--- name: skill-improve description: "Improve a skill via a test-fix-retest loop — static checks, targeted fixes, keep or revert on score change." argument-hint: "[skill-name]" user-invocable: true allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, Write, Bash, Bash(bash "*/.claude/skills/skill-improve/../../hooks/yaml-helper.sh" resolve_config *) model: sonnet --- !`bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../hooks/yaml-helper.sh" resolve_config --keys automation` **Automation mode**: Resolve `modes.automation` (`project.local.yaml` → `project.yaml` → default `collaborative`). Every `AskUserQuestion` call and every file write follows `.claude/docs/automation-modes.md` (collaborative asks always · guided major-only · autonomous logs and proceeds; `automation_always_ask` categories always prompt). # Skill Improve Runs an improvement loop on a single skill: test → fix → retest → keep or revert. --- ## Phase 1: Parse Argument Read the skill name from the first argument. If missing, output usage and stop: ``` Usage: /skill-improve [skill-name] Example: /skill-improve tech-debt ``` Verify `.claude/skills/[name]/SKILL.md` exists. If not, stop with: "Skill '[name]' not found." --- ## Phase 2: Baseline Test Run `/skill-test static [name]` and record the baseline score: - Count of FAILs - Count of WARNs - Which specific checks failed (Check 1–7) Display to the user: ``` Static baseline: [N] failures, [M] warnings Failing: Check 4 (no ask-before-write), Check 5 (no handoff) ``` If the static result is **NOT ASSESSED** (the skill file could not be read or parsed), stop and report it with its reason: there is no score to improve, and 0 FAILs from a file nobody could read is not a clean result. If baseline is 0 FAILs and 0 WARNs, note it and proceed to Phase 2b. ### Phase 2b: Category Baseline Look up the skill's `category:` field in `CCGS Skill Testing Framework/catalog.yaml`. If no `category:` field is found, display: "Category: not yet assigned — skipping category checks." and skip to Phase 3. If category is found, run `/skill-test category [name]` and record the category baseline: - Count of FAILs - Count of WARNs - Which specific category rubric metrics failed Display to the user: ``` Category baseline: [N] failures, [M] warnings ([category] rubric) ``` A category result of **NOT ASSESSED** (a rubric section the skill-test could not find or apply) is reported with its reason and is not a zero: the category dimension is then excluded from "already passes" below. If BOTH static and category baselines are 0 FAILs and 0 WARNs — and neither is NOT ASSESSED — stop: "This skill already passes all static and category checks. No improvements needed." --- ## Phase 3: Diagnose Read the full skill: `.claude/skills/[name]/SKILL.md` and every file in its `references/` folder, if it has one — the longest skills keep each phase there. Name the file each gap is in. For each failing or warning **static** check, identify the exact gap: - **Check 1 fail** → which frontmatter field is missing - **Check 2 fail** → how many phases found vs. minimum required - **Check 3 fail** → no verdict keywords anywhere in the skill body - **Check 4 fail** → Write or Edit in allowed-tools but no ask-before-write language - **Check 5 warn** → no follow-up or next-step section at the end - **Check 6 warn** → `context: fork` set but fewer than 5 phases found - **Check 7 warn** → argument-hint is empty or doesn't match documented modes For each failing or warning **category** check (if category was assigned in Phase 2b), identify the exact gap in the skill's text. For example: - If G2 fails (gate mode, director panel width): skill body does not size the PHASE-GATE panel from `modes.workflow` (PR at `minimal`, TD + PR at `standard`, all 4 at `full`) - If A2 fails (authoring, no per-section May-I-write): skill asks once at the end, not before each section write - If T3 fails (team, BLOCKED not surfaced): skill doesn't halt dependent work on blocked agent Show the full combined diagnosis to the user before proposing any changes. --- ## Phase 4: Propose Fix Write a targeted fix for each failure and warning. Show the proposed changes as clearly marked before/after blocks. Only change what is failing — do not rewrite sections that are passing. In a skill with a `references/` folder, a fix to a phase's steps goes in that phase's `references/` file, not back into `SKILL.md`; the question below then names each file the fix changes. Ask: "May I write this improved version to `.claude/skills/[name]/SKILL.md`?" If the user says no, stop here. --- ## Phase 5: Write and Retest Record the current content of each file the fix changes — the exact text, kept in this conversation — so Phase 6 can restore it. Write the improved skill to `.claude/skills/[name]/SKILL.md`, and to each `references/` file the fix changes. Re-run `/skill-test static [name]` and record the new static score — measured by that run, never stated from the edit. If a category was assigned, also re-run `/skill-test category [name]` and record the new category score. Display the comparison: ``` Static: Before [N] failures, [M] warnings → After [N'] failures, [M'] warnings Category: Before [N] failures, [M] warnings → After [N'] failures, [M'] warnings (if applicable) Combined: [before] → [after] (improved / no change / worse) ``` `[before]` and `[after]` are the Phase 6 combined counts — failures plus warnings, both dimensions — e.g. `Combined: 3 → 0 (improved)`. --- ## Phase 6: Verdict Count the combined failure total: static FAILs + category FAILs + static WARNs + category WARNs. **A re-test that comes back NOT ASSESSED** (for example, the edit broke the frontmatter so the file no longer parses) is never an improvement, whatever its counts: take the "did not improve" branch below. **If combined score improved (combined failure count is lower than baseline):** Report: "Score improved. Changes kept." Show a summary of what was fixed in each dimension. **If combined score is the same or worse:** Report: "Combined score did not improve." Show what changed and why it may not have helped. Ask: "May I restore `.claude/skills/[name]/SKILL.md` to the content it had before this run?" — naming every file Phase 5 wrote. If yes: write the content recorded in Phase 5 back to each file with Write; if no, leave the files as written. Never `git checkout` it — that returns the last *committed* version and discards any edits made before this run that were not yet committed. --- ## Phase 7: Next Steps - Run `/skill-test static all` to find the next skill with failures. - Run `/skill-improve [next-name]` to continue the loop on another skill. - Run `/skill-test audit` to see overall coverage progress.