sensei

"A true master teaches not by telling, but by refining." - The Skill Sensei

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Install skill "sensei" with this command: npx skills add microsoft/github-copilot-for-azure/microsoft-github-copilot-for-azure-sensei

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-observability ║ ║ 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 WHEN: triggers (cross-model optimized) ║ ║ 5. TEST - Run tests, fix if needed ║ ║ 6. REFERENCES- Validate markdown links ║ ║ 7. TOKENS - Check token budget, gather suggestions ║ ║ 8. SUMMARY - Show before/after with suggestions ║ ║ 9. PROMPT - Ask: Commit, Create Issue, or Skip? ║ ║ 10. REPEAT - Until Medium-High score + tests pass ║ ║ ║ ║ TARGET SCORE: Medium-High ║ ║ ✓ Description > 150 chars, ≤ 60 words ║ ║ ✓ Has "WHEN:" trigger phrases (preferred) ║ ║ ✓ No "DO NOT USE FOR:" (unless disambiguation-critical) ║ ║ ✓ 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-observability

By Adherence Level

Run sensei on all Low-adherence skills

All Skills

Run sensei on all skills

GEPA Mode (Deep Optimization)

Run sensei on my-skill --gepa Run sensei on my-skill --gepa --skip-integration Run sensei on all skills --gepa

When --gepa is used, Step 5 (IMPROVE) is replaced with GEPA evolutionary optimization. Instead of template-based improvements, GEPA parses trigger prompt arrays from the existing test harness and combines them with content quality heuristics to build a fitness function. An LLM proposes and evaluates many candidate improvements automatically. Note: GEPA does not execute Jest tests directly — it uses the test data (prompts) as evaluation inputs.

GEPA score-only mode (no LLM calls, just evaluate current quality):

Run sensei score my-skill Run sensei score all skills

The Ralph Loop

For each skill, execute this loop until score >= Medium-High AND tests pass:

  • READ - Load plugin/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md , tests, and token count

  • SCORE - Run spec-based compliance check (see SCORING.md):

  • Validate name per agentskills.io spec (no -- , no start/end - , lowercase alphanumeric)

  • Check description length and word count (≤60 words)

  • Check triggers (WHEN: preferred, USE FOR: accepted)

  • Warn on "DO NOT USE FOR:" (risky in multi-skill environments — exception: REQUIRED for skills that share trigger overlap with broader skills like azure-prepare )

  • Preserve optional spec fields (license , metadata , allowed-tools ) if present

  • CHECK - If score >= Medium-High AND tests pass → go to TOKENS step

  • SCAFFOLD - If tests/{skill-name}/ doesn't exist, create from tests/_template/

  • IMPROVE FRONTMATTER - Add WHEN: triggers (stay under 60 words and 1024 chars) 5b. IMPROVE WITH GEPA (when --gepa flag is set) — Replaces step 5 (IMPROVE FRONTMATTER) with automated optimization; step 6 (IMPROVE TESTS) still runs normally:

  • Auto-discovers tests/{skill-name}/triggers.test.ts and extracts prompt arrays

  • Builds a GEPA evaluator scoring content quality + trigger accuracy based on those trigger prompt arrays (not Jest test pass/fail results)

  • Runs python .github/skills/sensei/scripts/gepa/auto_evaluator.py optimize --skill {skill-name} --skills-dir plugin/skills --tests-dir tests

  • Shows diff of optimized SKILL.md for user approval

  • GEPA uses existing test trigger definitions as configuration — it does not execute, replace, or modify Jest tests

  • IMPROVE TESTS - Update shouldTriggerPrompts and shouldNotTriggerPrompts to match the finalized frontmatter (including any GEPA changes)

  • VERIFY - Run cd tests && npm test -- --testPathPatterns={skill-name}

  • VALIDATE REFERENCES - Run cd scripts && npm run references {skill-name} to check markdown links

  • TOKENS - Check token budget and line count (< 500 lines per spec), gather optimization suggestions

  • SUMMARY - Display before/after comparison with unimplemented suggestions

  • PROMPT - Ask user: Commit, Create Issue, or Skip?

  • REPEAT - Go to step 2 (max 5 iterations per skill)

Scoring Criteria (Quick Reference)

Sensei validates skills against the agentskills.io specification. See SCORING.md for full details.

Score Requirements

Invalid Name fails spec validation (consecutive hyphens, start/end hyphen, uppercase, etc.)

Low Basic description, no explicit triggers

Medium Has trigger keywords/phrases, description > 150 chars, >60 words

Medium-High Has "WHEN:" (preferred) or "USE FOR:" triggers, ≤60 words

High Medium-High + compatibility field

Target: Medium-High (distinctive triggers, concise description)

⚠️ "DO NOT USE FOR:" is risky in multi-skill environments (15+ overlapping skills) — causes keyword contamination on fast-pattern-matching models. Safe for small, isolated skill sets. Use positive routing with WHEN: for cross-model safety.

Exception — disambiguation-critical skills: When a skill's USE FOR triggers directly overlap with a broader skill (e.g., azure-prepare owns "deploy to Azure"), DO NOT USE FOR: is REQUIRED to prevent the broader skill from capturing prompts that belong to the specialized skill. Removing it causes routing regressions. Integration tests validate this routing -- run them before removing any DO NOT USE FOR: clause.

Strongly recommended (reported as suggestions if missing):

  • license — identifies the license applied to the skill

  • metadata.version — tracks the skill version for consumers

Frontmatter Template

Per the agentskills.io spec, required and optional fields:

name: skill-name description: "[ACTION VERB] [UNIQUE_DOMAIN]. [One clarifying sentence]. WHEN: "trigger 1", "trigger 2", "trigger 3"." license: MIT metadata: version: "1.0"

Other optional spec fields — preserve if already present:

metadata.author: example-org

allowed-tools: Bash(git:*) Read

IMPORTANT: Use inline double-quoted strings for descriptions. Do NOT use >- folded scalars (incompatible with skills.sh). Do NOT use | literal blocks (preserves newlines). Keep total description under 1024 characters and ≤60 words.

⚠️ "DO NOT USE FOR:" carries context-dependent risk. In multi-skill environments (10+ skills with overlapping domains), anti-trigger clauses introduce the very keywords that cause wrong-skill activation on Claude Sonnet and fast-pattern-matching models (evidence). For small, isolated skill sets (1-5 skills), the risk is low. When in doubt, use positive routing with WHEN: and distinctive quoted phrases.

Exception: DO NOT USE FOR: is REQUIRED when a specialized skill's triggers overlap with a broader skill (e.g., azure-hosted-copilot-sdk vs. azure-prepare on "deploy to Azure"). Without the negative discriminator, the broader skill captures prompts that should route to the specialized one. Always run integration tests before removing a DO NOT USE FOR: clause.

Test Scaffolding

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

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

Then update:

  • SKILL_NAME constant in all test files

  • shouldTriggerPrompts

  • 5+ prompts matching new frontmatter triggers

  • 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

Flag Description

--skip-integration

Skip integration tests for faster iteration. Only runs unit and trigger tests.

--gepa

Use GEPA evolutionary optimization instead of template-based improvement. Auto-discovers tests and builds evaluator at runtime.

⚠️ 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

Source Transparency

This detail page is rendered from real SKILL.md content. Trust labels are metadata-based hints, not a safety guarantee.

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