v1.0.5 to v1.0.6

- description: "**WORKFLOW SKILL** — Iteratively improve skill frontmatter compliance using the Ralph loop pattern. WHEN: \"run sensei\", \"sensei help\", \"improve skill\", \"fix frontmatter\", \"skill compliance\", \"frontmatter audit\", \"score skill\", \"check skill tokens\". INVOKES: token counting tools, test runners, git commands. FOR SINGLE OPERATIONS: use token CLI directly for counts/checks."

- version: "1.0.5"

- # Sensei

-

- > "A true master teaches not by telling, but by refining." - The Skill Sensei

-

- Automates skill frontmatter improvement using the [Ralph loop pattern](https://github.com/soderlind/ralph) - iteratively improving skills until they reach Medium-High compliance with passing tests, then checking token usage and prompting for action.

-

- ║ Run sensei on <skill-name> --skip-integration # Fast mode ║

- ║ Run sensei on all Low-adherence skills # Batch by score ║

- ║ Run sensei on all skills # All skills ║

- ║ Run sensei on azure-security --skip-integration ║

- ║ Run sensei on azure-security, azure-observability ║

- ║ Run sensei on all Low-adherence skills ║

- ║ 1. READ - Load skill's SKILL.md, tests, and token count ║

- ║ 2. SCORE - Check compliance (Low/Medium/Medium-High/High) ║

- ║ 3. SCAFFOLD - Create tests from template if missing ║

- ║ 4. IMPROVE - Add WHEN: triggers (cross-model optimized) ║

- ║ 6. REFERENCES- Validate markdown links ║

- ║ 7. TOKENS - Check token budget, gather suggestions ║

- ║ 8. SUMMARY - Show before/after with suggestions ║

- ║ 9. PROMPT - Ask: Commit, Create Issue, or Skip? ║

- ║ 10. REPEAT - Until Medium-High score + tests pass ║

- ║ ║

- ║ TARGET SCORE: Medium-High ║

- ║ ✓ Description > 150 chars, ≤ 60 words ║

- ║ ✓ Has "WHEN:" trigger phrases (preferred) ║

- ║ ✓ No "DO NOT USE FOR:" (unless disambiguation-critical) ║

- ║ ✓ SKILL.md < 500 tokens (soft limit) ║

- ║ ║

- ║ MORE INFO: ║

- ║ See .github/skills/sensei/README.md for full documentation ║

- ║ ║

- ## When to Use

-

- - Improving a skill's frontmatter compliance score

- - Adding trigger phrases and anti-triggers to skill descriptions

- - Batch-improving multiple skills at once

- - Auditing and fixing Low-adherence skills

-

- ## Invocation Modes

-

- ### Single Skill

- ```

- Run sensei on azure-deploy

- ```

-

- ### Multiple Skills

- ```

- Run sensei on azure-security, azure-observability

- ```

-

- ### By Adherence Level

- ```

- Run sensei on all Low-adherence skills

- ```

-

- ### All Skills

- ```

- Run sensei on all skills

- ```

-

- ### GEPA Mode (Deep Optimization)

- ```

- Run sensei on my-skill --gepa

- Run sensei on my-skill --gepa --skip-integration

- Run sensei on all skills --gepa

- ```

-

- When `--gepa` is used, Step 5 (IMPROVE) is replaced with GEPA evolutionary optimization.

- Instead of template-based improvements, GEPA parses trigger prompt arrays from the existing

- test harness and combines them with content quality heuristics to build a fitness function.

- An LLM proposes and evaluates many candidate improvements automatically. Note: GEPA does not

- execute Jest tests directly — it uses the test data (prompts) as evaluation inputs.

-

- **GEPA score-only mode** (no LLM calls, just evaluate current quality):

- ```

- Run sensei score my-skill

- Run sensei score all skills

- ```

-

- ## The Ralph Loop

-

- For each skill, execute this loop until score >= Medium-High AND tests pass:

-

- 1. **READ** - Load `plugin/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md`, tests, and token count

- 2. **SCORE** - Run spec-based compliance check (see [SCORING.md](references/SCORING.md)):

- - Validate `name` per [agentskills.io spec](https://agentskills.io/specification) (no `--`, no start/end `-`, lowercase alphanumeric)

- - Check description length and word count (≤60 words)

- - Check triggers (WHEN: preferred, USE FOR: accepted)

- - Warn on "DO NOT USE FOR:" (risky in multi-skill environments — **exception**: REQUIRED for skills that share trigger overlap with broader skills like `azure-prepare`)

- - Preserve optional spec fields (`license`, `metadata`, `allowed-tools`) if present

- 3. **CHECK** - If score >= Medium-High AND tests pass → go to TOKENS step

- 4. **SCAFFOLD** - If `tests/{skill-name}/` doesn't exist, create from `tests/_template/`

- 5. **IMPROVE FRONTMATTER** - Add WHEN: triggers (stay under 60 words and 1024 chars)

- 5b. **IMPROVE WITH GEPA** (when `--gepa` flag is set) — Replaces step 5 (IMPROVE FRONTMATTER) with automated optimization; step 6 (IMPROVE TESTS) still runs normally:

- - Auto-discovers `tests/{skill-name}/triggers.test.ts` and extracts prompt arrays

- - Builds a GEPA evaluator scoring content quality + trigger accuracy based on those trigger prompt arrays (not Jest test pass/fail results)

- - Runs `python .github/skills/sensei/scripts/gepa/auto_evaluator.py optimize --skill {skill-name} --skills-dir plugin/skills --tests-dir tests`

- - Shows diff of optimized SKILL.md for user approval

- - GEPA uses existing test trigger definitions as configuration — it does not execute, replace, or modify Jest tests

- 6. **IMPROVE TESTS** - Update `shouldTriggerPrompts` and `shouldNotTriggerPrompts` to match the finalized frontmatter (including any GEPA changes)

- 7. **VERIFY** - Run `cd tests && npm test -- --testPathPatterns={skill-name}`

- 8. **VALIDATE REFERENCES** - Run `cd scripts && npm run references {skill-name}` to check markdown links

- 9. **TOKENS** - Check token budget and line count (< 500 lines per spec), gather optimization suggestions

- 10. **SUMMARY** - Display before/after comparison with unimplemented suggestions

- 11. **PROMPT** - Ask user: Commit, Create Issue, or Skip?

