AI Usage Report

ai-usage-report

You help the user turn a raw AI-usage log into a readable, useful report — one that distinguishes "people doing real work with AI" from "people pressing the button to be seen pressing the button."

This skill consumes telemetry that someone else collected (an MCP server, an IDE telemetry pipeline, a manual CSV export). It does not collect the data itself. Your job is to:

1. Take the input file from the user.
2. Run the report script to compute aggregates and effectiveness signals.
3. Wrap the output with a short executive narrative tailored to the requesting audience.

How to respond

1. Confirm three inputs before generating anything:

   • Input file. A CSV or JSONL of usage events. Schema lives in templates/usage-event-schema.md. If the user's file columns don't match the schema, map the columns with them before running — don't guess at field names.

   • Reporting period. week, month, or explicit --from <date> --to <date>. If the user gives a fuzzy period ("recently"), pick the last 7 calendar days and call out your choice.

   • View. Exactly one of:

     • per-user — named breakdown, manager view, includes effectiveness scores
     • team-rollup — aggregate-only, no individual names, safe for staff/exec audiences
     • effectiveness — focused on AI-theater flags and outputs-not-consumed signals

     If the user hasn't picked a view, ask. Defaults aren't safe here — the wrong view in the wrong audience's hands creates a workplace problem.

2. Call out what the data does NOT support before running. If the events have no output_consumed field, you cannot compute effectiveness — say so. If session_id is missing, you cannot compute breadth-per-session. The report should not invent numbers it doesn't have evidence for. Read the input's header (CSV) or first object (JSONL) and list which optional fields are present.

3. Run the build script.

   # Claude Code
   python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/build_report.py" /path/to/events.csv \
     --view per-user --period week --out ./out/ai-usage-week.md
   
   # Other IDEs (from the skill folder)
   cd path/to/ai-usage-report && python3 scripts/build_report.py /path/to/events.csv \
     --view per-user --period week --out ./out/ai-usage-week.md
   

   The script writes a markdown file using the matching template in templates/. Read it before handing back — sanity-check that the numbers reconcile with the input row counts.

4. Add a 3-sentence handoff above the report when delivering:

   • One sentence on volume — total invocations, distinct users, period covered.
   • One sentence on what the data does and doesn't show — flag missing signals explicitly.
   • One sentence on the most actionable pattern — usually either "X users haven't engaged" or "Y% of outputs were generated but never consumed."

   Then the report itself.

5. Do not make a recommendation about specific named individuals in the handoff. The report shows what it shows; turning patterns into HR-style judgments is the manager's call, not the skill's.

Useful references in this skill

• templates/usage-event-schema.md — the input event schema (required vs optional fields, graceful-degradation rules)
• templates/report-per-user.md — per-user named-report layout
• templates/report-team-rollup.md — aggregate team-level layout
• examples/weekly-engineering-team.md — worked example: stub events → both report views
• scripts/build_report.py — the generator (stdlib only)

Effectiveness signals (what "performative vs effective" actually means here)

The skill has no magic classifier. It exposes a set of signals the user interprets. Each signal is a column or counter in the report.

None of these signals is a verdict. A high single-shot rate could mean theater, or it could mean the user solved their problem in one prompt. Low breadth could mean focused expertise. The report's job is to surface patterns; the manager's job is to interpret them.

Quality bar

• Numbers are computed from the input, not estimated. If the script cannot compute a metric (missing field), the column is omitted with a note. Never fill with ~ or est. placeholders.
• Per-user reports include only users present in the input. Don't infer missing users from elsewhere.
• The "AI theater" framing lives in section headers, not in per-user judgments. Say "Single-shot rate: 87%" — never "Alice is doing AI theater."
• Privacy posture matches the view. per-user names individuals; team-rollup never names anyone, even in passing.
• Recommendations target patterns, not people. "Consider a deeper-engagement workshop for the team" — never "Coach Alice to engage more deeply."
• Period is explicit on the report header. Every report shows the dates it covers.
• Sample size is honored. If n_users < 5 in a team-rollup, the report is no longer anonymous — refuse to generate the team-rollup view and tell the user why.

When to use this skill

• ✅ A manager has a CSV/JSONL of AI usage events and wants a weekly/monthly read.
• ✅ A team lead wants to spot adoption gaps without naming individuals.
• ✅ An exec needs an AI-adoption rollup that doesn't read like a control panel.
• ✅ Building a baseline before/after rolling out a new AI tool or training.

When NOT to use this skill

• ❌ You don't have usage telemetry yet — the skill consumes data, doesn't collect it. The collection-side spec (event schema, MCP server) lives in the skilldrop repo at docs/designs/ai-usage-telemetry-design.md.
• ❌ You want to judge specific named people. The skill surfaces patterns; performance judgments based on AI usage are a different (and harder) decision.
• ❌ The input lacks every effectiveness field. You can still produce a volume report, but call out the limitation explicitly — don't ship a report that looks like effectiveness analysis when it isn't.
• ❌ Your team is < 5 people and the view is team-rollup. Aggregate views aren't anonymous at that size.

Anti-patterns to avoid

• ❌ Inferring effectiveness from prompt length, prompt count, or session count alone. These measure activity, not value.
• ❌ Naming individuals in a team-rollup report — once a name appears in aggregate context, the report has crossed into per-user territory.
• ❌ Reporting on periods with too little data ("Mon–Tue only") and presenting it as a trend.
• ❌ Faking effectiveness columns when the input lacks them. Omit, don't estimate.
• ❌ Generating an "AI theater leaderboard" of named users. That's a workplace incident, not a report.
• ❌ Embedding the input prompts verbatim in the report. Prompts often contain sensitive content (code, customer data); the report works from metadata only.
• ❌ Comparing two periods that aren't normalized (e.g. a 7-day week against a 10-business-day window). If the script can't normalize, say so.