skill-creator should warn when description exceeds 250-char display limit
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Apr 7, 2026 by phatmandrake Closed Apr 14, 2026
Summary
The official skill-creator plugin validates descriptions against a 1024-character spec limit (quick_validate.py, improve_description.py), but the /skills system reminder listing truncates each description at 250 characters. Anything past 250 chars is invisible to Claude's auto-invocation logic.
This means the plugin's own improve_description.py optimization loop actively produces descriptions that are 2-4x longer than what Claude can see, and quick_validate.py passes skills that will have their trigger keywords silently truncated.
Observed Impact
Auditing 60+ skills in a production environment found:
- 8 skills using YAML
|block scalar descriptions ranged from 377-752 chars - The plugin's guidance ("100-200 words") produces ~500-1000 chars — all truncated
- Trigger keywords for niche terms (e.g.,
Registry.pol,GptTmpl.inffor a GPO skill) were buried past the cutoff and invisible to auto-invocation
Suggested Changes
quick_validate.py— Add a warning whenlen(description) > 250explaining the display truncation (keep 1024 as the hard fail)improve_description.py— Change the target from "100-200 words" to ≤250 characters; change the rewrite trigger from 1024 to 250SKILL.mdguidance — Add a note to the description field documentation explaining the 250-char display limit and best practices (front-load trigger keywords, drop role preambles, use quoted strings not|block scalars)
Related
- #40121 — Docs gap for the 250-char per-description cap (partially resolved)
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
This issue has 3 comments on GitHub. Read the full discussion on GitHub ↗