Defame1297
4a5c3c0cff
Skill name+description pairs are preloaded into every session, costing ~6,200 tokens across 39 skills before any skill is invoked. The authoring rules mandated that growth: skill-author:104 and description-quality.md:21 both required padding, while skill-author:102 (the deflating rule) had no FAIL condition behind it. Gates (blocking, no baseline file): - description 250 chars SUGGESTION / 400 FAIL, measured on the folded YAML value - body-only 600 words SUGGESTION / 900 FAIL, independent of the unchanged whole-file 2770-word / 500-line spec backstop - every boundary-clause routing target must resolve to a real skill or agent; catches skill-improve, neuledge-context and gitea-labels - agents take the description gates but deliberately no body gate; a test pins that absence Vale: DescriptionOpener widened to ^This\b, new CompositionNote rule banning architecture notes from descriptions. 10 hits, 0 false positives. Kyberforge's own four skills retrofitted: descriptions 3,364 -> 938 chars (-72%), bodies 8,306 -> 2,487 words (-70%), all via the apm-workflow dispatch pattern. Fixes the skill-improve dangling route and the agent-author misroute to manual review. Also fixes a pre-existing false positive where any line-initial 'read ' was flagged as interactive input, which had already caused two scripts to be rewritten around it. Refs: ADR-0020
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Patterns Reference
Upstream source: agentskills.io — best-practices (instruction patterns), specification.
Read this when judging the patterns dimension: whether each instruction construct a skill uses
is the right construct for the job and is correctly formed. Formation, not content — a Gotcha's
content is judged in references/body-discipline.md.
The constructs and when each is right
| Construct | Right when | Wrong when |
|---|---|---|
| Gotchas | An environment fact contradicts a reasonable default | Used as a summary of the steps below |
| Prescriptive sequence | The operation is fragile and flag order or exact arguments must not change | Several approaches are equally valid |
| Checklist | A multi-step workflow the agent must complete in order | A single step dressed up as a list |
| Conditional reference | Detail is needed on one branch only | The reference is needed on every run and is loaded blind |
| Output template | The agent must emit a specific format a caller consumes | The output is prose nobody parses |
Formation rules
Gotchas sit near the top of the body, before the steps that would otherwise walk into them. Placement late in the body is a SUGGESTION, not a FAIL — the content is still correct, it is just read after the mistake.
Prescriptive sequences that quote a fenced block inside another markdown block must escape the
inner fence as \`\`\`. An unescaped inner fence terminates the outer block and the remaining
instructions render as prose.
Conditional references state a specific trigger: "If the API returns a non-200 status, read
references/api-errors.md." The generic form — pointing at the directory and hoping — defeats
progressive disclosure, because the agent either loads everything or loads nothing.
Kyberforge.PaddingPhrase catches the common generic phrasing deterministically; other malformed
forms are judgment.
Output templates belong in the body when the agent must emit them on every run, and in
references/ when only one dispatch branch produces that output. A template inlined for a branch
most invocations never take is body-discipline padding.
Auditing guidance
Flag as FAIL if:
- A Gotcha entry is a general tip or a reminder rather than a fact that defies a reasonable assumption
- An inner code fence is unescaped inside a markdown block, breaking the render
- A checklist wraps a single step
- A conditional reference gives no trigger —
Kyberforge.PaddingPhrasereports the common form - The agent must produce a specific format and no output template is given
Flag as SUGGESTION if:
- Gotchas are correctly formed but placed late in the body
- An output template is present but permissive where the consumer needs it exact
- A conditional reference names a trigger that is real but broader than the branch it guards