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:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  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-networking                ║
║    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 USE FOR triggers + DO NOT USE FOR            ║
║    5. TEST    - Run tests, fix if needed                         ║
║    6. TOKENS  - Check token budget, gather suggestions           ║
║    7. SUMMARY - Show before/after with suggestions               ║
║    8. PROMPT  - Ask: Commit, Create Issue, or Skip?              ║
║    9. REPEAT  - Until Medium-High score + tests pass             ║
║                                                                  ║
║  TARGET SCORE: Medium-High                                       ║
║    ✓ Description > 150 chars                                     ║
║    ✓ Has "USE FOR:" trigger phrases                              ║
║    ✓ Has "DO NOT USE FOR:" anti-triggers                         ║
║    ✓ SKILL.md < 500 tokens (soft limit)                          ║
║                                                                  ║
║  MORE INFO:                                                      ║
║    See .github/skills/sensei/README.md for full documentation    ║
║                                                                  ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

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-networking, 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:

1. READ – Load plugin/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md, tests, and token count
2. SCORE – Run rule-based compliance check (see SCORING.md)
3. CHECK – If score >= Medium-High AND tests pass → go to TOKENS step
4. SCAFFOLD – If tests/{skill-name}/ doesn’t exist, create from tests/_template/
5. IMPROVE FRONTMATTER – Add triggers, anti-triggers, compatibility (stay under 1024 chars)
6. IMPROVE TESTS – Update shouldTriggerPrompts and shouldNotTriggerPrompts to match
7. VERIFY – Run cd tests && npm test -- --testPathPattern={skill-name}
8. TOKENS – Check token budget, gather optimization suggestions
9. SUMMARY – Display before/after comparison with unimplemented suggestions
10. PROMPT – Ask user: Commit, Create Issue, or Skip?
11. REPEAT – Go to step 2 (max 5 iterations per skill)

Scoring Criteria (Quick Reference)

Target: Medium-High (triggers + anti-triggers present)

Frontmatter Template

---
name: skill-name
description: |
  [1-2 sentence description of what the skill does]
  USE FOR: [trigger phrase 1], [trigger phrase 2], [trigger phrase 3]
  DO NOT USE FOR: [scenario] (use other-skill), [scenario] (use another-skill)
---

IMPORTANT: Always use multi-line YAML format (|) for descriptions over 200 characters. Single-line descriptions become difficult to read, review, and maintain. See azure-ai, azure-functions for examples.

Keep total description under 1024 characters.

Test Scaffolding

When tests don’t exist, scaffold from tests/_template/:

cp -r tests/_template tests/{skill-name}

Then update:

1. SKILL_NAME constant in all test files
2. shouldTriggerPrompts – 5+ prompts matching new frontmatter triggers
3. shouldNotTriggerPrompts – 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

⚠️ 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