sp-writing-skills

To write skills that resist rationalization, apply a test-driven documentation workflow using RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycles. This validates compliance rules and loophole resistance under time, authority, sunk-cost, and exhaustion pressure scenarios before deployment.

Test-driven development for skill documentation is a workflow that validates agent compliance by writing baseline failure tests, fixing the skill to pass them, and refactoring to eliminate rationalization loopholes.

To improve skill discoverability, craft a YAML frontmatter description that encodes when to use the skill without summarizing the workflow. This prevents vague metadata from degrading retrieval accuracy.

You add rationalization counters to skill metadata by including explicit negations, foundational principles, and red-flag counters in the documentation. This ensures compliance holds when agents face realistic pressure scenarios.

Use a test-driven approach for skills authoring when agents keep violating the intended rule under realistic pressure scenarios, and you must verify the compliance fix before deployment.

Standard documentation fails under pressure because agents rationalize around vague rules or misunderstand the intended discipline, lacking the explicit counters and test structure needed to validate loophole resistance.