Skill Effectiveness Auditor

Structural validation proves a skill can load. Effectiveness review asks whether the agent will use it well. Use this skill when reviewing a new skill, improving an existing skill, or deciding whether a proposed skill belongs in the library.

When to Use

• A skill passes format checks but may still be vague or redundant
• A contributor proposes a new skill
• A skill is not triggering when expected
• A skill seems too broad, too long, or hard to verify

Audit Process

1. State the intended behavior.

   • Write one sentence describing what the skill should make the agent do.
   • List 3 user prompts that should trigger it.
   • List 2 prompts that should not trigger it.

2. Check trigger clarity.

   • The frontmatter description should name the task and the trigger.
   • Avoid generic descriptions such as "helps with quality" or "improves workflow".
   • Prefer concrete verbs: reviews, validates, scans, plans, records, summarizes.

3. Simulate agent use.

   • Walk through the skill as if responding to a real prompt.
   • Note any step where the agent must guess policy, inputs, output format, or stopping conditions.
   • Flag steps that say "think about" without telling the agent what to produce.

4. Check overlap.

   • Compare with nearby skills before approving a new one.
   • If overlap is mostly structural, merge or reference the existing skill.
   • If the new skill owns a distinct trigger, state that difference clearly.

5. Check testability.

   • The output should show whether the skill was followed.
   • Add verification criteria for high-risk workflows.
   • For stateful skills, require

     STATE_SCHEMA.yaml

     rather than prose-only memory.

Verdicts

Use one verdict:

• keep

  - clear trigger, useful behavior, low overlap

• revise

  - useful idea with fixable trigger or process gaps

• split

  - too broad for one skill

• remove

  - duplicated, vague, or not a skill-level behavior

Output

Return:

• Verdict
• Trigger assessment
• Actionability issues
• Overlap risks
• Suggested frontmatter rewrite
• Required edits before merge