- 12. **REPEAT** - Go to step 2 (max 5 iterations per skill)

-

- ## Scoring Criteria (Quick Reference)

-

- Sensei validates skills against the [agentskills.io specification](https://agentskills.io/specification). See [SCORING.md](references/SCORING.md) for full details.

-

- | Score | Requirements |

- |-------|--------------|

- | **Invalid** | Name fails spec validation (consecutive hyphens, start/end hyphen, uppercase, etc.) |

- | **Low** | Basic description, no explicit triggers |

- | **Medium** | Has trigger keywords/phrases, description > 150 chars, >60 words |

- | **Medium-High** | Has "WHEN:" (preferred) or "USE FOR:" triggers, ≤60 words |

- | **High** | Medium-High + compatibility field |

-

- **Target: Medium-High** (distinctive triggers, concise description)

-

- > ⚠️ "DO NOT USE FOR:" is **risky in multi-skill environments** (15+ overlapping skills) — causes keyword contamination on fast-pattern-matching models. Safe for small, isolated skill sets. Use positive routing with `WHEN:` for cross-model safety.

- >

- > **Exception — disambiguation-critical skills:** When a skill's `USE FOR` triggers directly overlap with a broader skill (e.g., `azure-prepare` owns "deploy to Azure"), `DO NOT USE FOR:` is **REQUIRED** to prevent the broader skill from capturing prompts that belong to the specialized skill. Removing it causes routing regressions. Integration tests validate this routing -- run them before removing any `DO NOT USE FOR:` clause.

-

- **Strongly recommended** (reported as suggestions if missing):

- - `license` — identifies the license applied to the skill

- - `metadata.version` — tracks the skill version for consumers

-

- ## Frontmatter Template

-

- Per the [agentskills.io spec](https://agentskills.io/specification), required and optional fields:

-

- ```yaml

- ---

- name: skill-name

- description: "[ACTION VERB] [UNIQUE_DOMAIN]. [One clarifying sentence]. WHEN: \"trigger 1\", \"trigger 2\", \"trigger 3\"."

- license: MIT

- metadata:

- version: "1.0"

- # Other optional spec fields — preserve if already present:

- # metadata.author: example-org

- # allowed-tools: Bash(git:*) Read

- ---

- ```

-

- > **IMPORTANT:** Use inline double-quoted strings for descriptions. Do NOT use `>-` folded scalars (incompatible with skills.sh). Do NOT use `|` literal blocks (preserves newlines). Keep total description under 1024 characters and ≤60 words.

-

- > ⚠️ **"DO NOT USE FOR:" carries context-dependent risk.** In multi-skill environments (10+ skills with overlapping domains), anti-trigger clauses introduce the very keywords that cause wrong-skill activation on Claude Sonnet and fast-pattern-matching models ([evidence](https://gist.github.com/kvenkatrajan/52e6e77f5560ca30640490b4cc65d109)). For small, isolated skill sets (1-5 skills), the risk is low. When in doubt, use positive routing with `WHEN:` and distinctive quoted phrases.

- >

- > **Exception:** `DO NOT USE FOR:` is **REQUIRED** when a specialized skill's triggers overlap with a broader skill (e.g., `azure-prepare` on "deploy to Azure"). Without the negative discriminator, the broader skill captures prompts that should route to the specialized one. Always run integration tests before removing a `DO NOT USE FOR:` clause.

-

- ## Test Scaffolding

-

- When tests don't exist, scaffold from `tests/_template/`:

-

- ```bash

- cp -r tests/_template tests/{skill-name}

- ```

- Then update:

- 1. `SKILL_NAME` constant in all test files

- 2. `shouldTriggerPrompts` - 5+ prompts matching new frontmatter triggers

- 3. `shouldNotTriggerPrompts` - 5+ prompts matching anti-triggers

- **Commit Messages:**

- ```

- sensei: improve {skill-name} frontmatter

- ```

- - `.github/skills/` contains meta-skills like sensei for developer tooling

- - Description must stay under 1024 characters

- - SKILL.md should stay under 500 tokens (soft limit)

- - Tests must pass before prompting for action

- - User chooses: Commit, Create Issue, or Skip after each skill

- ## Flags

-

- | Flag | Description |

- |------|-------------|

- | `--skip-integration` | Skip integration tests for faster iteration. Only runs unit and trigger tests. |

- | `--gepa` | Use GEPA evolutionary optimization instead of template-based improvement. Auto-discovers tests and builds evaluator at runtime. |

-

- > ⚠️ Skipping integration tests speeds up the loop but may miss runtime issues. Consider running full tests before final commit.

-

- ## Reference Documentation

-

- - [SCORING.md](references/SCORING.md) - Detailed scoring criteria

- - [LOOP.md](references/LOOP.md) - Ralph loop workflow details

- - [EXAMPLES.md](references/EXAMPLES.md) - Before/after examples

- - [TOKEN-INTEGRATION.md](references/TOKEN-INTEGRATION.md) - Token budget integration

-

- - [markdown-token-optimizer](/.github/skills/markdown-token-optimizer) - Token analysis and optimization

- - [skill-authoring](/.github/skills/skill-authoring) - Skill writing guidelines