| name | progress-check |
| description | Scans all thesis/*.md sections, reports substantive content vs. placeholders, and writes docs/thesis-health.md. |
Progress Check Skill
Use this skill when the student wants to see the current state of their thesis.
Process
- Read each of the 10 thesis section files (thesis/00_abstract.md through thesis/09_conclusion.md).
- For each file, determine:
- Done: contains substantive content (more than just headings and placeholders)
- In progress: has some content but significant placeholder text remains
- Empty: contains only headings and placeholder text
- Estimate word count per section (count non-placeholder words).
- Identify which section to work on next based on logical thesis order and what is currently missing.
- Write the report to docs/thesis-health.md.
How to detect placeholder text
A section is "empty" if it contains only:
- Lines starting with
>
- Lines containing
[placeholder]
- Headings only (lines starting with
#)
- The default stub text from the template
A section is "in progress" if it has at least one paragraph of original prose but also has placeholder sections.
Output format for docs/thesis-health.md
# Thesis Health Report
Generated: [date]
## Overall Status
[N]/10 sections have substantive content. Estimated total words: [N].
## Section Status
| Section | Status | Est. Words | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00 Abstract | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
| 01 Introduction | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
| 02 Literature Review | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
| 03 Research Question | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
| 04 Data | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
| 05 Methodology | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
| 06 Results | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
| 07 Robustness | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
| 08 Discussion | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
| 09 Conclusion | [Done/In Progress/Empty] | [N] | |
## What to Work on Next
[Identify the highest-priority section to work on.]
## Suggested Next Skills
[Based on what's missing, suggest 1–2 skills to run next.]
Also tell the student
After writing the file, summarise the report in the conversation: overall status, the top section to work on, and the next skill to run.
