excel-variance-analyzer

I took a look at your excel-variance-analyzer skill and wanted to share some thoughts.

Links:

• GitHub
• Your agentic skill in the SkillzWave marketplace

The TL;DR

You're at 62/100 – solid D grade territory. This is based on Anthropic's agentic skill best practices.

What's strong: Ease of Use scored 19/25 – your metadata is clean, triggers are clear ("variance analysis", "budget vs actual"), and the workflow steps are well-structured.

What's holding you back: Progressive Disclosure Architecture is way too heavy at 12/30. You're burning tokens on things that should be slimmed down or moved elsewhere.

What's Working Well

• Trigger phrases are solid – You've got good coverage for discovery ("variance analysis", "budget actual comparison"). This makes the skill easy to find.
• Domain expertise shows – The skill is specific to FP&A work. You're not trying to be everything to everyone, which is smart.
• Multiple examples – You've included input/output pairs that show real variance scenarios, which helps users understand what to expect.
• Consistent terminology – "variance", "budget", "actual" used throughout without mixing terms. That consistency matters for users.

The Big One: Cut the File Down (High Priority)

Your SKILL.md is 357 lines when it should be around 120-150 lines. You're repeating similar example patterns from lines 172-295, and that's just bloat – it's making the file harder to navigate and burning tokens for readers.

What to do: Move your detailed example responses into a separate REFERENCE.md file and keep SKILL.md focused on the workflow overview, triggers, and one concise example. This alone could bump you +5 points and make the skill way more readable.

Concrete fix:

• Create REFERENCE.md with your verbose examples and variance analysis best practices
• Keep SKILL.md to workflow + triggers + one brief example
• Add a "See REFERENCE.md for detailed examples" note

Other Things Worth Fixing

1. Those referenced files don't exist (lines 337-339) – You mention resources/REFERENCE.md and templates/ but they're not there. Either create them or remove the references. This is misleading and costs you credibility (+3 points if fixed).

2. Add a Table of Contents – At 357 lines, users need navigation. Add a ## Contents section after your frontmatter with links to major sections. Small change, big usability win (+2 points).

3. Inconsistent voice – You're mixing "Ask the user for..." with "I'll analyze your Q1 variance". Pick imperative and stick with it. Makes the skill feel more polished (+2 points).

4. Add workflow checklists – Your six-step process is wordy. Break out the validation and flagging rules into checkboxes so users can follow along without mental overhead (+2 points).

Quick Wins

Focus on these in order:

1. Trim SKILL.md to ~130 lines, move examples to REFERENCE.md (+5 points)
2. Remove or create the referenced resources so you're not making claims you can't back up (+3 points)
3. Add a TOC and consistent voice (quick wins, +4 points total)
4. Tighten the workflow checklists for better clarity (+2 points)

You're looking at ~14 points of improvement with focused effort – that'd put you solidly in C territory and closer to B if you nail the larger refactoring.

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