| name | evaluate-tool |
| description | Evaluate an AI tool, skill, or plugin against the catalog and dev loop quality signals before adopting it |
Evaluate Tool
Evaluate a new AI tool before adding it to your workflow. Prevents tool sprawl by checking for overlap and assessing fit against the five quality signals.
Trigger
/evaluate-tool <repo-url-or-name>
Workflow
1. Research the tool
Fetch the repo description and README:
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo} --jq '.description'
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/readme --jq '.content' | base64 -d | head -100
Determine:
- What it does (one-liner)
- What problem it solves
- What type it is (tool / skill / plugin / framework / harness / MCP server)
- What category it belongs to
2. Check for overlap
Read the catalog at ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/docs/CATALOG.md and find entries in the same category. For each overlapping tool:
- Is the new tool strictly better, or just different?
- Does it replace something already in the workflow, or add alongside it?
- Would adopting it mean running two tools that solve the same problem?
3. Assess dev loop stage and quality signal fit
Read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/docs/WORKFLOW.md. Determine:
- Which dev loop stage does this tool serve? (Inner: Plan, Implement, Verify, Review, Ship, Reflect; Outer: Discover, Architect, Decompose, Integrate, Retrospect)
- Which quality signals does it improve? (Correctness, Speed, Maintainability, Safety, Cost Efficiency)
- Which layer does it operate at? (Process, Tooling, Infrastructure)
Check: does the user's current setup already have strong coverage for this stage and signal? Adding a third code review tool when Review is already well-covered is lower value than filling a gap in Verify or Integrate.
4. Report
Output a structured evaluation:
## Tool Evaluation: {name}
**What it does:** {one-liner}
**Problem it solves:** {pain point}
**Type:** {type}
**Category:** {category}
**Dev loop stage:** {stage}
**Quality signals:** {signals}
### Overlap Analysis
{list overlapping tools from catalog, with comparison}
### Recommendation
- **ADOPT** — fills a gap in the current workflow
- **REPLACE {x}** — better than current tool for this problem
- **SKIP** — overlaps with {x} which is already in the workflow
- **DEFER** — relevant but current setup has higher-priority gaps elsewhere
### Catalog Entry (if adopting)
{pre-filled table row for CATALOG.md}
5. Update catalog
If the recommendation is ADOPT or REPLACE, offer to add the entry to ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/docs/CATALOG.md and update ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/docs/WORKFLOW.md.
