Files
holocron/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/references/finding-criteria.md
Defame1297 fc305ba7d9 fix(kyberforge): correct the routing-tier contract and make agent-audit rubrics conditional
Five documents told authors that a prose-form dangling routing target blocks. The
gate reports it as a SUGGESTION and exits 0. Verified on fixtures: `-> name` and
`/name` are blocking ERRORs, the prose form is SUGGESTION-tier unless a second
resolving target in the same sentence corroborates it. ADR-0020 and gates.md were
right; contract.md, retrofit.md, description-quality.md, finding-criteria.md and
agent-author's contract.md were wrong — and they are what an author and an auditor
actually read. The whole 39-skill corpus was retrofitted against them.

skill-audit was also self-contradictory: it imports validate.sh's SUGGESTIONs into
the Structure dimension verbatim while its own rubric grades the same target a FAIL,
so one target got reported twice at two tiers. The script owns the grade; the rubric
now says so.

The YAML-fold trap that broke gitea-labels-milestones (#100) was warned about only
in retrofit.md, reachable only from the improve flow when a budget is exceeded. It
is now in both contract.md files, which SKILL.md mandates on the create flow too.

agent-audit loaded both rubrics unconditionally on every run — 3,323 words for a
clean audit against skill-audit's 1,636. dac9cad fixed exactly this in skill-audit
and edited agent-audit in the same commit without applying it. Same treatment: the
criteria move to a new finding-criteria.md and load per dimension. Clean run now
2,083 words, a 37% cut.

Routing: apm-workflow's description shed dependency installation while still owning
the flow, and apm-install's boundary did not exclude it, so "install my apm
dependencies" matched the CLI-binary skill with no route back. Fixed on both sides.
forge regains two of the three phrasings the retrofit deleted.

forge Step 1 called grill-with-docs unconditionally — a skill in plugins/bin, which
kyberforge does not declare as a dependency. It resolves here only because the
walk-up sweeps sibling plugins; a standalone install dead-ends. Step 1 now names
the cross-plugin dependency and gives an inline fallback. Declaring it properly in
apm.yml remains the better fix.

Also: both audit SKILL.md files now grade exit 2 as "did not run, dimension
unverified" rather than as findings; skill-audit's README row described content that
moved, which its own finding-criteria.md grades a FAIL; and body-discipline.md's
`git show <sha>:plugins/...` command is fenced, since an installed plugin cache has
no repo and file-structure.md makes a bare repo path a FAIL.

