audit

name	audit
version	2.0
category	utilities
execution_speed	medium
token_efficiency	medium
triggers	["audit my skills","review my skill files","which skills auto-fire?","find duplicated logic","composability opportunities"]
cache_key	audit-2.0
dependencies	[]
description	Audit Claude Code skills for visibility flags, deterministic vs non-deterministic steps, and composability opportunities. Reads .claude/skills/ (or a user-specified path), produces a punch list per skill, then shows proposed rewrites with a changelog. Trigger on: "audit my skills", "review my skill files", "which skills auto-fire?", "find duplicated logic in my skills", "should any skills be internal-only?", or any request to review, improve, or rationalize a set of SKILL.md files. Never modifies any file -- proposes changes and waits for approval.

Audit -- Claude Skills Quality Review

Meta-skill for auditing a set of Claude Code SKILL.md files. Reads your installed skills, applies three quality lenses, and produces actionable rewrites with a changelog. Never auto-applies changes.

---

Commands

Command	What It Does
/audit	Run all three audits in sequence (visibility → determinism → composability)
/audit visibility	Flag skills that need user-invocable: false or disable-model-invocation: true
/audit determinism	Find AI steps that should be scripts; flag deterministic operations
/audit composability	Detect duplicated logic and suggest extraction or shared skills
/audit-resume	Resume an interrupted audit from the last checkpoint

---

Initiation

Start by displaying this message:

"Captainnnnn...CaveMANNNNN!!!!"

Then before any other action, run the /caveman lite skill, then continue this skill.

Before any other action, automatically execute the /using-superpowers skill, then continue this skill.

Preference (movie, book, anime, or show) is loaded at session start by /using-superpowers. Use it for light illustrations throughout -- one per major finding, skip if forced.

Examples of well-placed references:

• (Star Wars) "Right now Claude could auto-fire this skill with no confirmation -- no one told it to execute Order 66."
• (Sherlock Holmes) "This step asks Claude to deduce a file count from context -- a job for Watson's clipboard, not Holmes's intuition."
• (Jurassic Park) "You've got the power configured but no check on whether it should be used -- your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could..."

After the initiation steps above, pause this skill execution, and then run /setup-joseph-childree-skills. Once setup-joseph-childree-skills is finished, then run the obsidian-vault skill. Once Obsidian-Vault is complete, continue audit skill.

---

Checkpoint & Resume

Long audits (48+ skills) are interrupted by API 500/529 errors before completion. To avoid restarting from scratch, write a checkpoint after each skill is processed.

Checkpoint format

After finishing each skill's analysis (all three lenses), write a checkpoint using the deterministic script (avoids hallucinated timestamps):

node .claude/skills/audit/write-checkpoint.js .claude/state/audit-progress.json <skill> done <count>

Fields written: skill (directory name), status (done), findings (count of flags raised), ts (ISO timestamp from Date.now()).

/audit-resume

1. Read .claude/state/audit-progress.json. Extract the list of skills already marked done.
2. Bind the skills directory (same resolution order as /audit).
3. Skip any skill in the completed list.
4. Continue the audit from the first unfinished skill.
5. On completion, delete .claude/state/audit-progress.json.

If the checkpoint file does not exist, treat as a fresh run (same as /audit).

---

Skill Directory Binding

Resolves the skills directory in this order:

1. User names a path explicitly: "audit skills in ~/myproject/.claude/skills/"
2. .claude/skills/ relative to the current working directory
3. If neither found: ask before proceeding

Reads every SKILL.md file found under that directory. Parses YAML frontmatter and body content. Does not execute any skill. Does not modify any file.

Once bound, state the directory and the list of skills found before auditing:

Skills directory: .claude/skills/
Skills found: adr, audit, karpathy, phase, tools
Auditing...

---

Audit 1 -- Visibility

What this audit checks:

Two visibility flags exist in SKILL.md frontmatter:

Flag	Effect	When to Add
user-invocable: false	Hides the skill from /menu	Skill is background knowledge or an internal dependency; a user would never run it directly
disable-model-invocation: true	Prevents Claude from auto-firing the skill without a user command	Skill has side effects: writes files, commits code, deploys, sends messages, creates tickets

How this audit runs:

For each skill, ask two questions:

1. Does this skill have high-risk side effects (deploy, git commit, send message, create external record, modify files outside the conversation)?

   • If yes and disable-model-invocation: true is absent: FLAG.

2. Is this skill pure background knowledge -- a reference, a set of principles, an internal dependency -- that a user would never /run directly?

   • If yes and user-invocable: false is absent: FLAG.

Output format:

## Visibility Audit

| Skill | Flag Needed | Currently Set | Finding |
|-------|-------------|---------------|---------|
| karpathy | user-invocable: false | ✅ set | No action needed |
| adr | disable-model-invocation: true | ❌ missing | /adr create writes files -- add flag |
| phase | -- | -- | No flags warranted |
| tools | disable-model-invocation: true | ❌ missing | /tools add modifies settings.json |
| audit | -- | -- | Read-only skill; no flags needed |

Then for each flagged skill, show the proposed frontmatter rewrite:

### Proposed: adr -- add disable-model-invocation: true

Changelog: Added `disable-model-invocation: true` to prevent Claude from
auto-invoking /adr create without an explicit user command. The /adr create
flow writes files and updates INDEX.md -- side effects that should require
deliberate invocation.

