I found your npm-publishing skill while reviewing package tooling approaches—the way you've structured the package.json validation logic is particularly clean. At 89 points, you're hitting solid ground, but I'm curious what you're doing differently compared to standard publishing workflows that warranted this depth of documentation.
Links:
The TL;DR
You're at 89/100, B grade—solidly production-ready. This is based on Anthropic's best practices for agentic skills. Your strongest area is Progressive Disclosure Architecture (27/30)—the SKILL.md is genuinely concise with proper delegation to reference files. Weakest spots are Spec Compliance (12/15) and Utility (18/20), where you're missing trigger phrases and complete workflow templates.
What's Working Well
- Dense, practical content: Your code examples earn their tokens without fluff. The scopes.md and tags.md references are exactly one level deep—textbook PDA structure.
- Clear command patterns: The versioning and publishing commands flow logically with validation steps (npm pack, dry-run). The prepublishOnly hook examples show real feedback loops.
- Strong npm specifics: You're covering real pain points—provenance badges, exports field configuration, scoped packages with --access public, dist tags. That's the kind of depth that matters.
- Consistent terminology: "npm/package.json/versioning" runs through everything without wavering.
The Big One: Missing Complete Workflow
Your skill jumps between topics—versioning here, publishing there, validation scattered—but doesn't show a human-readable end-to-end flow. Someone publishing their first package needs: npm login → version bump → validation → publish → verification.
Why it matters: Right now, users have to mentally stitch together your sections. A "Complete Workflow" subsection would add +1 point and make this genuinely actionable for agents executing against real package.json files.
Fix: Add a numbered workflow in SKILL.md showing: (1) npm login, (2) npm version [major|minor|patch], (3) npm publish --dry-run, (4) npm publish --provenance, (5) npm view <package>. Takes 8 lines, huge payoff.
Other Things Worth Fixing
-
Trigger phrase shortage (Spec Compliance -1): Your description only has 1-2 triggers. Add "configure package.json exports", "semantic versioning", "npm dist tags" to catch more agent queries.
-
README voice inconsistency (Writing Style -1): Switches to second-person ("preparing", "configuring") instead of staying imperative. Change "Preparing a new release" → "Prepare new release".
-
No error scenarios: Missing common gotchas—401 auth failures, version conflicts, failed prepublishOnly hooks, 404 on scoped packages. A "Troubleshooting" section with 3-4 scenarios nets +1.
Quick Wins
- Add 3-5 trigger phrases to the description (easy +1)
- Write the end-to-end workflow section (easy +1)
- Convert README voice to imperative (easy +1)
- Drop a troubleshooting section covering auth and version errors (easy +1)
All four together probably gets you to 93/100, solid A.
Checkout your skill here: [SkillzWave.ai](https://skillzwave.ai) | [SpillWave](https://spillwave.com) We have an agentic skill installer that install skills in 14+ coding agent platforms. Check out this guide on how to improve your agentic skills.
I found your npm-publishing skill while reviewing package tooling approaches—the way you've structured the package.json validation logic is particularly clean. At 89 points, you're hitting solid ground, but I'm curious what you're doing differently compared to standard publishing workflows that warranted this depth of documentation.
Links:
The TL;DR
You're at 89/100, B grade—solidly production-ready. This is based on Anthropic's best practices for agentic skills. Your strongest area is Progressive Disclosure Architecture (27/30)—the SKILL.md is genuinely concise with proper delegation to reference files. Weakest spots are Spec Compliance (12/15) and Utility (18/20), where you're missing trigger phrases and complete workflow templates.
What's Working Well
The Big One: Missing Complete Workflow
Your skill jumps between topics—versioning here, publishing there, validation scattered—but doesn't show a human-readable end-to-end flow. Someone publishing their first package needs: npm login → version bump → validation → publish → verification.
Why it matters: Right now, users have to mentally stitch together your sections. A "Complete Workflow" subsection would add +1 point and make this genuinely actionable for agents executing against real package.json files.
Fix: Add a numbered workflow in SKILL.md showing: (1)
npm login, (2)npm version [major|minor|patch], (3)npm publish --dry-run, (4)npm publish --provenance, (5)npm view <package>. Takes 8 lines, huge payoff.Other Things Worth Fixing
Trigger phrase shortage (Spec Compliance -1): Your description only has 1-2 triggers. Add "configure package.json exports", "semantic versioning", "npm dist tags" to catch more agent queries.
README voice inconsistency (Writing Style -1): Switches to second-person ("preparing", "configuring") instead of staying imperative. Change "Preparing a new release" → "Prepare new release".
No error scenarios: Missing common gotchas—401 auth failures, version conflicts, failed prepublishOnly hooks, 404 on scoped packages. A "Troubleshooting" section with 3-4 scenarios nets +1.
Quick Wins
All four together probably gets you to 93/100, solid A.
Checkout your skill here: [SkillzWave.ai](https://skillzwave.ai) | [SpillWave](https://spillwave.com) We have an agentic skill installer that install skills in 14+ coding agent platforms. Check out this guide on how to improve your agentic skills.