---

name: assess description: Rate quality 0-10 with dimension breakdown, list pros/cons, compare alternatives with scores, suggest improvements with effort estimates. Use when evaluating code, designs, approaches, or asking "is this good?" context: fork version: 1.0.0 author: OrchestKit tags: [assessment, evaluation, quality, comparison, pros-cons, rating] user-invocable: true allowedTools: [Read, Grep, Glob, Task, TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList, mcp__memory__search_nodes, Bash] skills: [code-review-playbook, assess-complexity, quality-gates, architecture-decision-record, recall] argument-hint: [code-path-or-topic]

Assess

Comprehensive assessment skill for answering "is this good?" with structured evaluation, scoring, and actionable recommendations.

Quick Start

/assess backend/app/services/auth.py
/assess our caching strategy
/assess the current database schema
/assess frontend/src/components/Dashboard

---

Task Management (CC 2.1.16)

# Create main assessment task
TaskCreate(
  subject="Assess: {target}",
  description="Comprehensive evaluation with quality scores and recommendations",
  activeForm="Assessing {target}"
)

# Create subtasks for 7-phase process
for phase in ["Understand target", "Rate quality", "List pros/cons",
              "Compare alternatives", "Generate suggestions",
              "Estimate effort", "Compile report"]:
    TaskCreate(subject=phase, activeForm=f"{phase}ing")

---

What This Skill Answers

Question	How It's Answered
"Is this good?"	Quality score 0-10 with reasoning
"What are the trade-offs?"	Structured pros/cons list
"Should we change this?"	Improvement suggestions with effort
"What are the alternatives?"	Comparison with scores
"Where should we focus?"	Prioritized recommendations

---

Workflow Overview

Phase	Activities	Output
1. Target Understanding	Read code/design, identify scope	Context summary
2. Quality Rating	6-dimension scoring (0-10)	Scores with reasoning
3. Pros/Cons Analysis	Strengths and weaknesses	Balanced evaluation
4. Alternative Comparison	Score alternatives	Comparison matrix
5. Improvement Suggestions	Actionable recommendations	Prioritized list
6. Effort Estimation	Time and complexity estimates	Effort breakdown
7. Assessment Report	Compile findings	Final report

---

Phase 1: Target Understanding

Identify what's being assessed (code, design, approach, decision, pattern) and gather context:

# PARALLEL - Gather context
Read(file_path="$ARGUMENTS")  # If file path
Grep(pattern="$ARGUMENTS", output_mode="files_with_matches")
mcp__memory__search_nodes(query="$ARGUMENTS")  # Past decisions

---

Phase 2: Quality Rating (6 Dimensions)

Rate each dimension 0-10 with weighted composite score. See Scoring Rubric for details.

Dimension	Weight	What It Measures
Correctness	0.20	Does it work correctly?
Maintainability	0.20	Easy to understand/modify?
Performance	0.15	Efficient, no bottlenecks?
Security	0.15	Follows best practices?
Scalability	0.15	Handles growth?
Testability	0.15	Easy to test?

Composite Score: Weighted average of all dimensions.

Launch 6 parallel agents (one per dimension) with run_in_background=True.

---

Phase 3: Pros/Cons Analysis

## Pros (Strengths)
| # | Strength | Impact | Evidence |
|---|----------|--------|----------|
| 1 | [strength] | High/Med/Low | [example] |

## Cons (Weaknesses)
| # | Weakness | Severity | Evidence |
|---|----------|----------|----------|
| 1 | [weakness] | High/Med/Low | [example] |

**Net Assessment:** [Strengths outweigh / Balanced / Weaknesses dominate]
**Recommended action:** [Keep as-is / Improve / Reconsider / Rewrite]

---

Phase 4: Alternative Comparison

See Alternative Analysis for full comparison template.

Criteria	Current	Alternative A	Alternative B
Composite	[N.N]	[N.N]	[N.N]
Migration Effort	N/A	[1-5]	[1-5]

---

Phase 5: Improvement Suggestions

See Improvement Prioritization for effort/impact guidelines.

Suggestion	Effort (1-5)	Impact (1-5)	Priority (I/E)
[action]	[N]	[N]	[ratio]

Quick Wins = Effort <= 2 AND Impact >= 4. Always highlight these first.

---

Phase 6: Effort Estimation

Timeframe	Tasks	Total
Quick wins (< 1hr)	[list]	X min
Short-term (< 1 day)	[list]	X hrs
Medium-term (1-3 days)	[list]	X days

---

Phase 7: Assessment Report

See Scoring Rubric for full report template.

# Assessment Report: $ARGUMENTS

**Overall Score: [N.N]/10** (Grade: [A+/A/B/C/D/F])

**Verdict:** [EXCELLENT | GOOD | ADEQUATE | NEEDS WORK | CRITICAL]

## Answer: Is This Good?
**[YES / MOSTLY / SOMEWHAT / NO]**
[Reasoning]

---

Grade Interpretation

Score	Grade	Verdict
9.0-10.0	A+	EXCELLENT
8.0-8.9	A	GOOD
7.0-7.9	B	GOOD
6.0-6.9	C	ADEQUATE
5.0-5.9	D	NEEDS WORK
0.0-4.9	F	CRITICAL

---

Key Decisions

Decision	Choice	Rationale
6 dimensions	Comprehensive coverage	All quality aspects without overwhelming
0-10 scale	Industry standard	Easy to understand and compare
Parallel assessment	6 agents	Fast, thorough evaluation
Effort/Impact scoring	1-5 scale	Simple prioritization math

---

Related Skills

• assess-complexity - Task complexity assessment
• verify - Post-implementation verification
• code-review-playbook - Code review patterns
• quality-gates - Quality gate patterns

---

Version: 1.0.0 (January 2026)