skill-review

name	skill-review
description	Audit a Claude Code skill file against the official skills specification. Use when the user asks to review, audit, or check a skill for spec compliance, or when a skill file may be too long, have wrong frontmatter, or needs structural improvement.
argument-hint	["skill name or path","e.g. \"veriloga\" or \".claude/skills/veriloga/SKILL.md\""]
allowed-tools	Read Bash(wc *) Bash(find *) Bash(ls *)

Claude Code Skill Spec Auditor

Audit the skill named "$ARGUMENTS". If no argument was given, ask the user which skill to review.

Step 1 — Locate the skill file

find .claude/skills ~/.claude/skills -name "SKILL.md" 2>/dev/null | head -30
wc -l <path/to/SKILL.md>
ls -la <skill-dir>/

Read the SKILL.md file in full.

Step 2 — Checklist (score PASS / WARN / FAIL)

A. File size

Check	Limit	Notes
SKILL.md line count	≤ 500 lines	Excess is silently truncated before Claude sees it
reference.md exists when needed	—	Required if SKILL.md would overflow

Module templates, long examples, and reference tables belong in reference.md, not the main file.

B. Frontmatter fields

Field	Required	Constraint
name	Yes	Must match the slash-command name exactly
description	Yes	≤ 1,536 chars; drives auto-trigger matching
allowed-tools	Recommended	ToolName or ToolName(glob); glob uses bare *, not */prefix/
argument-hint	Recommended	Short hint shown in autocomplete UI

allowed-tools patterns:

CORRECT: Bash(virtuoso *)   Bash(vcli *)   Read   Write
WRONG:   Bash(*/virtuoso *) — leading */ has unclear glob semantics
WRONG:   Bash               — no glob = allows ALL bash commands (too broad)

C. Skill body

Check	What to look for
Arguments routing	Body references the ARGUMENTS variable to route on user input
Skill-dir-relative paths	Companion files use the CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR variable, not hardcoded absolute paths
Dynamic blocks	Time-sensitive content (git branch, date, env vars) injected at load time
No hardcoded paths	Absolute paths to project dirs should not appear in skill body

D. Content quality

Check	Guidance
Templates vs reference.md	Multiple long code blocks (>30 lines each) → extract to reference.md
No commented-out code	Clean, actionable content only
Runnable examples	Snippets work as-is or with minimal substitution

Step 3 — Report

Produce a findings table:

| # | Check             | Status | Finding                                           |
|---|-------------------|--------|---------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | File size         | FAIL   | 792 lines — move templates to reference.md        |
| 2 | allowed-tools     | WARN   | Bash(*/vcli *) — remove leading */                |
| 3 | argument-hint     | FAIL   | Missing from frontmatter                          |
| 4 | Arguments routing | WARN   | ARGUMENTS variable not used — skill ignores input |

List recommended fixes in priority order (FAIL first, then WARN).

Step 4 — Offer to fix

Ask: "Apply all fixes now?" If yes:

1. Extract overflow content to reference.md in the same directory
2. Fix frontmatter: allowed-tools, argument-hint, name
3. Add arguments routing block and a load instruction pointing to reference.md

Spec reference (invariants)

• SKILL.md > 500 lines: content past line 500 is dropped silently
• description is used for semantic matching — keep it focused, under ~1,000 chars
• allowed-tools controls which tools Claude may call during skill execution
• The ARGUMENTS variable = everything the user typed after the slash command name
• The CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR variable = absolute path to the skill's directory (currently: ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR})