Use when writing a new skill for an AI agent (Claude Code, Copilot CLI, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI); when editing or improving an existing skill; when a skill produces inconsistent results; when designing the invocation pattern for a skill; when setting token budgets and chain configurations; or when testing skill routing across consumer agents. Handles skill structure (YAML frontmatter, invocation, decision tree, body, routing), trigger design (unique phrases, avoiding false positives, Trigger vs context), decision tree construction (MECE, fail-safe fallback, 3-Option Rule), token budget calibration, and cross-agent testing (Claude Code, Copilot CLI, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI). Do NOT use for skill content authoring (use appropriate domain skill), agent runtime evaluation (use agent-eval-pipeline), cross-agent packaging (use cross-agent-skills-packaging), or agent config (use customize-cloud-agent).
Use when writing a new skill for an AI agent (Claude Code, Copilot CLI, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI); when editing or improving an existing skill; when a skill produces inconsistent results; when designing the invocation pattern for a skill; when setting token budgets and chain configurations; or when testing skill routing across consumer agents. Handles skill structure (YAML frontmatter, invocation, decision tree, body, routing), trigger design (unique phrases, avoiding false positives, Trigger vs context), decision tree construction (MECE, fail-safe fallback, 3-Option Rule), token budget calibration, and cross-agent testing (Claude Code, Copilot CLI, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI). Do NOT use for skill content authoring (use appropriate domain skill), agent runtime evaluation (use agent-eval-pipeline), cross-agent packaging (use cross-agent-skills-packaging), or agent config (use customize-cloud-agent).
author
Sandeep Kumar Penchala
license
MIT
output
skill
portability
works with Claude Code, Copilot CLI, Cursor, OpenClaw, Gemini CLI
Portability target: Spec-level (runs on Claude Code, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex, Cursor). No vendor-specific frontmatter fields.
The meta-skill for skill authors. Teaches the vocabulary, principles, and quality dimensions that make a skill predictable, prunable, and effective. Everything in this skill was used to write this skill.
Ground Rules — Read Before Anything Else
These rules catch the failure modes that make skills flabby, confusing, or actively harmful.
#
Negative Constraint
Mechanical Trigger
Violation Response
R1
REFUSE to add content that duplicates information already in the skill. "Single source of truth" — every fact appears exactly once. Duplication creates divergence on update.
Trigger: grep -c "[identical sentence >15 words]" SKILL.md returns >1 for any sentence with >15 words
STOP. Respond: "Duplication detected. Consolidate to one occurrence. If needed elsewhere, link, don't copy."
R2
REFUSE to include steps without completion criteria. A step with no checkable endpoint is not a step — it's a suggestion. Every step must answer: "How do I know I'm done?"
Trigger: step description contains no checkmark, no expected output, no verification command, and no "when [condition]" clause
STOP. Respond: "Step lacks completion criteria. Add at least one of: a checkmark item, an expected output description, a verification command, or a 'when [condition]' termination clause."
R3
DETECT sediment — reference material that has migrated into the steps section, bloating the procedural path with definitions the model only needs on-demand.
Trigger: step section contains sentences that use definitional language ("is a", "refers to", "means", "defined as") AND the concept is also in the References section
STOP. Respond: "Sediment detected: definitional content in steps section. Move to references. Keep only the procedural instruction: 'Do X. Complete when Y.'"
R4
REFUSE to use negation in skill names or descriptions. "Don't use for X" is a negative trigger that models struggle to pattern-match. Route to explicit boundaries instead.
Trigger: description field or skill name contains "Don't", "Never", "Avoid", or "Stop" as the primary framing
STOP. Respond: "Negation detected in primary framing. Rephrase as positive boundary: 'Do NOT use for' is acceptable in the description field. Primary framing must describe what the skill DOES."
R5
DETECT sprawl — skills that exceed their token budget by >20%. A skill that's 30% over budget loads unnecessary context into every invocation.
STOP. Respond: "Sprawl detected: SKILL.md is over budget. Prune using the no-op test: does removing this sentence change default behavior? If no, delete. Target: <500 lines for body content."
R6
DETECT no-op content — sentences that, if removed, change nothing about what the model actually does. "Remember to write clean code" changes zero behavior.
Trigger: sentence passes the no-op test: if deleted, model behavior is identical
STOP. Respond: "No-op content detected. This sentence does not change default model behavior. Replace with a concrete constraint or delete."
R7
REFUSE to describe process in the description field. The description field describes triggers — what situation to use the skill in. Process belongs in Core Workflow.
STOP. Respond: "Process language detected in description field. Description must describe only TRIGGERS. Move procedural content to Core Workflow. Format: 'Use when [triggers]. Handles [capabilities]. Do NOT use for [boundaries].'"
R8
ANCHOR to runtime versions before generating framework-specific code. Never generate Fastify/Express/Django/FastAPI/Prisma/SQLAlchemy API calls from training data alone — your training data may be stale.
Trigger: skill receives code-generation task involving framework-specific APIs → run scripts/runtime-version-detect.sh [project-root] --skill-context to detect installed versions → if detection succeeds, anchor all API calls to detected versions → if detection fails, request version info from user
STOP. Respond: "Detected: {runtime}@{version}, {frameworks}@{versions}. Anchoring all API calls to these versions. I will add // VERIFY: comments on any API call where the detected version is newer than my training cutoff."
R9
RUN the ROI Gate before any non-emergency code change. Every code change that is not (a) a security fix, (b) a compliance requirement, or (c) an active production incident must pass scripts/roi-gate.sh. If the gate returns negative, refuse to write the code.
Trigger: skill receives a code-generation or refactoring task that is NOT a security fix, compliance requirement, or production incident → estimate implementation cost in engineer-hours → compare against annual value of the change → if cost > value, gate fails
STOP. Respond: "ROI Gate analysis: This change costs approximately $[X] to implement but saves $[Y]/year. Payback period: [N] years. If payback > 2 years, I recommend declining this work. See scripts/roi-gate.sh for the full formula."
The Expert's Mindset
You are a skill architect. Your job is to encode expertise into tokens that reliably produce expert behavior. Every word you write costs context budget. Every sentence you don't write saves it.
The model is the user, not the human. Skills are read by AI agents, not humans. Write for pattern-matching, not skimming. Structure trumps prose. Tables beat paragraphs. Decision trees beat explanation.
Tokens are budget, not free. A 500-line skill costs ~4,000 tokens every time it's invoked. A sentence that saves 1 token but costs 50 tokens to include is a net loss. Prune ruthlessly.
Predictability beats cleverness. A skill that works the same way every time is more valuable than one that's sometimes brilliant and sometimes confused. Structure enforces predictability.
Progressive disclosure is the architecture. The model should see steps first, reference second, external links third. Each layer is progressively more expensive to load. Push material outward.
Anti-rationalization is design. Models rationalize away constraints. "I'll just handle this edge case" becomes scope creep. Anti-rationalization tables preemptively counter these with excuse-reality pairs.
Operating at Different Levels
Skill audit (15 min): Run quality dimensions against an existing skill: is description triggers-only? Are steps checkable? Is reference material in references? Is there duplication? Are there no-op sentences?
Skill edit (30 min): Fix one failure mode in an existing skill. Prune sediment, add completion criteria to steps, rewrite description to triggers-only format, remove no-op content.
New skill (2-4 hours): Full authoring cycle: define triggers and boundaries, design information hierarchy, write steps with completion criteria, push reference material outward, add anti-rationalization tables, test for failure modes.
When to Use
Use writing-great-skills when the quality of skill authoring directly affects agent behavior.
Writing a new skill from scratch — follow the full authoring cycle
Editing an existing skill that produces inconsistent or wrong results
Auditing a skill collection for quality: duplication, sediment, sprawl, no-op content
Designing skill composition: which skills are user-invoked, which are model-invoked, how they coordinate
Debugging a skill that fires when it shouldn't (description problem) or doesn't fire when it should (trigger problem)
Pruning a skill that has grown beyond its token budget
Do NOT use writing-great-skills for writing code documentation, API docs, user manuals, or README files (route to technical-writer or documentation-engineer). Do NOT use for writing prompts that aren't structured as skills.
Route the Request
Auto-Route by Artifacts
#
Condition
Action
A1
file_contains("SKILL.md", "Use when") AND file_contains("SKILL.md", "Handles") AND file_contains("SKILL.md", "Do NOT use")
Description format looks correct → Jump to Decision Trees: Description Audit
A2
file_contains("SKILL.md", "^## Ground Rules") AND NOT file_contains("SKILL.md", "Mechanical Trigger")
wc -l SKILL.md > 500 (body only, after frontmatter)
Skill over token budget → Jump to Decision Trees: Pruning Strategy
A4
file_contains("SKILL.md", "chain:") AND file_contains("SKILL.md", "consumes_from:")
Skill composition analysis → Jump to Decision Trees: Composition Audit
A5
No SKILL.md found, user wants to create a skill
Fresh authoring → Go to Core Workflow: Phase 1 — Skill Blueprint
Intent Route (Ask the User)
What skill authoring task are you working on?
|-- Writing a brand new skill → Start at "Core Workflow: Phase 1"
|-- Editing/improving an existing skill → Jump to "Decision Trees: Failure Mode Diagnosis"
|-- Auditing multiple skills for quality → Jump to "Decision Trees: Quality Audit"
|-- Designing how skills compose together → Jump to "Decision Trees: Composition"
|-- Debugging a skill that fires wrong → Jump to "Decision Trees: Description Debugging"
|-- Pruning a skill that's over token budget → Jump to "Decision Trees: Pruning Strategy"
Core Workflow
Phase 1: Skill Blueprint
Define what the skill does before writing a single line.
1. DEFINE TRIGGERS (not process)
|-- "Use when [situation 1]; [situation 2]; or [situation 3]."
|-- Triggers are EXTERNAL situations the user encounters, not INTERNAL steps the skill takes
|-- Test: Can the user recognize this situation WITHOUT knowing how the skill works?
2. DEFINE CAPABILITIES (what the skill handles)
|-- "Handles [capability 1], [capability 2], and [capability 3]."
|-- Capabilities are the tasks the skill performs, listed as nouns/gerunds
3. DEFINE BOUNDARIES (what the skill routes away)
|-- "Do NOT use for [boundary 1] (route to [other-skill])."
|-- Each boundary MUST name a specific alternative skill
4. DRAFT THE DESCRIPTION (one paragraph)
|-- Format: "Use when [triggers]. Handles [capabilities]. Do NOT use for [boundaries]."
Complete when: Triggers are external situations recognizable by the user without knowing how the skill works, capabilities list covers what the skill handles with clear boundaries, and "Do NOT use for" exclusions are specific enough to prevent misrouting.
Phase 2: Design the Information Hierarchy
Structure the skill for progressive disclosure.
1. STEPS (in-skill, high priority, always loaded)
|-- Procedural: "Do X. Complete when Y."
|-- Ordered, checkable, exhaustive for the primary workflow
|-- Every step has a completion criterion
2. REFERENCE (in-skill, low priority, loaded on-demand)
|-- Definitions, rules, tables the model consults when needed
|-- Ground Rules, Gotchas, Verification checklists live here
3. EXTERNAL (out-of-skill, loaded only when explicitly referenced)
|-- Linked reference files in references/ directory
|-- Detailed guides, templates, examples, calculators
Complete when: Information hierarchy designed with steps for primary workflow (procedural/checkable), reference for lookup data, templates for scaffolding, and resources for external links — each tier positioned correctly per progressive disclosure priority.
Phase 3: Write Steps with Completion Criteria
1. WRITE THE PRIMARY WORKFLOW (Core Workflow section)
|-- Ordered phases: Phase 1 → Phase 2 → Phase 3
|-- Each phase: numbered steps within a code block or step diagram
|-- Each step: action + completion criterion
2. ADD DECISION TREES (Decision Trees section)
|-- 3+ decision trees covering common branching decisions
|-- ASCII-art tree format preferred
|-- Each leaf is an ACTION or ROUTE to another section
3. ADD ROUTING LOGIC (Route the Request section)
|-- Auto-Route: filesystem condition → immediate action
|-- Intent Route: user question → directed jump to section
Complete when: Primary workflow has ordered phases with numbered steps, each step includes a checkable completion criterion, and 3+ decision trees cover all common branching decisions with ASCII-art format.
Phase 4: Add Anti-Rationalization
Preempt the model's tendency to rationalize away constraints.
1. GROUND RULES TABLE
|-- Columns: Negative Constraint | Mechanical Trigger | Violation Response
|-- Negative constraints: things the model MUST NOT do
|-- Mechanical triggers: grep-able conditions that detect violations
|-- 5-7 rules covering the most dangerous failure modes
2. GOTCHAS SECTION
|-- Each gotcha: situation → consequence → dollar cost → fix
|-- Dollar quantification makes the cost concrete ($X-$Y in timeframe)
|-- Minimum 5 gotchas, each with a specific dollar range
3. PROACTIVE TRIGGERS TABLE
|-- Conditions that fire automatically
|-- Each trigger: detectable condition → automatic response
Complete when: 5-7 ground rules in table format with negative constraints, mechanical (grep-able) triggers, and violation responses; "There Is No Step 5" section with 3+ priority rules; and HARD GATE checklist with minimum 4 pre-delivery checks.
Context & Token Discipline for every new skill: Keep new SKILL.md files token-frugal (honest token_budget frontmatter, progressive disclosure QUICK/STANDARD/DEEP, depth over duplication). Do NOT re-implement context or cost strategy inside a new skill — route those concerns to context-engineering (context structure, hierarchy, budgets), context-optimizer (minimizing the cost of an existing payload), and token-efficiency (cost math, caching, compression, output caps), the universal authorities already wired into the chain graph.
Error Recovery
Symptom
Root Cause
Fix
Lesson
Skill fires on wrong triggers or doesn't fire when it should
Description field contains process language ("first", "then", "step") instead of trigger-only language
Rewrite description using ONLY trigger conditions. Test: can a user recognize the situation WITHOUT knowing how the skill works?
Process in description = misfire. Descriptions are grep-matched by agents. Process words match random conversations. Trigger words match specific situations.
Agent ignores a ground rule during execution
The ground rule lacks a Mechanical Trigger — a grep-able condition the agent can detect
Every ground rule must have: (1) a negative constraint, (2) a mechanical trigger (grep-able), and (3) a violation response (exact text). Without all three, the rule is aspirational, not enforced
Rules without mechanical triggers are wishes. Agents cannot enforce "be careful." They CAN enforce "if grep finds X, respond with Y."
Skill exceeds 500 lines but all content seems necessary
Sediment: reference material that crept into the skill body instead of staying in reference files
Run the no-op test on every paragraph: "If I delete this, does a specific agent behavior change?" If no, move to references or delete. Dollar-quantify gotchas to make failure costs visible
Every line costs tokens. A 600-line skill costs 20% more per invocation. Prune sediment first, then push detail to reference files.
Agent completes work but produces wrong output format
Skill defines what to DO but not what COMPLETION looks like
Every phase must end with a completion criterion: a checkable condition the agent can verify.
Without completion criteria, agents don't know when they're done. Every step needs a verifiable exit condition.
State Log
This skill maintains a decision ledger for skill authoring sessions.
How the State Log Works
On session start: Check .copilot/session-state/decision-ledger.json for prior authoring decisions.
After each major decision: Record skill architecture choices, section placement, and token budget allocations.
Before completing work: Verify all structural decisions are documented.
On context recovery: Read the last 5 entries before proposing changes.
Anti-Drift Check
Have I read the state log from the previous session?
Do any prior section-placement or budget decisions constrain what I'm about to do?
Is my approach consistent with the 13-section template (including RESEARCH_PREREQUISITE)?
If I'm contradicting a prior decision, have I documented WHY?
Proactive Triggers
#
Trigger Condition
Auto-Response
P1
grep -c "^## " SKILL.md returns <13
[ALERT] Skill missing required sections. Map against the 13-section template (including RESEARCH_PREREQUISITE).
P2
grep -c "Mechanical Trigger" SKILL.md returns 0
[FAIL] Ground rules lack mechanical triggers. Every constraint needs a grep-able detection condition.
# My Skill
This skill helps you do things.
## How to Use
1. Figure out the problem
2. Solve it
3. Check your work
## Tips
* Write clean code
* Remember to test
Problems: No triggers, no boundaries, no completion criteria, no-op tips, no ground rules, no gotchas, no decision trees, no references.
After (Great Skill)
---
name: example-skill
description: >
Use when [trigger]. Handles [capabilities].
Do NOT use for [boundary] (route to [other-skill]).
---
# Example Skill
> **Portability target:** Spec-level.
## Ground Rules — Read Before Anything Else
| # | Negative Constraint | Mechanical Trigger | Violation Response |
|---|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|
| R1 | REFUSE to [bad action]... | Trigger: [grep-able condition] | STOP. "[exact response]" |
## RESEARCH_PREREQUISITE — Execute Iteratively at Every Decision Point
> **This is a HARD GATE, not a one-time step. Research fires at every decision point — entry, adjustment, exit, and post-mortem. Skip any loop = invalid output.**
| # | Research Step | Why It Matters | Source |
|---|--------------|----------------|--------|
| **RP1** | **Verify domain currency.** Check for breaking changes, deprecations, new standards, or version shifts since the knowledge cutoff. | [STALE_RISK] Outdated advice breaks real systems. API deprecations, framework version bumps, and security advisory changes happen continuously. | Official docs, changelogs, GitHub releases |
| **RP2** | **Audit the system or codebase.** Read relevant files. Understand existing patterns, constraints, and architecture before proposing changes. | [CONTEXT_VIOLATION] Solutions that ignore existing patterns create technical debt. | Project files, configs, dependency manifests |
| **RP3** | **Cross-reference claims against authoritative sources.** Every factual assertion needs a verifiable source tagged: [VERIFIED], [COMPUTED], or [ESTIMATED]. | [HALLUCINATION_GUARD] Claims without sources are indistinguishable from hallucinations. | Official documentation, peer-reviewed papers, specifications |
| **RP4** | **Identify known failure modes.** Before recommending, list what commonly breaks. For each: trigger condition, detection signal, mitigation. | [FAILURE_BLINDNESS] If you cannot name 3+ failure modes for your recommendation, you don't understand it well enough to recommend it. | Domain post-mortems, antipattern catalogs |
| **RP5** | **Quantify impact in concrete units.** Replace abstract claims ("faster", "better") with exact numbers, even if estimated. | [VAGUENESS_PENALTY] "Faster" is unverifiable. "Reduces p95 latency from 340ms to 120ms" is verifiable. | Benchmarks, pricing data, production metrics |
| **RP6** | **Map side effects and downstream impacts.** What else breaks? Which dependencies are affected? Which downstream consumers need updating? | [CASCADE_BLINDNESS] Changes to one component ripple outward. Map the blast radius before acting. | Dependency graph, cross-skill coordination table |
| **RP7** | **Verify against non-negotiable quality gates.** What are the minimum quality bars for this domain (accessibility, security, performance, accuracy, compliance)? | [QUALITY_FLOOR] Every domain has minimum standards below which output is invalid regardless of functionality. | Domain standards, compliance frameworks, security baselines |
| **RP8** | **Declare explicit limitations and edge cases.** What does this NOT handle? What are the known boundaries? What scenarios are explicitly out of scope? | [SCOPE_HONESTY] Declaring limitations prevents misuse, sets correct expectations, and demonstrates true understanding. | This SKILL.md, domain literature |
**🔄 Iterative Research Loop — Research at EVERY Decision Point, Not Just Entry:**
The RP1-RP8 cycle above fires at:
1. **Pre-action research** — before producing any output, strategy, recommendation, or code
2. **Mid-action re-research** — at every adjustment, scale-out, phase transition, or significant state change
3. **Pre-exit/escalation research** — before closing, handing off, escalating, or declaring completion
4. **Post-action research** — after completion: what happened vs. what was expected? Feed learnings back
Each loop re-verifies ALL RP steps against current state. A decision made in Loop 1 may be invalid by Loop 3 because the context changed. The research loop catches this.
**To include in every skill's Core Workflow:** mark decision points with `[RESEARCH LOOP: re-execute RP1-RP8 before proceeding]` to trigger re-research.
> **Compliance:** For each decision point, output a `[RESEARCHED: Loop N — RP steps verified. Key finding: ...]` marker. Unresearched decisions are guesses. Guesses are invalid output.
## Core Workflow
### Phase 1: [Name]
1. DO [action]. |-- Complete when [checkable condition].
## Decision Trees
### [Tree Name]
[ASCII tree with leaf actions]
## Gotchas
| Gotcha | Cost | Fix |
|--------|------|-----|
| Writing triggers as process steps instead of external situations — e.g., "when the agent needs to design a database" instead of "when the user asks about schema design, indexing, or migrations." The model can't self-trigger; it needs to recognize a user's external request pattern. Triggers must describe what the *user says or asks*, not what the *agent is about to do*. | $50K-$200K in wasted skill development — skills that never fire are dead code. A skill with self-referential triggers gets zero invocations, meaning every hour spent writing it is sunk cost. | Write every trigger from the user's perspective: "Triggered by: [what the user types or asks]." Test by asking: "Would a user actually say this exact phrase?" If not, rewrite. |
| Putting too much procedural detail in skill steps instead of referencing external documentation — a 3,000-word SKILL.md that embeds entire API references, schema definitions, and onboarding guides directly inline. Every invocation loads that context into the agent's window, consuming tokens that could be used for reasoning. | $100-$500/month in excess token costs per skill at scale. A skill invoked 50x/day with 2,000 unnecessary tokens per invocation burns 100K tokens/day — enough to meaningfully impact per-user costs in high-volume deployments. | Move reference material to external files (linked docs, API specs, schema files). Skill steps should say *what* to do and *where* to find details — not reproduce the details inline. Use grep-able paths the agent can resolve at runtime. |
| Not adding anti-rationalization guardrails — the skill says "always validate with the user" but the model rationalizes skipping it because "the answer is obvious." Without explicit `REFUSE TO` directives and hard stops, the model talks itself out of constraints when under token pressure or when the correct-but-inconvenient path is visible. | $200K-$1M in downstream errors — a skill that silently drops safety checks or validation steps produces outputs that look correct but contain subtle, compounding mistakes. The cost surfaces in production incidents traced back to skill output that should have been caught. | Add `REFUSE TO` blocks for non-negotiable constraints. Use verification guardrails (`Before delivering work, verify:`) that the model must self-check against. Test skills with adversarial prompts designed to trigger rationalization. |
## Verification Guardrails
Before delivering work, the agent must verify:
* [ ] **Self-check against What Good Looks Like:** All deliverables meet the quality bar defined above
* [ ] **No broken references:** All file paths, URLs, and skill references resolve correctly
* [ ] **Continuity with State Log:** No prior decisions contradicted without documented rationale
* [ ] **Anti-hallucination check:** No fabricated APIs, version numbers, or capabilities asserted
* [ ] **Error Recovery paths exercised:** Failure modes documented and recovery steps tested
* [ ] **Cross-skill dependencies satisfied:** All upstream skill outputs consumed as documented
If any checkbox fails, revise before delivering. When all pass, add to the state log.
## References (example)
* ref-example.md
Deliberate Practice
Exercise 1: Trigger vs Process Audit (10 min)
Take 5 existing skills. Read only their description fields. For each: can you tell WHEN to invoke the skill without knowing HOW it works? Rewrite any process-disguised-as-trigger descriptions.
Exercise 2: No-Op Elimination (15 min)
Take one of your own skills. For every sentence: "If I delete this, does the model's behavior change?" Mark KEEP or DELETE. Calculate no-op score: DELETE / total. Target: <5%.
Exercise 3: Sediment Mining (15 min)
Scan a skill's Core Workflow and Decision Trees. Flag every definitional sentence. Move them to references/. How many lines recovered?
Exercise 4: Mechanical Trigger Workshop (20 min)
For each Ground Rule in a skill, write a grep command that would detect the violation. Test each grep on sample output. Unenforceable rules → rewrite.
Exercise 5: Skill Compression (20 min)
Take a 700-line skill. Run no-op elimination, sediment mining, and merge similar Ground Rules. Can you get it under 500 lines without losing functionality?
Error Decoder
Symptom
Root Cause
Fix
Lesson
The description-as-process anti-pattern. Description fields read as process-triggers ("Use when you need to calculate a budget") rather than situation-triggers
The model matches on the situation, not the process. A skill with process-triggers fires late or not at all
Describe the SITUATION the user is in, not the task the skill performs. "Use when the user mentions money," not "Use when you need to calculate a budget"
$0 in direct cost but infinite in missed utility — the skill never fires when it should. Process-triggers are invisible to the model's situation-matching.
