| name | prompt-stress-test |
| description | Use this skill when the user wants to deliberately break, stress test, or find failure points in an existing Claude prompt or skill before shipping it. Triggers on phrases like "stress test this prompt", "where will this break", "find edge cases", "adversarial test", "QA this skill", or any request to probe a prompt with hostile/ambiguous inputs and get a failure report BEFORE making fixes. Do NOT use when the user already knows the failures and wants fixes (use prompt-refinement), or when they want a holistic reliability score without adversarial testing (use prompt-reliability-score). |
Prompt Stress Test
Break prompts on purpose. Report failures. Do not fix.
Inputs required
- The current prompt or skill (verbatim)
- The intended use case (one sentence)
If either is missing, ask for it before proceeding.
Procedure
- Generate 10 adversarial inputs across these classes: ambiguous phrasing, off-topic requests, edge-of-scope inputs, contradictory instructions, missing context, hostile tone, extreme length (too short/too long), format violations, multilingual or encoding quirks, and inputs that exploit stated constraints.
- Run each input against the prompt mentally and record the actual failure mode.
- Score each failure: 1 (minor drift) / 2 (inconsistent output) / 3 (wrong answer) / 4 (complete breakdown).
- Rank failures by severity × likelihood.
- Deliver the report. Do not propose fixes unless explicitly asked.
Rules
- Adversarial inputs must be realistic for the stated use case. No absurd edge cases.
- Every failure must include: the input, the observed break, the severity score, and a one-line root cause hypothesis.
- Report before touching the prompt. Fixing is out of scope for this skill.
- If fewer than 3 failures are found across 10 inputs, state that explicitly rather than inventing failures.
Output format
- Adversarial Input Set — numbered list, 10 items
- Failure Log — table: input # | failure mode | severity | root cause hypothesis
- Severity Ranking — failures sorted high → low
- Stress Test Score — X/40, with a one-sentence verdict
