skills-eval

skills-eval is a pre-release CLI for Claude Plugin repositories containing one or more Skills. It validates the publishable structure and runs configured security scanners before release.

Install

pipx install skills-eval

Use

# Check every Skill declared by the plugin.
skills-eval check .

# Check one Skill by name or directory.
skills-eval check . --skill wenqu-write

# Show the selected scope and format checks without running security scanners
# or writing a report.
skills-eval check . --dry-run

# Before a full platform release, run every enabled native validator.
# This validates only: it never publishes a Skill or package.
skills-eval check . --external

# On a pull request, run only the native validators that do not need a
# platform login. Repeat --external-target to select them explicitly.
skills-eval check . \
  --external-target claude-plugin \
  --external-target workbuddy \
  --external-target clawhub

A normal run prints a compact summary and writes skills-eval-report.md in the target repository. The report records the selected Skills, each format rule, enabled publishing targets, security scanner configuration, and every finding.

Choose an output format with --format (terminal, markdown, or json) and an explicit report path with --output. JSON is intended for GitHub Actions and platform integration:

skills-eval check .                  # terminal summary + skills-eval-report.md
skills-eval check . --format json    # JSON report to stdout
skills-eval check . --format json --output report.json
skills-eval check . --format markdown --output audit.md

Checks

The portable checks cover the plugin manifest, declared Skills, SKILL.md and frontmatter, local file references, duplicate names or paths, and configured temporary files. A unified multi-provider security layer then reviews each selected Skill directory.

Scanner findings are signals for review, not a guarantee that a Skill is safe.

Security providers

Security scanning is a unified Provider architecture. Each provider reports a status (PASS, WARN, FAIL, ERROR, SKIPPED) and normalized findings with a five-level severity (info, low, medium, high, critical). The overall result follows the worst provider: any critical/high finding is FAIL by default; only medium and below is WARN; the threshold is configurable via security.failOn. A required provider that cannot run makes the overall result ERROR (exit code 2); an optional provider error is shown but does not override other valid results.

• Cisco and SkillSpector are local detectors and run by default.
• Tencent AIG is an open-source enhanced detector that needs an OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoint (configurable base URL + model; not bound to a vendor).
• Snyk is an optional networked detector that scans SKILL.md instruction content (prompt injection, malicious payloads, credential handling) via snyk-agent-scan (uvx snyk-agent-scan@latest). Skill content is sent to Snyk's verification server; enable it only when that is acceptable.

Install

pipx install skills-eval                                   # core (includes Cisco)
pip install "skills-eval[tencent-aig]"                     # add Tencent aig-skill-scan
uv tool install git+https://github.com/NVIDIA/skillspector.git  # NVIDIA SkillSpector (Python 3.12+)
# Snyk Agent Scan: uvx snyk-agent-scan@latest (requires uv + SNYK_TOKEN)

SkillSpector is git-only and requires Python 3.12-3.14, but uv tool install gives it an isolated interpreter, so skills-eval's Python 3.10+ baseline is unaffected. Snyk Agent Scan runs via uvx (part of uv). When a provider is enabled but not installed, skills-eval reports SKIPPED (or ERROR if that provider is required) with the install command - it never silently fakes a pass.

Status meanings

• PASS - no findings reached the warning threshold.
• WARN - findings exist but none reached the blocking threshold (failOn).
• FAIL - blocking findings exist; the Skill is not ready to publish.
• ERROR - the scanner failed to run, timed out, or produced unparseable output (distinct from a security finding). Required-provider errors set exit code 2.
• SKIPPED - the provider is disabled, not installed, or missing optional credentials.