Frontmatter after change:
---
name: adr
disable-model-invocation: true
description: >
  [unchanged]
---

After showing all proposed rewrites, ask: "Which of these changes would you like applied? List by skill name, or say 'none'." Stop and wait.

---

Audit 2 -- Determinism

What this audit checks:

AI inference is expensive and non-deterministic. Any step inside a skill that is actually a fixed, repeatable operation should be a script, not a prompt instruction.

Signs a step should be a script, not AI:

• Counting files or rows (e.g. "find the next ADR number")
• Parsing a known format (e.g. "read INDEX.md and extract ADR numbers")
• Checking for presence of a string or field in a file
• Renaming files according to a fixed naming rule
• Generating a timestamp or sequence number
• Running a linter or formatter

Signs a step must stay AI:

• Evaluating whether a decision is ADR-worthy
• Assessing whether a tradeoff is sound
• Reviewing prose for completeness or clarity
• Determining if a transition is justified given the evidence

How this audit runs:

Read each skill's command descriptions and step-by-step flows. For each deterministic step found inside an AI-driven flow, flag it with a suggested script.

Output format:

## Determinism Audit

### adr -- /adr create (step 4: "Find the next ADR number")

Finding: Finding the next ADR number is a deterministic operation: count
`docs/adr/ADR-[0-9]*.md` files and add 1. Currently described as an AI step.
Every AI invocation of this may return a different count depending on context.

Suggested script (save as `.claude/skills/adr/next-adr-number.sh`):
```bash
#!/bin/bash
# Prints the next available ADR number (zero-padded to 3 digits)
count=$(find "${1:-docs/adr}" -name 'ADR-[0-9]*.md' | wc -l)
printf '%03d\n' $((count + 1))

Changelog: Replaces the AI-interpreted "find the next ADR number" step with a deterministic shell script. Output is always consistent. Eliminates token cost and non-determinism for a purely mechanical operation.

Call site in SKILL.md: Replace prose instruction with: "Run .claude/skills/adr/next-adr-number.sh docs/adr to get the next number."

Repeat for every deterministic step found across all skills.

If no deterministic steps are found: say so explicitly. Don't manufacture findings.

After showing proposals, ask: "Which of these scripts would you like created? List by skill name and step, or say 'none'."

Stop and wait.

---

Audit 3 -- Composability

What this audit checks:

Skills that duplicate logic another skill already has create drift: when the logic changes, both copies must be updated. Find duplication and suggest extraction.

Types of duplication to look for:

Pattern	Example
Same binding logic	Multiple skills resolve a directory the same way
Same output format	Multiple skills produce a punch-list table with identical structure
Same principles section	Multiple skills restate Karpathy guidelines verbatim
Same validation checklist	Multiple skills check the same set of required fields
Overlapping commands	Two skills have commands that do the same thing under different names

How this audit runs:

Read all skills. Compare binding logic, output format templates, checklist items, referenced principles, and command behavior descriptions. Flag any section that appears in two or more skills with substantial similarity.

Output format:

## Audit 3 Composability

### Finding 1 -- Karpathy principles restated in adr and phase

Skills affected: adr, phase
Duplicated section: "Karpathy Principles Applied" (appears verbatim in both)

Options:
A. Keep as-is. The redundancy is intentional -- each skill works standalone.
   Acceptable if these skills are sometimes installed without /karpathy.
B. Extract to a shared reference. Replace both "Karpathy Principles Applied"
   sections with: "See /karpathy for the full guidelines."
   Works only if karpathy is always installed alongside adr and phase.
C. No action -- the sections are short enough that duplication cost is minimal.

Recommendation: Option A. The standalone guarantee is worth the redundancy.
The sections are under 10 lines each. Not worth extracting.

After each finding, state a clear recommendation (keep, extract, or merge) and the
reasoning. If the right answer is "keep as-is," say so -- don't manufacture refactors.

After showing all findings, ask:
"Which of these would you like to act on? List by finding number, or say 'none'."
Stop and wait.

---

## Full `/audit` Output Structure

When running `/audit` (all three lenses), output in this order:

Skills directory: [path]
Skills found: [list]

=== Audit 1: Visibility ===
[visibility table and proposed rewrites]

=== Audit 2: Determinism ===
[per-skill findings and proposed scripts]

=== Audit 3: Composability ===
[duplication findings and recommendations]

=== Summary ===
Total findings: [N]
  Visibility flags:    [N]
  Deterministic steps: [N]
  Composability issues:[N]

Proposed changes are above. Which would you like applied?

Do not apply any change before receiving an explicit answer.

---

Karpathy Principles Applied

See /karpathy for guidelines. Applied here:

• G1: Read every skill fully before flagging. Uncertain findings -- say so explicitly.
• G2: Minimum punch list -- real problems only, no hypothetical findings.
• G3: Show only what changes. Don't rewrite sections that work.
• G4 Done: All three dimensions covered ✅ · Each finding has recommendation ✅ · User approved/rejected each ✅

---

Integration with Other Skills

• /tools audit -- Audits configured MCP tools and settings. Complementary to this skill, which audits the skills themselves. Suggest this skill next after this skills completion.
• /adr -- If an audit finding represents a significant structural decision (e.g. deciding that karpathy should always be internal-only), document it in an ADR.
• /karpathy (internal) -- Governs how this skill reasons through findings. In particular, G1 (think before flagging) and G2 (don't manufacture findings).