Refs: #100, #101, #125
ADR: 0020
2026-09-01 12:38:22 +00:00

139 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown

---
source_keys:
- agentskills-spec
- agentskills-best-practices
- agentskills-optimizing-descriptions
- agentskills-using-scripts
---
# Finding Criteria
Every FAIL and SUGGESTION criterion, for every qualitative dimension, and nothing else. The
reasoning each criterion stands on, its worked examples and its house rules stay in that
dimension's rubric, which Step 3 loads only for a dimension this file puts in play.
Two rules on using it:
- A criterion that plainly applies is a finding. Write it up citing file and line.
- A criterion that might apply, or whose call the wording here does not settle, is a reason to load
that dimension's rubric — never a reason to drop the candidate. This file decides which rubrics
to read; it does not settle a close call on its own.
## description — `references/description-quality.md`
Flag as FAIL if:
- **Over 400 characters.** Measured on the folded YAML value, not the raw source lines.
`validate.sh` reports the number; do not re-derive it, but do point the Fix at what to cut.
- **Internal mechanics appear in the description.** Any of:
- capability enumeration or a feature list;
- output-format detail ("Produces a compact findings report with Why and Fix per finding");
- composition or architecture notes ("composes X rather than duplicating Y", "a cross-cutting
shared skill", "the human-facing entry point", "replaces the old flat invocation");
- implementation detail ("self-validates via a bundled deterministic script").
None of it can change a routing decision and all of it is preloaded.
`Kyberforge.CompositionNote` catches the common phrasings deterministically; the rest is
judgment. This is the rule that deflates a description, so apply it before reaching for length.
- **The same trigger stated twice in two registers** — a verb list, then the same verbs re-quoted
as user phrasings, usually in the same order. One register, whichever routes better.
- **Descriptive rather than imperative phrasing** (`This skill ...`, `This is the ...`).
`Kyberforge.DescriptionOpener` catches any opener matching `^This`.
- **Vague capabilities** ("helps with APIs" where "parses and validates OpenAPI specs" was
available). `Kyberforge.VagueWording` catches the known filler; imprecision outside that list is
judgment.
- **Trigger-list, boundary or indirect-trigger content on a hand-invoked skill** — see Step 0 of
`references/description-quality.md`.
- **Over 1024 characters** — the agentskills.io specification ceiling, unchanged and independent
of the 400-character house ceiling above.
Flag as SUGGESTION if:
- **Over 250 characters** but at or under 400. This tier is what moves the corpus average; the FAIL
tier only stops outliers. Report it rather than treating a 399-character description as clean.
- A near-miss exclusion is present but targets a weak near-miss.
- An indirect trigger is present and warranted but could name the omitted phrasing more precisely.
**An unresolved boundary target is not graded here.** `validate.sh` owns that call and tiers it by
notation — `/name` or an arrow form is an ERROR, the bare prose form a SUGGESTION unless a second
target in the same sentence resolves — and Step 1 has already filed it under `### Structure` at that
tier. Re-grading it as a description FAIL puts one target in the report twice at two tiers. What is
left to judgment here is semantic and the script cannot reach it: whether a target that *does*
resolve is the right sibling to exclude, and whether a clause naming no target at all ("examine the
files manually") should have named one.
## body-discipline — `references/body-discipline.md`
Flag as FAIL if:
- A sentence answers "no" to the core test — it is padding
- The body exceeds 900 words counted body-only (`validate.sh` reports it)
- Two or more mutually exclusive flows are inlined instead of dispatched
- A Gotcha paraphrases a step in the body below it that every branch reaching the Gotcha also
reaches
- A decision point presents a menu of options with no default
- An instruction repeats content already in the description
- A prescriptive sequence is used where flexibility is fine, or the reverse
Flag as SUGGESTION if:
- The body exceeds 600 words counted body-only but stays at or under 900
- The Gotchas section carries more than five entries
- The Gotchas section exceeds 25% of the body
- A rationale is missing from an include/exclude rule — present but unexplained
- Gotchas are correct but placed late in the body rather than near the top
- Content that only one branch reaches is inlined where a `references/` file would serve
## patterns — `references/patterns.md`
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.PaddingPhrase` reports 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
## file-structure and internal-consistency — `references/file-structure.md`
Flag as FAIL if:
- A directory outside the four permitted ones exists
- Test files sit in `scripts/`
- A non-spec file sits at the skill root
- A path that resolves outside the skill directory appears outside the two exempt locations, in
prose rather than in a fenced example
- `tests/` exists but `tests/README.md` is missing or does not document its repo-level dependency
- `README.md` is absent, or its file table has a missing or stale row
- `SKILL.md` describes a script invocation the script does not accept
Flag as SUGGESTION if:
- An optional directory exists but holds only a placeholder README
- `README.md` is accurate but describes a file's purpose more thinly than `SKILL.md` does
## formatting and scripts — `references/formatting-and-scripts.md`
Flag as FAIL if:
- A script prompts interactively, in any form
- A script exposes no `--help`
- A destructive script has no `--dry-run`
- Data and diagnostics share a stream, so the output cannot be piped
- A relative path named in the body does not resolve
- Heading levels are inconsistent enough to break the document's structure
Flag as SUGGESTION if:
- Exit codes are meaningful but undocumented in `--help`
- A code block is untagged where a language applies
- A script is idempotent in practice but does not say so, leaving a re-run's safety unclear
- List indentation or section spacing is inconsistent without breaking the render