Add skill scope-checking guidance to prevent misplaced content#1706
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nathanjmcdougall merged 2 commits intomainfrom Apr 1, 2026
Merged
Add skill scope-checking guidance to prevent misplaced content#1706nathanjmcdougall merged 2 commits intomainfrom
nathanjmcdougall merged 2 commits intomainfrom
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Add "Before modifying: check scope" section to usethis-skills-modify with questions to judge whether new content belongs in an existing skill, and a concrete example from issue #1688. Add "When to create vs. modify" section to usethis-skills-create with guidance on preferring focused new skills over overloading existing ones. Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/usethis-python/usethis-python/sessions/0e493ca5-1564-4dae-b4a2-365585b246bf Co-authored-by: nathanjmcdougall <18602289+nathanjmcdougall@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot
AI
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[WIP] Provide guidance on updating agent skills
Add skill scope-checking guidance to prevent misplaced content
Apr 1, 2026
nathanjmcdougall
approved these changes
Apr 1, 2026
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Agents were shoe-horning new content into "somewhat" related skills instead of creating appropriately scoped ones (e.g., adding test suite structure guidance into
usethis-python-test-full-coverage, which is specifically about achieving coverage).Changes
usethis-skills-modify(v1.1 → v1.2): Added a "Before modifying: check scope" section with three concrete questions to evaluate whether content belongs in a skill, and made scope-checking step 1 in the procedure. Includes a real example of the anti-pattern.usethis-skills-create(v1.5 → v1.6): Added a "When to create a new skill vs. modify an existing one" section with decision criteria. Default: when in doubt, create a new skill.Both skills cross-reference each other so agents hit the guidance regardless of which direction they enter the workflow.