Conciseness

Efficient and dense: commands, config snippets, and workflows carry nearly all the weight. Not 5: minor trims exist — 'Pre-commit prevents commits containing secrets from being created. Faster local feedback than CI-only scanning' re-explains what Claude knows, and version numbers appear inline ('rev: v8.24.2', 'actions/checkout@v5') rather than isolated; the v8.19.0 deprecation note is correctly framed as a deprecation, so it is not penalized. Not 3: padding is isolated to a few sentences, not a pattern of unnecessary explanation.

Actionability

Fully executable throughout: copy-paste install commands ('brew install gitleaks', docker, make build), scan invocations ('gitleaks git --log-opts="origin/main..HEAD"', 'git diff main..HEAD | gitleaks stdin'), report-format flags, a complete TOML config block, a full .pre-commit-config.yaml, and a complete GitHub Actions workflow with the critical fetch-depth: 0 detail. Not 4: concrete commands cover the common cases end-to-end with no gaps; the worked example shows the exact expected outputs.

Workflow Clarity

Clear, well-sequenced 8-step workflow ('How to use' maps each step, Steps 1-8 detail them) with a worked example demonstrating the whole flow and an anti-patterns table for error recovery. Validation is present where it matters most — rotation-then-scrub ordering, audit-log check, and 'assume the secret IS exposed regardless'. Not 5: some checkpoints are stated as direction rather than explicit validate-fix-retry loops (e.g., no 're-scan and confirm only baseline findings fail CI' step after baselining, and history rewriting is destructive with only a warning). Not 3: the sequence, checkpoints, and feedback via the anti-patterns table clearly exceed 'validation gaps / checkpoints missing'.

Progressive Disclosure

Clear overview with well-signaled, one-level-deep references: both links (references/custom-rules-and-triage.md, references/baseline.md) exist as real files with substantive content, are referenced at their point of use (Steps 4-5) plus a References section, and the reference files themselves point only outward to external docs — no nesting. Content is appropriately split: SKILL.md holds the workflow; detail (full custom-rule example, suppression priority table, waiver template, baseline/TruffleHog consistency) lives in the bundle. Not 4: no organization gaps; the split and signaling match the anchor example.

Specificity

Lists multiple specific concrete actions with comprehensive coverage: 'gitleaks git (scan local git via git log -p), gitleaks dir (filesystem), gitleaks stdin (pipe)', 'custom rules in .gitleaks.toml ([[rules]] with regex / entropy / keywords / tags)', 'allowlist via [[rules.allowlists]] (commits / paths / stopwords)', 'pre-commit hook + GitHub Action integration', and 'baseline management for legacy debt'. Not below 5: no domain is left at a generic level — even the commands, config file, and flags are named; not above 5 as 5 is the scale maximum.

Completeness

Clearly and explicitly answers both: the what is the detailed capability list (scan modes, rules, allowlists, integrations, baseline management), and the when is the explicit trigger clause 'Use when the team needs OSS secret scanning at commit time + CI gate, or is adopting scanning on a repo with pre-existing findings.' Not 4: the 'when' is explicit and concrete rather than 'could be more specific'; not below 5: both halves match the anchor example's structure.

Trigger Term Quality

Good natural keyword coverage: 'secret scanning', 'gitleaks', 'pre-commit hook', 'CI gate', 'leaked' concepts via 'legacy findings'. Not 5: a few natural user phrasings are missing — 'leaked credentials/API keys', 'secrets in git history', '.toml'-style file extensions users might mention. Not 3: coverage clearly exceeds 'some relevant keywords with missing common variations', since 'secret scanning' and the tool name itself are the dominant natural triggers.

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Mostly distinct: the niche (gitleaks secret scanning with commit-time + CI gating and baseline debt) is clearly differentiated and tool-named. Not 5: the description explicitly references 'cross-tool suppression consistency with TruffleHog', creating minor overlap risk with a sister trufflehog-scanning skill; a user asking about TruffleHog suppression could be routed here. Not 3: the tool name and specific triggers keep it far above 'could still overlap with similar skills'.