skill-audit

Skill Audit

I. Philosophy: Ecosystem Health Through Systematic Assessment

A skills ecosystem, like any knowledge base, degrades over time. New skills are created with high standards, but older skills may lack structure, examples, or ecosystem connections. Without regular audits, quality becomes inconsistent, making the ecosystem harder to use and harder to maintain.

This skill is about proactive maintenance at the ecosystem level. While skill-maintenance operates on individual skills, skill-audit operates on the entire collection. By systematically grading every skill against clear criteria, we can identify patterns -- not just individual gaps, but systemic weaknesses that affect the whole ecosystem.

The core principle: measure before you improve. Grading and pattern analysis come before any upgrade work. Without data, you're guessing at what to fix.

II. When to Use This Skill

• Quarterly maintenance schedule -- every 3 months as a routine health check
• After creating 5+ new skills -- to check that new additions are consistent with existing standards
• When a skill is reported as confusing or incomplete -- may indicate a broader pattern
• Before a major release -- to ensure all skills are production-ready
• After a major refactor -- to verify consistency after large-scale changes
• When onboarding a new contributor -- to assess and communicate current ecosystem state
• When establishing standards for a new skills directory -- to create the grading baseline

When NOT to use: For maintaining a single skill (use skill-maintenance). For creating new skills (use skill-creation). This skill is for ecosystem-wide assessment and prioritization.

III. The Audit Workflow

Step 1: Inventory

Goal: Build a complete picture of every skill in the directory without reading each one in full.

Actions:

1. List every skill directory
2. For each skill, record:
   • Name (directory name)
   • Line count (quick size indicator)
   • Has YAML frontmatter (Y/N)
   • Section headers present (extract with pattern matching)
3. Build an inventory table