| name | skill-reviewer |
| description | Reviews and improves Claude Code skills against official best practices. Supports three modes - self-review (validate your own skills), external review (evaluate others' skills), and auto-PR (fork, improve, submit). Use when checking skill quality, reviewing skill repositories, or contributing improvements to open-source skills. |
Skill Reviewer
Review and improve Claude Code skills against official best practices.
Setup (Auto-Install Dependencies)
Before using this skill, ensure skill-creator is installed for automated validation.
Auto-install sequence:
SKILL_CREATOR=$(find ~/.claude/plugins/cache -name "skill-creator" -type d 2>/dev/null | head -1)
if [ -z "$SKILL_CREATOR" ]; then
claude plugin marketplace add https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills
claude plugin install skill-creator@daymade-skills
SKILL_CREATOR=$(find ~/.claude/plugins/cache -name "skill-creator" -type d 2>/dev/null | head -1)
fi
echo "skill-creator location: $SKILL_CREATOR"
Three Modes
Mode 1: Self-Review
Check your own skill before publishing.
Automated validation (run after setup):
python3 "$SKILL_CREATOR"/*/quick_validate.py <target-skill>
python3 "$SKILL_CREATOR"/*/security_scan.py <target-skill> --verbose
Manual evaluation: See references/evaluation_checklist.md.
Mode 2: External Review
Evaluate someone else's skill repository.
Review Workflow:
- [ ] Clone repository to /tmp/
- [ ] Read ALL documentation first
- [ ] Identify author's intent
- [ ] Run evaluation checklist
- [ ] Generate improvement report
Mode 3: Auto-PR
Fork, improve, and submit PR to external skill repository.
Auto-PR Workflow:
- [ ] Fork repository (gh repo fork)
- [ ] Create feature branch
- [ ] Apply additive improvements only
- [ ] Self-review: respect check passed?
- [ ] Create PR with detailed explanation
Evaluation Checklist (Quick)
| Category | Check | Status |
|---|
| Frontmatter | name present? | |
| description present? | |
| description in third-person? | |
| includes trigger conditions? | |
| Instructions | imperative form? | |
| under 500 lines? | |
| workflow pattern? | |
| Resources | no hardcoded paths? | |
| scripts have error handling? | |
Full checklist: references/evaluation_checklist.md
Core Principle: Additive Only
When improving external skills, NEVER:
- Delete existing files
- Remove functionality
- Change primary language
- Rename components
ALWAYS:
- Add new capabilities
- Preserve original content
- Explain every change
❌ "Removed metadata.json (non-standard)"
✅ "Added marketplace.json (metadata.json preserved)"
❌ "Rewrote README in English"
✅ "Added README.en.md (Chinese preserved as default)"
Common Issues & Fixes
Issue: Description Not Third-Person
description: Browse YouTube videos and summarize them.
description: Browses YouTube videos and generates summaries. Use when...
Issue: Missing Trigger Conditions
description: Processes PDF files.
description: Extracts text from PDFs. Use when working with PDF files or when the user mentions PDFs, forms, or document extraction.
Issue: No Workflow Pattern
Add checklist for complex tasks:
## Workflow
Copy this checklist:
\`\`\`
Task Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: ...
- [ ] Step 2: ...
\`\`\`
Issue: Missing Marketplace Support
mkdir -p .claude-plugin
See references/marketplace_template.json.
PR Guidelines
When submitting PRs to external repos:
Tone
❌ "Your skill doesn't follow best practices"
✅ "This PR aligns with best practices for better discoverability"
❌ "Fixed the incorrect description"
✅ "Improved description with trigger conditions"
Required Sections
- Summary - What this PR does
- What's NOT Changed - Show respect for original
- Rationale - Why each change helps
- Test Plan - How to verify
Template: references/pr_template.md
Self-Review Checklist
Before submitting any PR:
Respect Check:
- [ ] No files deleted?
- [ ] No functionality removed?
- [ ] Original language preserved?
- [ ] Author's design decisions respected?
- [ ] All changes are additive?
- [ ] PR explains the "why"?
References
