saga-orchestration
Implement saga patterns for distributed transactions and cross-aggregate workflows. Use this skill when implementing distributed transactions across microservices where 2PC is unavailable, designing compensating actions for failed order workflows that span inventory, payment, and shipping services, building event-driven saga coordinators for travel booking systems that must roll back hotel, flight, and car rental reservations atomically, or debugging stuck saga states in production where compensation steps never complete.
94
92%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
Pending
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Quality
Discovery
100%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
This is an excellent skill description that clearly defines a specific technical niche (saga patterns for distributed transactions), lists concrete actions and scenarios, and provides explicit 'use when' triggers with realistic examples. The description uses proper third-person voice and includes natural developer terminology that would facilitate accurate skill selection. The only minor concern is the description's length, but the detail is substantive rather than padded.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: implementing saga patterns, designing compensating actions, building event-driven saga coordinators, debugging stuck saga states. Provides concrete domain examples like order workflows spanning inventory/payment/shipping and travel booking systems with hotel/flight/car rental reservations. | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (implement saga patterns for distributed transactions and cross-aggregate workflows) and 'when' with explicit trigger scenarios: when 2PC is unavailable, when designing compensating actions for failed workflows, when building event-driven coordinators, or when debugging stuck saga states. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural terms a developer would use: 'saga patterns', 'distributed transactions', 'microservices', '2PC', 'compensating actions', 'event-driven', 'saga coordinators', 'roll back', 'compensation steps', 'stuck saga states'. These are precisely the terms engineers would use when seeking help with this topic. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Highly distinctive niche focused specifically on saga patterns and distributed transaction coordination. The specific triggers around compensating actions, saga coordinators, and stuck saga states are unlikely to conflict with general microservices or event-driven architecture skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 12 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
85%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This is a strong skill with excellent actionability through three concrete, executable Python templates covering the main saga patterns. The workflow clarity is high with explicit compensation rules, troubleshooting for common failure modes, and proper feedback loops. The main weakness is moderate verbosity — the 'When to Use' section, core concepts tables, and some explanatory text could be trimmed since Claude understands distributed systems fundamentals.
Suggestions
Remove or significantly trim the 'When to Use This Skill' section — this information is already in the skill description/frontmatter and restates what Claude can infer from context.
Condense the 'Core Concepts' section — the ASCII diagram and choreography vs orchestration explanation are basic distributed systems knowledge that Claude already has; reduce to a brief decision heuristic.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is reasonably well-structured but includes some unnecessary explanatory content that Claude already knows (e.g., the 'When to Use This Skill' section largely restates the description, the choreography vs orchestration ASCII diagram and explanations are basic distributed systems knowledge). The tables for saga states and compensation rules add value but the overall content could be tightened by ~30%. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | The skill provides three fully executable Python templates covering orchestration, choreography, and idempotency guards. Code is concrete with specific class structures, event names, error handling patterns, and compensation logic that can be directly adapted. The participant service handler examples show both the happy path and error path clearly. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The multi-step saga workflow is clearly sequenced with explicit validation checkpoints: compensation rules table defines exactly what to do in each failure scenario, the troubleshooting section addresses stuck states with concrete fixes, and the code templates show feedback loops (retry → DLQ → manual intervention). The compensation order verification and idempotency guards serve as validation steps for the distributed transaction workflow. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | Content is well-organized with a clear overview, templates for common patterns inline, and advanced patterns (full base class, timeout orchestrator, Prometheus instrumentation) properly deferred to `references/advanced-patterns.md`. References are one level deep and clearly signaled. Related skills are listed for cross-referencing. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 11 / 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.
- Repository
- wshobson/agents
- Commit
70444e5
- Reviewed
Table of Contents
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