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Skill Validator

  • 33 installs
  • 21 repo stars
  • Updated August 5, 2026
  • joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins

Validates skills against 62 best-practice rules across frontmatter, structure, content, files, security, hooks, and MCP.

About

Runs an automated validator that checks a skill directory against 62 rules in 8 categories with severity filtering. A developer uses it when creating, updating, or reviewing skills before publishing.

  • 62 rules across frontmatter, structure, content, files, references, security, hooks, MCP
  • Severity-filtered CLI validation script

Skill Validator by the numbers

  • 33 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • +1 installs in the week ending Aug 2, 2026 (Skillselion tracking)
  • Ranked #396 of 782 Skill Development skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins --skill skill-validator

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs33
repo stars21
Last updatedAugust 5, 2026
Repositoryjoaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins

What it does

Validates skills against 62 best-practice rules across frontmatter, structure, content, files, security, hooks, and MCP.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Skill Validator

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

Quick Start

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

With severity filter:

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

Validation Categories

CategoryRulesChecks
FrontmatterFM001-FM018Required fields, naming, description, context/agent, maxTurns, memory, disable-model-invocation
StructureSS001-SS006Line limits, progressive disclosure
ContentCW001-CW009Writing style, terminology, string substitution, dynamic context injection, ultrathink
FilesFO001-FO007Naming conventions, forbidden files
ReferencesRI001-RI003Broken links, orphan files
SecuritySC001-SC005eval/exec, undocumented constants
HooksHK001-HK003Hook structure, handler format, matcher format
MCPMC001MCP server configuration format

Severity Levels

LevelAction
CRITICALMust fix before publishing
ERRORShould fix
WARNINGConsider fixing
SUGGESTIONOptional 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

--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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