Assess

Comprehensive assessment skill for answering "is this good?" with structured evaluation, scoring, and actionable recommendations.

Quick Start

bash

/assess backend/app/services/auth.py
/assess our caching strategy
/assess the current database schema
/assess frontend/src/components/Dashboard

STEP 0: Verify User Intent with AskUserQuestion

BEFORE creating tasks, clarify assessment dimensions:

python

AskUserQuestion(
  questions=[{
    "question": "What dimensions to assess?",
    "header": "Dimensions",
    "options": [
      {"label": "Full assessment (Recommended)", "description": "All dimensions: quality, maintainability, security, performance"},
      {"label": "Code quality only", "description": "Readability, complexity, best practices"},
      {"label": "Security focus", "description": "Vulnerabilities, attack surface, compliance"},
      {"label": "Quick score", "description": "Just give me a 0-10 score with brief notes"}
    ],
    "multiSelect": false
  }]
)

Based on answer, adjust workflow:

•Full assessment: All 7 phases, parallel agents
•Code quality only: Skip security and performance phases
•Security focus: Prioritize security-auditor agent
•Quick score: Single pass, brief output

Task Management (CC 2.1.16)

python

# Create main assessment task
TaskCreate(
  subject="Assess: {target}",
  description="Comprehensive evaluation with quality scores and recommendations",
  activeForm="Assessing {target}"
)

# Create subtasks for 7-phase process
for phase in ["Understand target", "Rate quality", "List pros/cons",
              "Compare alternatives", "Generate suggestions",
              "Estimate effort", "Compile report"]:
    TaskCreate(subject=phase, activeForm=f"{phase}ing")

What This Skill Answers

Question	How It's Answered
"Is this good?"	Quality score 0-10 with reasoning
"What are the trade-offs?"	Structured pros/cons list
"Should we change this?"	Improvement suggestions with effort
"What are the alternatives?"	Comparison with scores
"Where should we focus?"	Prioritized recommendations

Workflow Overview

Phase	Activities	Output
1. Target Understanding	Read code/design, identify scope	Context summary
2. Quality Rating	6-dimension scoring (0-10)	Scores with reasoning
3. Pros/Cons Analysis	Strengths and weaknesses	Balanced evaluation
4. Alternative Comparison	Score alternatives	Comparison matrix
5. Improvement Suggestions	Actionable recommendations	Prioritized list
6. Effort Estimation	Time and complexity estimates	Effort breakdown
7. Assessment Report	Compile findings	Final report

Phase 1: Target Understanding

Identify what's being assessed (code, design, approach, decision, pattern) and gather context:

python

# PARALLEL - Gather context
Read(file_path="$ARGUMENTS")  # If file path
Grep(pattern="$ARGUMENTS", output_mode="files_with_matches")
mcp__memory__search_nodes(query="$ARGUMENTS")  # Past decisions

Phase 2: Quality Rating (6 Dimensions)

Rate each dimension 0-10 with weighted composite score. See Scoring Rubric for details.

Dimension	Weight	What It Measures
Correctness	0.20	Does it work correctly?
Maintainability	0.20	Easy to understand/modify?
Performance	0.15	Efficient, no bottlenecks?
Security	0.15	Follows best practices?
Scalability	0.15	Handles growth?
Testability	0.15	Easy to test?

Composite Score: Weighted average of all dimensions.

Launch 6 parallel agents (one per dimension) with run_in_background=True.

Phase 3: Pros/Cons Analysis

markdown

## Pros (Strengths)
| # | Strength | Impact | Evidence |
|---|----------|--------|----------|
| 1 | [strength] | High/Med/Low | [example] |

## Cons (Weaknesses)
| # | Weakness | Severity | Evidence |
|---|----------|----------|----------|
| 1 | [weakness] | High/Med/Low | [example] |

**Net Assessment:** [Strengths outweigh / Balanced / Weaknesses dominate]
**Recommended action:** [Keep as-is / Improve / Reconsider / Rewrite]

Phase 4: Alternative Comparison

See Alternative Analysis for full comparison template.

Criteria	Current	Alternative A	Alternative B
Composite	[N.N]	[N.N]	[N.N]
Migration Effort	N/A	[1-5]	[1-5]

Phase 5: Improvement Suggestions

See Improvement Prioritization for effort/impact guidelines.

Suggestion	Effort (1-5)	Impact (1-5)	Priority (I/E)
[action]	[N]	[N]	[ratio]

Quick Wins = Effort <= 2 AND Impact >= 4. Always highlight these first.

Phase 6: Effort Estimation

Timeframe	Tasks	Total
Quick wins (< 1hr)	[list]	X min
Short-term (< 1 day)	[list]	X hrs
Medium-term (1-3 days)	[list]	X days

Phase 7: Assessment Report

See Scoring Rubric for full report template.

markdown

# Assessment Report: $ARGUMENTS

**Overall Score: [N.N]/10** (Grade: [A+/A/B/C/D/F])

**Verdict:** [EXCELLENT | GOOD | ADEQUATE | NEEDS WORK | CRITICAL]

## Answer: Is This Good?
**[YES / MOSTLY / SOMEWHAT / NO]**
[Reasoning]

Grade Interpretation

Score	Grade	Verdict
9.0-10.0	A+	EXCELLENT
8.0-8.9	A	GOOD
7.0-7.9	B	GOOD
6.0-6.9	C	ADEQUATE
5.0-5.9	D	NEEDS WORK
0.0-4.9	F	CRITICAL

Key Decisions

Decision	Choice	Rationale
6 dimensions	Comprehensive coverage	All quality aspects without overwhelming
0-10 scale	Industry standard	Easy to understand and compare
Parallel assessment	6 agents	Fast, thorough evaluation
Effort/Impact scoring	1-5 scale	Simple prioritization math

Related Skills

•assess-complexity - Task complexity assessment
•verify - Post-implementation verification
•code-review-playbook - Code review patterns
•quality-gates - Quality gate patterns

Version: 1.0.0 (January 2026)