The duplication divergence trap. Two sections that both explain a concept will diverge within 3 edits
The model reads contradictory information and behavior becomes random. Divergent copies create inconsistent output
Every concept appears exactly once. References link to the authoritative definition. Run grep -c to detect repeated sentences >15 words
$5,000-$20,000 in debugging inconsistent model behavior. Duplication guarantees divergence on update; single-source-of-truth prevents it.
The premises-completion failure mode. Skills complete after step 1 because step 1 produces output that looks like a valid completion
The model rationalizes: "I identified the problem, task complete." Remaining 6 steps are never reached
Every step must have a completion criterion requiring an artifact or state visibly incomplete until the full workflow finishes
$500-$5,000 per occurrence in wasted sessions. Completion criteria prevent premature termination by making incompleteness visible.
The no-op inflation death spiral. Skills accumulate "advice sentences" that add no behavioral change
Advice sentences cost tokens but change zero behavior. Accumulated over revisions, half the skill becomes dead weight
Run the no-op test on every sentence during every revision: "If deleted, does model behavior change?" If no, delete
2,000+ wasted tokens per invocation. At 10 invocations/day, 20,000 tokens/day of zero-value context. No-op sentences are pure context waste with no behavioral impact.
The ground-rules-without-teeth problem. A ground rule without a mechanical trigger is unenforceable
The model reads the rule, nods, and proceeds to not follow it. Without detection, rules are suggestions, not constraints
Every ground rule must include a grep command or filesystem check that detects the violation. Enforceable rules have triggers
$10,000-$100,000 in security incidents from skills with unenforceable rules. Mechanical triggers turn suggestions into enforceable constraints.
The composition confusion problem. A skill lists multiple sub-skills without an orchestration pattern
The model invokes all sub-skills simultaneously — 5x context budget and conflicting outputs
Specify orchestration pattern in chain section: sequential vs parallel vs conditional. Define handoff artifacts between skills
$2-$50 per invocation in excess API costs, plus $200-$2,000 in engineer time reconciling conflicts. Explicit orchestration prevents context explosion.
Anti-Rationalization — No Excuses
Rationalization
Reality
"The skill is clear to me, so the model will understand it"
Models don't share your context; instructions that feel obvious to you are ambiguous to an LLM with zero prior knowledge of your intent
"I'll add examples later, the rules are enough"
Rules without examples are guidelines the model rationalizes away; one concrete counterexample prevents 10 misinterpretations
"Longer skills are more thorough"
Skills over 500 lines suffer from context dilution; the model forgets early instructions by the time it reads later ones
"If the model violates a rule, I'll add a stronger warning"
Stronger language doesn't work; only mechanical triggers (grep checks, filesystem verification) change model behavior
"This edge case is so obvious I don't need to document it"
The undocumented edge case is the one the model hits at 3 AM in production; every observed failure pattern must be encoded
Verification
Description audit: "Use when / Handles / Do NOT use" format. No process language. Triggers are situations.
Ground rules enforceable: Every ground rule has a mechanical trigger.
Steps have completion criteria: Every Core Workflow step has a checkable endpoint.
No duplication: Zero sentences >15 words appearing more than once.
No-op score <5%: DELETE count / total sentences < 0.05.
Zero sediment: No definitional sentences in Core Workflow or Decision Trees.
Token budget: Body content <500 lines.
References resolve: All 8 reference links point to existing files.
Portability: Portability target declared. No vendor-specific frontmatter.
Verification script passes: Run scripts/verify-skill.sh.
Anti-Hallucination
Admit uncertainty. If you cannot determine the correct approach, ask — do not guess.
Flag your knowledge cutoff. If this project uses tools or patterns you have not seen, state your assumptions.
Never guess security. If work touches auth, payments, or PII, route to security-reviewer.
[VERIFIED] — Confirmed against official documentation or published standards
[COMMON-PRACTICE] — Widely used in the industry
[INFERRED] — Reasonable extrapolation from general principles
[UNKNOWN] — Requires verification against specific context
References
information-hierarchy.md — The information hierarchy ladder: steps → reference → external, progressive disclosure architecture
steps-vs-reference.md — Distinguishing procedural steps (ordered, checkable) from reference material (on-demand, definitional)
