adapted from `/research-lit` for patent-specific searching.' to save tokens.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is efficient — constants, a 6-step workflow, and a copy-ready report template with no padding or explanations of concepts Claude already knows (it never explains what a patent or prior art is). It is not a 5 because of minor trimmable content: the 'Adapted from `/research-lit`' provenance line and some verbose phrasing in Step 5's disclaimer add little operational value.

4 / 5

Actionability

Mostly executable guidance: concrete query patterns ("site:patents.google.com [keywords]", "[assignee name] patent [technical area]"), a shared reference for search templates, and a fully specified output report with table schemas. It is not a 5 because several steps remain template placeholders ("WebFetch worldwide.espacenet.com/search results" gives no concrete query-URL pattern, and 'search by predicted IPC/CPC classes' lacks a worked example), and not a 3 because the given commands and output structure are directly usable.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

A clearly sequenced 6-step workflow (extract concepts → patent search → literature search → classify/analyze → FTO assessment → output) with defined inputs, constants, and a 'Never fabricate... Mark uncertain references with [VERIFY]' integrity rule acting as a checkpoint. It is not a 5 because there is no explicit validate-and-retry loop (e.g. re-checking a fetched patent page that fails to load, or capping results against MAX_PATENT_RESULTS). This is a search/report task, not a destructive or batch-mutating operation, so the workflow-clarity cap of 3 does not apply.

4 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

Good structure: sections are organized (Constants, Inputs, Shared References, Workflow, Key Rules), the one external reference (`../shared-references/prior-art-databases.md`) is clearly signaled and one level deep, and the bulk detail (search strategy templates, IPC/CPC guidance) is correctly deferred to it. It is not a 5 because no bundle files exist in the skill directory to verify against and the body still inlines the full report template plus several sub-strategies that could live in the shared reference; it is not a 3 because what is inlined is appropriately concise and the reference is well signaled.

4 / 5

Total

16

/

20

Passed

Description

90%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

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 is strong: it pairs a clear, third-person statement of what the skill does with an explicit bilingual 'Use when' clause covering natural trigger synonyms. The only weakness is modest action specificity — it could enumerate more of what the skill delivers (classification mapping, overlap-risk grading, preliminary FTO assessment, report output).

Suggestions

List additional concrete deliverables in the description, e.g. 'grade overlap risk, map results by IPC/CPC classification, and produce a prior art report'.

Consider adding trigger variants such as 'patentability search' or 'novelty search' that users may naturally say.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

"Search patent databases and academic literature for prior art relevant to an invention" names the domain and two concrete actions (searching patent databases, searching academic literature), but omits others the skill actually performs (classification analysis, FTO assessment, report generation) — matching the anchor 'Names domain and 1-2 concrete actions, but not comprehensive'. It is not a 4 because no additional specific actions are listed, and not a 2 because the actions given are concrete rather than generic.

3 / 5

Completeness

It explicitly answers both questions: the 'what' is "Search patent databases and academic literature for prior art relevant to an invention" and the 'when' is an explicit 'Use when...' clause with concrete trigger phrases, matching the anchor-5 good example's structure. It is not a 4 because the trigger guidance is already fully explicit, not merely adequate.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

The 'when' clause lists natural trigger phrases across two languages: "现有技术检索", "prior art search", "专利检索", "check patents", and "wants to find relevant prior art" — comprehensive synonym coverage of how users would actually ask, matching the anchor for full natural-term coverage including synonyms.

5 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The prior-art/patent-search niche is distinct and its triggers ("prior art search", "专利检索", "check patents") are unlikely to fire for unrelated skills, matching the anchor 'Clear niche with distinct triggers; minimal conflict risk'.

5 / 5

Total

18

/

20

Passed

Validation

87%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 14 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

allowed_tools_field

'allowed-tools' contains unusual tool name(s)

Warning

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

Total

14

/

16

Passed

Repository

wanshuiyin/Auto-claude-code-research-in-sleep

Path

skills/skills-codex/prior-art-search/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

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