Configuration

Create .skills-eval.json in the plugin root. JSON Schema support is available through the GitHub-hosted schema URL:

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gogoingai/skills-eval/main/src/skills_eval/schemas/skills-eval.schema.json",
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "format": {
    "requiredRootFiles": ["README.md"],
    "requiredSkillFrontmatter": ["license"],
    "forbiddenPaths": [".DS_Store"],
    "referenceExtensions": [".md", ".txt"]
  },
  "release": {
    "versionFile": "VERSION",
    "requireVersionSemver": true,
    "changelogFile": "CHANGELOG.md",
    "changelogVersionHeading": "## {version}"
  },
  "publishing": {
    "targets": [
      {
        "name": "claude-plugin",
        "enabled": true,
        "options": { "skillDirectoryPrefix": "skills-" }
      },
      {
        "name": "clawhub",
        "enabled": true,
        "options": { "packageName": "@example/skills" }
      }
    ]
  },
  "report": {
    "language": "auto"
  },
  "security": {
    "failOn": "high",
    "sources": [
      {
        "name": "cisco",
        "enabled": true,
        "required": true,
        "options": {
          "policy": "balanced",
          "useBehavioral": true
        }
      },
      { "name": "skillspector", "enabled": true, "required": false, "options": { "useLlm": false } },
      { "name": "tencent-aig", "enabled": false, "options": { "apiKeyEnv": "LLM_API_KEY", "baseUrlEnv": "LLM_BASE_URL", "modelEnv": "LLM_MODEL" } },
      { "name": "snyk", "enabled": false, "options": { "tokenEnv": "SNYK_TOKEN" } },
    ]
  }
}

Skills Eval has no project-specific profiles or defaults. Each repository owns its own .skills-eval.json: format and release express repository conventions, while each enabled publishing target contributes only that platform's static checks. release.assetReferences can optionally define an asset directory, a documentation directory, and the reference prefix that must link them. Target options hold project-specific identities where a platform does not supply one itself—for example, claude-plugin.skillDirectoryPrefix and clawhub.packageName. Unsupported or duplicate target names are configuration errors.

Security sources are a configured list so scanners can be added without changing the command interface. security.failOn sets the blocking threshold (info/low/medium/high/critical, default high). required controls whether a provider that cannot run fails the check (ERROR, exit 2) or is merely skipped; Cisco defaults to required, every other provider defaults to optional. Unrecognized provider names or options are configuration errors. Credentials for networked providers are read from the environment variables named in options and are never placed on the command line or written to reports. See Security providers for install commands and the data-egress implications of each provider.

Native platform validation

The regular check is safe for local development and GitHub Actions. Before a platform release, add --external to run native checks for the enabled publishing targets:

• claude-plugin: claude plugin validate .
• workbuddy: codebuddy plugin validate .claude-plugin/marketplace.json
• skillhub: skillhub publish <selected-skill> --dry-run
• clawhub: clawhub package validate . --out <temporary directory>

openclaw currently has no separate native CLI validation. Use --external-target <name> repeatedly to select only configured and enabled targets; a selected target is shown in the terminal and Markdown report. Missing tools, login failures, and network errors are reported as an external publishing validation environment failure, never as a Skill security finding. Use CODEBUDDY_BIN, SKILLHUB_BIN, or CLAWHUB_BIN when a CLI is not on PATH. The SkillHub command always includes --dry-run; skills-eval check never invokes a publish command without that platform-provided safety flag.

report.language accepts auto (the default), zh, or en. In auto mode, Skills Eval reads the computer's preferred language: Chinese preferences render the report in Chinese; every other preference renders it in English.

Publishing

skills-eval publish is the explicit opt-in counterpart of check: it pushes the declared Skills and the plugin package to the enabled publishing platforms (currently clawhub and skillhub). Every run verifies the platform login, re-runs the full skills-eval check (including native validations for the selected targets) as a defensive gate, then publishes with rate-limit retries and a final summary.

# Preview the exact publish commands without logging in or publishing.
skills-eval publish . --dry-run

# Publish every Skill and the plugin package to all enabled targets.
skills-eval publish . --changelog "0.2.0 修复画图"

# Publish one Skill to one platform.
skills-eval publish . --target clawhub --skill wenqu-write --changelog "修复画图"

# Publish only the plugin package (clawhub), or only Skills.
skills-eval publish . --plugin-only
skills-eval publish . --skills-only

Credentials come from the environment—CLAWHUB_TOKEN or SKILLHUB_TOKEN—or from a pre-existing clawhub login / skillhub login session; tokens are never printed or embedded in reported commands. Platform identities live in the target options of .skills-eval.json: clawhub.owner and clawhub.packageName are required for ClawHub publishing, clawhub.sourceRepo pins the provenance repository (otherwise derived from the origin remote), and skillhub.host overrides the default API host. Provenance commits and refs come from GITHUB_SHA / GITHUB_REF_NAME when present.

Exit codes: 0 everything published; 1 a publish item or the defensive check gate failed; 2 a prerequisite (CLI missing, not logged in, unknown or disabled target) is unmet. --skip-check bypasses the gate for emergencies.

Release automation

Tagged releases (v*) build the package and publish with PyPI Trusted Publishing through GitHub Actions OIDC. The publish job uses the pypi environment and id-token: write; it does not use a PYPI_TOKEN.

GitHub Action

The repository also provides a reusable GitHub Action. It installs the selected published CLI version, runs the check, and uploads skills-eval-report.md as an artifact even when the check fails. For pull requests, it creates one marked comment and updates that same comment after each later push, so the result is visible without downloading the report.

name: Skills review

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  audit:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      actions: read
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: gogoingai/skills-eval@v0.2.1
        with:
          path: .

pull_request runs when a PR opens and on every later push to its branch, so maintainers see an up-to-date Skills Eval 审查结果 comment as well as the result in the PR's Checks tab. The comment identifies the checked commit, completion time, and workflow run, and includes a link to download the full report; the same artifact is also available from the run in the repository's Actions page. The comment step uses the automatic GITHUB_TOKEN; no secret needs to be configured. On a PR from an external fork GitHub can deny comment write access; the audit and artifact still complete because commenting is non-fatal. Set comment: false to disable PR comments. The caller controls triggers; this Action never publishes a package, creates a tag, or changes repository files.

For a PR, set external-targets to the validators to run. The Action installs the corresponding CLIs on the runner, then records exactly these commands in the report. claude-plugin, workbuddy, and clawhub are local validations that need no credential:

      - uses: gogoingai/skills-eval@v0.2.1
        with:
          path: .
          external-targets: claude-plugin,workbuddy,clawhub

skillhub is a remote --dry-run and needs a login. Add it to external-targets and pass skillhub-token (a repository secret); the Action installs the SkillHub CLI, logs in with the token, and retries 429 responses automatically. The token is exposed only as an environment variable:

      - uses: gogoingai/skills-eval@v0.2.1
        with:
          path: .
          external-targets: claude-plugin,workbuddy,clawhub,skillhub
          skillhub-token: ${{ secrets.SKILLHUB_TOKEN }}

To run every enabled native validator without per-target selection, use external: true; that mode assumes the required tools and credentials are already available on the runner.

GitHub Action: publish

A separate composite Action at gogoingai/skills-eval/publish runs skills-eval publish—the check Action above keeps its "never publishes" guarantee. A typical tag-triggered release workflow:

name: Publish

on:
  push:
    tags: ["v*"]

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment: release
    concurrency: publish
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: gogoingai/skills-eval/publish@v0.2.1
        with:
          targets: clawhub,skillhub
          changelog: ${{ github.ref_name }}
          clawhub-token: ${{ secrets.CLAWHUB_TOKEN }}
          skillhub-token: ${{ secrets.SKILLHUB_TOKEN }}

The Action installs the platform CLIs (Node 22 for clawhub, the official installer for skillhub), passes tokens only as environment variables, and uploads the publish log as an artifact. Set dry-run: "true" (for example from a workflow_dispatch input) to preview the planned commands without publishing. Use a GitHub environment with required reviewers on release when a human approval gate is desired; without reviewers the tag push publishes directly.