A-Grade Skill Quality Standards

Requirements for achieving A-grade (≥126/140) on quality evaluation. Use this as a checklist when creating or improving skills.

A-Grade Requirements Summary

Minimum Score: 126/140 (90%)
Target Score: 133/140 (95%) for A+
Perfect Score: 140/140 (100%)

Dimension Requirements for A-Grade

D1: Knowledge Delta (≥18/20)

Requirements:

  • <5% redundant content
  • Expert-only knowledge throughout
  • No basic tutorials or installation guides
  • Domain-specific patterns AI assistants don’t know
  • Project-specific conventions

Checklist:

  • No basic syntax explanations
  • No copied official documentation
  • No generic best practices
  • Contains non-obvious insights
  • Includes production-tested patterns

D2: Mindset + Procedures (≥13/15)

Requirements:

  • Clear philosophical framing
  • Step-by-step numbered workflow
  • Explicit “when to apply” criteria
  • Explicit “when NOT to apply” scenarios

Checklist:

  • Philosophy/core principle stated
  • Numbered workflow steps
  • Entry/exit points defined
  • Use case examples provided
  • Non-applicable scenarios listed

D3: Anti-Pattern Quality (≥13/15)

Requirements:

  • NEVER statements with WHY explanations
  • Concrete code examples of anti-patterns
  • Consequences explained
  • ❌ BAD / ✅ GOOD comparisons

Checklist:

  • At least 3 NEVER statements
  • Each NEVER has WHY explanation
  • Code examples for anti-patterns
  • Consequences articulated
  • Side-by-side comparisons present

D4: Specification Compliance (≥13/15)

Requirements:

  • Description field with activation keywords
  • Proper YAML frontmatter
  • Clear trigger scenarios in description
  • Cross-harness portability (no agent-specific paths)

Checklist:

  • Description is comprehensive (≥100 chars)
  • Domain keywords included
  • Trigger scenarios mentioned
  • Frontmatter syntax correct
  • Name matches directory
  • No harness-specific paths (.opencode/, .claude/, .cursor/)
  • No agent-specific references (Claude Code, Cursor Agent, etc.)
  • Uses relative paths (scripts/, references/, templates/)
  • ## References is last H2, uses Topic | Reference | When to Use table format

D5: Progressive Disclosure (≥13/15)

Requirements:

  • SKILL.md <100 lines for aggregations
  • References directory with categorized files
  • Navigation hub approach
  • Content organized by priority

Checklist:

  • Main file is navigation hub
  • Detailed content in references/
  • Files organized by prefix
  • Priority labels present
  • Clear category structure

D6: Freedom Calibration (≥13/15)

Requirements:

  • Rigidity matches skill type
  • Mindset skills: Strong rules
  • Process skills: Balanced flexibility
  • Tool skills: Options and trade-offs

Checklist:

  • Calibration appropriate for type
  • Mindset skills use NEVER/ALWAYS
  • Process skills allow adaptation
  • Tool skills present options
  • Consistent throughout

D7: Pattern Recognition (≥9/10)

Requirements:

  • Rich domain keywords in description
  • Comprehensive trigger scenarios
  • Clear activation signals

Checklist:

  • 5+ domain keywords in description
  • Trigger examples provided
  • When-to-use scenarios clear
  • Unambiguous activation criteria

D8: Practical Usability (≥13/15)

Requirements:

  • Concrete, runnable code examples
  • Real-world scenarios
  • Clear, scannable structure
  • Complete implementations (not fragments)

Checklist:

  • Code examples are runnable
  • Examples use realistic scenarios
  • Headings are scannable
  • Code blocks properly formatted
  • No pseudocode fragments

Common A-Grade Patterns

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md (60-90 lines)
├── AGENTS.md
└── references/
    ├── category-topic1.md
    └── category-topic2.md

Single-File Pattern (Best for Focused Skills)

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md (100-250 lines)
└── AGENTS.md (optional)

D9: Eval Validation (>=17/20)

Requirements:

  • Complete evals/ directory with tessl eval harness structure
  • instructions.json with full instruction extraction
  • summary.json showing >= 80% instruction coverage
  • At least 3 valid scenarios with task.md + criteria.json + capability.txt
  • Each criteria.json sums to exactly 100

Checklist:

  • evals/ directory exists
  • instructions.json present and non-empty
  • summary.json shows coverage_percentage >= 80
  • >= 3 scenario directories with all required files
  • criteria.json sums to 100 in each scenario
  • 10+ checklist items per criteria.json
  • No instruction leakage in task.md files

Red Flags (Immediate Disqualification from A-Grade)

  • Description <50 characters
  • No activation keywords

  • 50% tutorial content

  • Missing anti-patterns
  • No code examples

  • 500 lines in single file

  • Generic “best practices” without specificity
  • Multi-purpose scope: skill covers >2 distinct workflows or description requires multiple “and”/“or” connectors to capture all sub-topics
  • No eval scenarios (D9 = 0)

Quality Verification Commands

# Check line count
wc -l skills/*/SKILL.md

# Verify frontmatter
head -10 skills/*/SKILL.md | grep -A5 "^---"

# Check for references directory
ls -la skills/*/references/

# Count keywords in description
grep "^description:" skills/*/SKILL.md | wc -w

See Also

  • framework-dimensions.md - Dimension definitions
  • framework-scoring-rubric.md - Scoring methodology
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