Audit Calibration — Known False-Positive Patterns

Audit Calibration — Known False-Positive Patterns

Load before running the 7-dimension structural audit. Each entry describes a rule that is correct in principle but frequently misapplied to look-alike situations that should not trigger the rule.

D2 / allowed-tools absent

allowed-tools absent entirely means unrestricted by default — this is NOT a violation at any severity. The field is an optional restriction mechanism, not a required declaration. Only flag when a skill has an existing allowed-tools list that omits a tool the skill actively uses — a partial restriction creates the problem; absent restriction does not.

Flag this: Skill has allowed-tools: [Read, Write] but calls AskUserQuestion → major violation (restricted list is incomplete).

Do not flag this: Skill has no allowed-tools field but calls AskUserQuestion → no violation; the tool is available by default.

D5 / Orientation content vs routing guidance

Flag as a routing-guidance violation only when the body contains a "When to Use This Skill" section or explicit language telling the user when to trigger the skill. Content that explains domain concepts needed during execution — so the skill can make accurate decisions — is functional orientation, not routing guidance.

Rate functional orientation as verbosity (minor) only if it exceeds 4–5 lines without adding decision value that the skill body requires.

Flag this: Body has ## When to Use This Skill — use this when you want to create a new skill → major violation (routing guidance in always-loaded body, never read by the routing decision).

Do not flag this: Body has Agents vs Skills — know the difference before generating: Agents run in isolated context, Skills inject inline → functional orientation that helps the skill produce accurate output; not routing guidance.

D4 / Task/Skill invocation prose

Natural language inside a fenced block describing how to call Claude's own tools is the idiomatic skill instruction format — Use Task tool with subagent_type=X: "..." is how skills correctly instruct Claude. Do not flag this as a vague script reference.

Only flag D4 prose as a violation when it refers to user-facing scripts or deterministic CLI operations (validate.py, init.sh, etc.) without specifying which file, the trigger condition, and the exact invocation command.

Flag this: Body says "run the validation script if needed" with no path, trigger, or invocation → major violation (deterministic script reference is vague).

Do not flag this: Body has a code block: Use Task tool with subagent_type=claude-code-guide: "List current frontmatter options" → idiomatic instruction to Claude to use a built-in tool; not a script reference.

D2 / context: fork for interactive skills

Do not flag context: fork absent as major for skills that have interactive elements: AskUserQuestion calls, "Proceed?" confirmation prompts, or interview phases in Phase 1. These depend on conversation thread continuity — a forked skill cannot surface interactive prompts back to the user.

Only recommend context: fork when the skill is non-interactive AND produces substantial output that would pollute the main context (e.g., a batch analysis skill that generates a large report with no mid-workflow user decisions).

Flag this: Skill is a read-only research tool with no user interactions that returns a 200-line formatted report → major gap (context: fork would keep main thread clean).

Do not flag this: Skill has "Before writing: Proceed? [y/n]" prompts in Phase 3 → fork would break the confirmation flow; omitting context: fork is correct here.