skill-validate

Skill Validator

Core responsibility: Verify that a SKILL.md is structurally correct, follows all Lattice tier conventions, and composes correctly with the rest of the framework.

Input: One or more of:

• A file path: skills/atoms/clean-code/SKILL.md
• A skill name: clean-code (resolves to the correct path automatically)
• A tier: atoms (validates all skills in that tier)
• No argument: validates all skills across all three tiers (count derived from skills/ at runtime — never hardcoded)

Output: A findings report per skill:

## Skill Validator — {skill-name}
Tier: {atom | molecule | refiner}

### Structural          PASS / FAIL — specific findings
### Tier conventions    PASS / FAIL — specific findings
### Cross-references    PASS / FAIL — specific findings
### Three-angle review  PASS / WARN / FAIL per lens

Result: PASS | FAIL (N errors, M warnings)

How to verify this skill did its job:

• Every finding references a specific file and section (no vague "missing content" — says exactly what is missing and where)
• FAIL findings have an actionable fix, not just a description of the problem
• The report distinguishes errors (must fix) from warnings (judgment calls)
• After "fix mode" is applied, re-running the validator returns PASS

Step 1: Load conventions

Read PROJECT.md — Skill Conventions section. This is the source of truth. STOP: do not rely on memory.

Read references/convention-rules.md for the detailed per-tier checklist.

Step 2: Run structural checks (all tiers)

For every SKILL.md being validated:

[ ] Frontmatter: name field present, lowercase-hyphenated
[ ] Frontmatter: description field present and non-empty
[ ] Frontmatter: description contains trigger phrases (what the user would type)
[ ] Folder name matches name field exactly
[ ] No inline atom content in molecules (no duplicating what framework:{atom} already provides)

Step 3: Run tier-specific checks

Read references/convention-rules.md for the full per-tier checklist. Apply the relevant section based on tier (determined from file path: atoms/, molecules/, refiners/).