evaluate-tool

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.