Skill Checkup

Skill Checkup

Diagnose and improve any SKILL.md. A compass, not a manual — standards live in references/.

Role — delivery auditor. A skill is not its text; it is the probability that each rule reaches the model's attention at the moment it applies. Every finding serves that quantity, through four lenses: harness (what is injected when: desc every turn, body on trigger, references only via Read), model (economizing bias, context decay, silent skips), hard code (scripts enforce what prose cannot), structure (routing, roster, receipts).

Diagnosis flow (each step must print)

> Silent steps get skipped (Seleznov, 2026) — print one confirmation line per step. > Self-review flag: if this session already Edited/Written the target SKILL.md, prefix every skill-checkup print line with [self-review], and a fresh sub-agent blind re-audit MUST run before the work is declared done — spawn it with explicit file paths and NO expected findings (procedure + multi-target scaling: runtime-contract.md §4), then print: > [skill-checkup] self-review re-check: → > If it cannot run, say so explicitly and mark the work unverified — silence is not an option.

Step 1: Read the target, run the three checkers

Read the target SKILL.md in full, then run the three checkers via python3 /scripts/… (quote paths — spaces are common): check_listing_budget.py "" --target "", check_routes.py "", check_script_safety.py "". All three run EVERY audit; compass-cap/dangling/orphan hits = P1. Print five lines:

[skill-checkup] Auditing:   body= lines  description= chars
[skill-checkup] Budget:  skills installed, descriptions  chars vs ≈ → 
[skill-checkup] Overlap: 
[skill-checkup] Routes: 
[skill-checkup] Safety: >

Budget exit 2 = unavailable → fallback row. Tiering: overflow & non-target overlap = NOTICE only; target overlap = P2 (description-templates.md §distinctness); safety hits = P0 when CRIT, else P1, pending legitimacy (hard-code-vs-llm-judgment.md); Safety clean → receipt line only, never a report line. Never edit the audited skill for a population notice; never auto-delete a safety hit (slimming = user-run global pass).

Step 2: Roster the dimensions, then read ONE at a time

Run python3 /scripts/index.py "" — it measures the target and prints the dimension roster (FORCED / DEFAULT / SKIP + reasons) plus a MODE= line. The script is authoritative for firing; references/index.md is its human-readable mirror — don't re-judge firing from prose. MODE=inline → loop the roster one file per iteration: Read it → judge the target against ONLY that dimension → print a receipt → next file. DEFAULT skips must cite the roster's printed skip condition. MODE=fanout → runtime-contract.md §4.

[skill-checkup] :  findings

Step 2.5: Dry-run walkthrough (positive walk when ordered-steps=True; negative ALWAYS)

Following references/effect-dry-run.md, take one typical prompt PER task shape the description promises (write / revise / check, 1–3; small-scope revise prompt mandatory for editing skills). Walk each through the body steps: input/instruction/output connect, AND which hard gates fire at that granularity. Any broken link / ambiguity / gate no common shape triggers → P0, into Step 3's Code layer. Print one line per prompt:

[skill-checkup] Dry-run "" (shape: )  broken links=  gates fired=/

No ordered process at all (pure rule / reference skill) → print:

[skill-checkup] Dry-run: positive walk skipped (no workflow)

ALWAYS (workflow or not): judge 1–2 should-NOT-trigger prompts against the description alone, per effect-dry-run.md §negative. Captured → P2 [over-trigger]. Print:

[skill-checkup] Dry-run negative:  prompts, false-fire=

Step 2.6: Live-injection check (when the target is in this session's scope)

Does the target appear in this session's available-skills list with its description (not name-only)? 3 cases + population-notice rule → references/live-injection-check.md. Print one line:

[skill-checkup] Live-injection: )>

Step 3: Output the diagnosis report

Present per references/output-format.md — a layered report in lesstoken style, in the user's reply language: verdict → quality scores → Code layer (P0→P3, file:line evidence) → Decision layer split ✅ Safe to fix now vs 🤔 Needs your decision → closing question.

Substance that fills the layers:

• Each finding: stable ID (P0-1 …), specific line/field, risk 🟢/🟡/🔴, sorted P0→P3 (references/priority-tiers.md); same violation in N places = N findings; the same defect from two dimensions = dedup to one before tiering.
• Name the failure mode when one applies — a predictability-glossary.md label: [no-op]/[sediment]/[premature-completion]/[weak-leading-word]/[duplication]/[sprawl]/[over-trigger]/[no-floor]/[gate-gap]/[missing-license]. Prefix = what kind, P-tier = how bad.
• Each 🤔 item separates mechanism (behavior now) from consequence (what the next LLM does wrong), then options + rec.

Step 4: Apply with Edit after user confirmation

Never Edit without confirmation — wait for the user's "fix it".

Before acting: size gate + pre-deletion check; afterwards close the loop — procedure in references/apply-safety.md. After fixing, print one line:

[skill-checkup] Applied  fixes to   body: → lines ()

Hard rules quick reference

Quantified hard rules (violation = error) → references/hard-rules.md, consult every audit.

Exception fallback

When a path is missing, YAML won't parse, or any bundled script under scripts/ is missing or exits 2 — handle per references/exception-fallback.md (authoritative script list lives there); announce first, never silently skip.

Language

Default English; flag unjustified non-English ⚠️; policy + 2 exceptions → references/language-policy.md.

Out of scope

Domain correctness of content (logic bug, not form — runtime behavior IS in scope → runtime-contract.md); project conventions (→ CLAUDE.md); one-off fix scripts.

Why it exists

LLMs write manuals; the mechanical-vs-judgment split: references/rationale.md.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Zane456
• Source: Zane456/skill-checkup
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.