Agent skill

skill-validator

Validate skills against Anthropic best practices for frontmatter, structure, content, file organization, hooks, MCP, and security (62 rules in 8 categories). Use when creating new skills, updating existing skills, before publishing skills, reviewing skill quality, or when user mentions "validate skill", "check skill", "skill best practices", "skill review", or "lint skill".

View SKILL.md on GitHub Repository
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Install this agent skill to your Project

npx add-skill https://github.com/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins/tree/main/.claude/skills/skill-validator

SKILL.md

Skill Validator

Run automated checks against 62 rules covering frontmatter, structure, content, files, references, security, hooks, and MCP.

Quick Start

bash
scripts/validate_skill.py /path/to/skill-directory

With severity filter:

bash
scripts/validate_skill.py /path/to/skill --min-severity warning

Validation Categories

Category Rules Checks
Frontmatter FM001-FM018 Required fields, naming, description, context/agent, maxTurns, memory, disable-model-invocation
Structure SS001-SS006 Line limits, progressive disclosure
Content CW001-CW009 Writing style, terminology, string substitution, dynamic context injection, ultrathink
Files FO001-FO007 Naming conventions, forbidden files
References RI001-RI003 Broken links, orphan files
Security SC001-SC005 eval/exec, undocumented constants
Hooks HK001-HK003 Hook structure, handler format, matcher format
MCP MC001 MCP server configuration format

Severity Levels

Level Action
CRITICAL Must fix before publishing
ERROR Should fix
WARNING Consider fixing
SUGGESTION Optional improvement

Output Example

=== Skill Validation Report: my-skill ===

Summary: 0 critical, 1 error, 2 warnings, 1 suggestion

[ERROR] SS002: SKILL.md exceeds 500 lines (523 lines)
  Location: SKILL.md
  Fix: Split content into WORKFLOW.md, EXAMPLES.md, TROUBLESHOOTING.md

[WARNING] CW001: Second-person language detected
  Location: SKILL.md:45
  Found: "You should create..."
  Fix: Use imperative: "Create..."

Command Options

bash
--min-severity {critical,error,warning,suggestion}  # Filter output
--format {text,json}                                # Output format
--ignore RULE1,RULE2                                # Skip specific rules

Common Issues

"False positive on second-person"

  • Context-appropriate "you" may be acceptable
  • Use --ignore CW001 to suppress

"Script security warning"

  • Add inline comment: # skill-validator: ignore SC001

"Hook/MCP validation incomplete"

  • Install PyYAML for full nested structure validation: pip install pyyaml

See TROUBLESHOOTING.md for complete issue handling.

References

  • EXAMPLES.md - Real validation outputs
  • references/RULES_REFERENCE.md - Complete rules documentation

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