workflow-orchestration-patterns
Design durable workflows with Temporal for distributed systems. Covers workflow vs activity separation, saga patterns, state management, and determinism constraints. Use when building long-running processes, distributed transactions, or microservice orchestration.
72
60%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
92%
0.98xAverage score across 3 eval scenarios
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./plugins/backend-development/skills/workflow-orchestration-patterns/SKILL.mdQuality
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 a strong skill description that clearly identifies the technology (Temporal), lists specific capabilities (saga patterns, determinism constraints, workflow/activity separation), and provides explicit trigger guidance for when to use it. It uses proper third-person voice and is concise without being vague.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions and concepts: workflow vs activity separation, saga patterns, state management, determinism constraints, and durable workflows with Temporal. | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (design durable workflows with Temporal, covering workflow vs activity separation, saga patterns, state management, determinism constraints) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when building long-running processes, distributed transactions, or microservice orchestration'). | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes strong natural trigger terms users would say: 'Temporal', 'distributed systems', 'saga patterns', 'long-running processes', 'distributed transactions', 'microservice orchestration', 'workflow', 'activity', 'determinism'. These cover the domain well. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Highly distinctive due to the specific mention of 'Temporal' as the technology, combined with domain-specific concepts like saga patterns and determinism constraints. Unlikely to conflict with generic workflow or orchestration skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 12 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
20%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill reads as a comprehensive but verbose Temporal overview/tutorial rather than an actionable skill for Claude. Its biggest weaknesses are the complete absence of executable code examples in a code-centric domain and excessive explanation of concepts Claude already understands. The organizational structure is reasonable but the content would benefit enormously from concrete code, aggressive trimming, and splitting detailed sections into bundle files.
Suggestions
Add executable code examples for at least the Saga pattern, entity workflow, and retry configuration — showing actual Temporal SDK usage (e.g., Python or TypeScript) rather than prose descriptions.
Cut at least 50% of the content by removing explanations of concepts Claude already knows (what idempotency is, what sagas are, what determinism means) and focus only on Temporal-specific implementation details and gotchas.
Split detailed pattern descriptions (Saga, Entity, Fan-Out, Async Callback) into separate bundle files and keep SKILL.md as a concise overview with links.
Add validation/verification steps to workflows — e.g., how to test determinism, how to verify idempotency, how to validate replay behavior before deploying workflow changes.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | Extremely verbose at ~250+ lines. Extensively explains concepts Claude already knows (what workflows are, what activities are, what sagas are, what idempotency means). Lists like 'When NOT to Use' and 'Ideal Use Cases' are padded. Sections like 'Automatic State Preservation' explain how Temporal works internally rather than providing actionable guidance. Much of this reads like a Temporal tutorial rather than a skill that adds novel, non-obvious information. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | Despite being about a code-heavy domain, there is zero executable code in the entire skill. The 'Example: Payment Workflow' is a numbered list of prose, not code. The 'Design Decision Framework' is a two-line ASCII diagram. Retry policies describe what to configure but never show how. Everything is descriptive rather than instructive with concrete, copy-paste-ready examples. | 1 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The Saga pattern section provides a clear sequence (register compensation → execute → compensate in reverse on failure), and the overall structure logically progresses from design decisions to patterns to error handling. However, there are no explicit validation checkpoints, no feedback loops for error recovery, and no concrete verification steps for any of the multi-step processes described. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The content is organized with clear headers and sections, which provides some structure. However, it's a monolithic wall of text with no bundle files to offload detailed content. The 'Additional Resources' section links to external docs but there are no internal references to supplementary files. Much of the detailed pattern descriptions and best practices could be split into separate reference files. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 6 / 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
112197c
- Reviewed
Table of Contents
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