Skip to content

Skill guideline gaps: one reserved name, an 815-line SKILL.md body, 26 reference files without a contents list #283

Description

@kasparovabi

I ran the checklist from the skill authoring guide across the 64 SKILL.md files under plugins/. Three things came out of it. One is a documented validation rule, two are guidance. None of them produced a failure I could reproduce, so this is a list to take or leave rather than a bug report.

name: anthropic-frontend-design uses a reserved word

plugins/frontend-design-skills/skills/anthropic-frontend-design/SKILL.md, line 2.

The frontmatter reference in that guide says the name field "Cannot contain reserved words: anthropic, claude", and the naming section lists anthropic-helper and claude-tools under Avoid. I did not get a hard load error out of this, so what I can claim is that the name conflicts with a documented restriction. I cannot claim it is broken.

The prefix earns its place, since it pairs with openai-frontend-design in the same plugin and tells a reader where the guidance came from. Renaming changes the name Claude invokes the skill by, and it also reaches the README table at line 377 and the release asset anthropic-frontend-design.zip. That is a breaking change for anyone who scripted the download, so the call is yours and leaving it alone is a defensible answer.

polar-billing SKILL.md body runs to 815 lines

plugins/polar-skills/skills/polar-billing/SKILL.md is 820 lines with the frontmatter closing on line 5. The guide asks for a body under 500 lines, because everything past the frontmatter loads the moment the skill triggers.

The repo already has the pattern that fixes this. mongodb-schema-design/SKILL.md is a short index that points at fourteen files in references/, each one link deep.

26 reference files over 100 lines with no contents list

The guide asks for a table of contents at the top of any reference file longer than 100 lines, so that a partial read still shows the full scope of what is in the file. Twenty-six files pass that line count without one.

By plugin: mongodb-skills 17, react-skills 4, polar-skills 3, python-skills 1, agent-browser 1.

Full list, lines then path
457  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-atlas-stream-processing/references/pipeline-patterns.md
418  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/fundamental-embed-vs-reference.md
312  plugins/react-skills/skills/react-view-transitions/references/patterns.md
310  plugins/python-skills/skills/python-guidelines/references/idiomatic-patterns.md
308  plugins/react-skills/skills/react-view-transitions/references/css-recipes.md
304  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-atlas-stream-processing/references/development-workflow.md
298  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-atlas-stream-processing/references/connection-configs.md
273  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/pattern-schema-versioning.md
256  plugins/polar-skills/skills/polar-local-environment/rules/troubleshooting.md
226  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/fundamental-document-size.md
222  plugins/react-skills/skills/react-view-transitions/references/nextjs.md
190  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/pattern-time-series-collections.md
184  plugins/react-skills/skills/react-view-transitions/references/implementation.md
178  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-atlas-stream-processing/references/sizing-and-parallelism.md
167  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/pattern-polymorphic.md
166  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/pattern-document-versioning.md
162  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/pattern-computed.md
159  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/pattern-outlier.md
150  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-atlas-stream-processing/references/output-diagnostics.md
143  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/pattern-archive.md
131  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/fundamental-schema-validation.md
123  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/source-query-stats.md
120  plugins/polar-skills/skills/polar-local-environment/rules/payment-testing.md
118  plugins/agent-browser/skills/agent-browser/references/webgpu.md
108  plugins/polar-skills/skills/polar-local-environment/rules/view-logs.md
102  plugins/mongodb-skills/skills/mongodb-schema-design/references/pattern-bucket.md

Several of these are close enough to the threshold that a contents list would be longer than the section it indexes. pipeline-patterns.md at 457 lines and fundamental-embed-vs-reference.md at 418 are the two where it would actually change what Claude sees on a head -100 preview.

One finding I dropped

The same check first flagged agent-browser/references/video-recording.md for linking to commands.md, on the reasoning that this puts commands.md two levels from SKILL.md. That reading is wrong. SKILL.md names references/commands.md on lines 462 and 495, so the file is one level deep and the guidance is satisfied. I corrected my own check instead of filing that one.


I opened each of the files above and read them before writing this, and I am happy to be told any of it is not worth doing. What brought me here is a checker I maintain against the published skill guidance, so I am saying that up front rather than leaving you to wonder. I have not run these skills through Claude to observe a discovery or context failure, so every claim here rests on the guide's wording and on the line counts. If you would rather not get this kind of issue, say so and I will not send another.

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    No labels
    No labels

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions