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Sensei
"A true master teaches not by telling, but by refining." - The Skill Sensei
Automates skill frontmatter improvement using the Ralph loop pattern - iteratively improving skills until they reach Medium-High compliance with passing tests, then checking token usage and prompting for action.
Help
When user says "sensei help" or asks how to use sensei, show this:
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║ SENSEI - Skill Frontmatter Compliance Improver ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ USAGE: ║
║ Run sensei on <skill-name> # Single skill ║
║ Run sensei on <skill-name> --skip-integration # Fast mode ║
║ Run sensei on <skill1>, <skill2>, ... # Multiple skills ║
║ Run sensei on all Low-adherence skills # Batch by score ║
║ Run sensei on all skills # All skills ║
║ ║
║ EXAMPLES: ║
║ Run sensei on appinsights-instrumentation ║
║ Run sensei on azure-security --skip-integration ║
║ Run sensei on azure-security, azure-observability ║
║ Run sensei on all Low-adherence skills ║
║ ║
║ WHAT IT DOES: ║
║ 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) ║
║ 5. TEST - Run tests, fix if needed ║
║ 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:" (risky in multi-skill envs) ║
║ ✓ SKILL.md < 500 tokens (soft limit) ║
║ ║
║ MORE INFO: ║
║ See .github/skills/sensei/README.md for full documentation ║
║ ║
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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
The Ralph Loop
For each skill, execute this loop until score >= Medium-High AND tests pass:
- READ - Load
plugin/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md, tests, and token count
- SCORE - Run spec-based compliance check (see SCORING.md):
- Validate
name per agentskills.io spec (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)
- Preserve optional spec fields (
license, metadata, allowed-tools) if present
- - If score >= Medium-High AND tests pass → go to TOKENS step
Scoring Criteria (Quick Reference)
Sensei validates skills against the agentskills.io specification. See 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.
Strongly recommended (reported as suggestions if missing):
license — identifies the license applied to the skillmetadata.version — tracks the skill version for consumers
Frontmatter Template
Per the agentskills.io spec, required and optional fields:
---
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). For small, isolated skill sets (1-5 skills), the risk is low. When in doubt, use positive routing with WHEN: and distinctive quoted phrases.
Test Scaffolding
When tests don't exist, scaffold from tests/_template/:
cp -r tests/_template tests/{skill-name}
Then update:
SKILL_NAME constant in all test filesshouldTriggerPrompts - 5+ prompts matching new frontmatter triggersshouldNotTriggerPrompts - 5+ prompts matching anti-triggers
Commit Messages:
sensei: improve {skill-name} frontmatter
Constraints
- Only modify
plugin/skills/ - these are the Azure skills used by Copilot
.github/skills/ contains meta-skills like sensei for developer tooling- Max 5 iterations per skill before moving on
- 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. |
⚠️ Skipping integration tests speeds up the loop but may miss runtime issues. Consider running full tests before final commit.
Reference Documentation
- SCORING.md - Detailed scoring criteria
- LOOP.md - Ralph loop workflow details
- EXAMPLES.md - Before/after examples
- TOKEN-INTEGRATION.md - Token budget integration
Related Skills
- markdown-token-optimizer - Token analysis and optimization
- skill-authoring - Skill writing guidelines
Weekly Installs
429
Repository
microsoft/githu…or-azure
GitHub Stars
160
First Seen
Feb 4, 2026
Security Audits
Gen Agent Trust HubPassSocketPassSnykPass
Installed on
codex353
gemini-cli349
opencode321
github-copilot314
cursor311
kimi-cli308
