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name: refine-workflow description: Use when analyzing workflow effectiveness or identifying skill extraction opportunities - systematically identifies patterns worthy of new skills and improvement areas

Refine Workflow

Purpose

Analyze existing workflows to:

• Identify repeating patterns that should become skills
• Find quality gates embedded in workflows that should be extracted
• Discover context assembly patterns used across multiple workflows
• Optimize workflow efficiency and maintainability

When to Use This Skill

Activate when:

• User asks "How can we improve this workflow?"
• You notice repeated logic across multiple workflows
• A workflow is becoming too long or complex
• Quality controls are duplicated in multiple places
• Context gathering patterns are reused frequently
• User requests workflow analysis or optimization

Analysis Framework

1. Pattern Recognition

Scan workflows for these patterns:

Validation Patterns (candidates for quality gates):

• Citation checking logic
• Schema validation
• Style enforcement
• Link verification
• Data integrity checks

Context Assembly Patterns (candidates for context skills):

• Meeting transcript synthesis
• Research gathering by topic
• Priority scoring algorithms
• Source normalization logic

Reusable Procedures (candidates for technique skills):

• File parsing routines
• YAML processing
• State management
• Checkpoint creation

2. Duplication Detection

Identify logic duplicated across workflows:

Method:

1. List all workflow skills in .claude/skills/workflows/
2. Read each SKILL.md file
3. Identify common phrases, procedures, or validation steps
4. Group duplicates by similarity
5. Prioritize by frequency and impact

Threshold:

• If logic appears in 3+ workflows → strong extraction candidate
• If logic appears in 2 workflows → potential extraction candidate
• If logic is complex and appears once → consider extraction for clarity

3. Complexity Analysis

Measure workflow complexity:

Token Count:

• Count total tokens in SKILL.md
• If >1000 tokens → candidate for decomposition
• If >2000 tokens → high priority for decomposition

Step Count:

• Count numbered procedure steps
• If >10 steps → consider breaking into phases
• If >20 steps → high priority for decomposition

Quality Gates:

• Count embedded validation steps
• If >3 validations → extract quality gates
• If validation logic >100 tokens → extract as separate skill

4. Dependency Mapping

Understand skill relationships:

Create a dependency graph:

1. List all workflow skills
2. For each skill, identify invoked sub-skills
3. Identify quality gates applied
4. Map context assembly patterns used
5. Visualize relationships

Look for:

• Skills that never invoke sub-skills (atomic candidates)
• Skills with circular dependencies (refactoring needed)
• Quality gates not yet extracted
• Orphaned workflows (unused skills)

Extraction Process

When to Extract a Quality Gate

Criteria:

1. Validation logic appears in 2+ workflows
2. Validation has pass/fail criteria
3. Validation is atomic (self-contained)
4. Validation enforces a specific standard

Extraction Steps:

1. Use create-skill meta-skill
2. Target category: .claude/skills/quality-gates/
3. Define iron law (non-negotiable requirement)
4. Include anti-rationalization blocks
5. Update workflows to invoke the quality gate

Example:

Before: Citation checking embedded in content-pipeline skill
After: `citation-compliance` quality gate skill invoked by content-pipeline

When to Extract Context Assembly

Criteria:

1. Context gathering logic appears in 2+ workflows
2. Logic synthesizes data from multiple sources
3. Logic applies reusable filters or transformations
4. Logic produces standardized output format

Extraction Steps:

1. Use create-skill meta-skill
2. Target category: .claude/skills/context-assembly/
3. Define input sources and output schema
4. Include filtering and normalization logic
5. Update workflows to invoke the context assembly skill

Example:

Before: Meeting synthesis logic duplicated in product-planning and cs-prep
After: `meeting-synthesis` context skill invoked by both workflows

When to Extract a Sub-Workflow

Criteria:

1. Workflow has >10 steps
2. Steps can be grouped into logical phases
3. Phases have clear checkpoints
4. Phases may be useful independently

Extraction Steps:

1. Identify phase boundaries
2. Create sub-workflow skills for each phase
3. Update parent workflow to invoke sub-workflows
4. Maintain state between phases

Example:

Before: content-pipeline (20 steps in one skill)
After: content-pipeline invokes:
  - content-intent-gathering
  - content-brief-creation
  - content-outlining
  - content-drafting
  - content-snippet-generation

Optimization Techniques

Token Efficiency

Reduce token usage:

1. Replace verbose examples with concise ones
2. Use tables for quick reference
3. Inline simple code, link to external files for complex code
4. Remove redundant explanations

Targets:

• Frequently-loaded skills: <200 words
• Other skills: <500 words

Description Optimization (CSO)

Improve auto-discovery:

1. Front-load distinctive triggering conditions
2. Include specific symptoms (not abstract categories)
3. Use third-person perspective
4. Start with "Use when..."

Test effectiveness:

• Create scenarios where skill should activate
• Verify Claude auto-discovers the skill
• Refine description if activation fails

Cross-Reference Clarity

Improve skill invocation:

1. Mark required dependencies with asterisks
2. Use explicit skill names (not @ syntax)
3. Explain integration points
4. Document expected inputs/outputs

Refining Workflow

1. Analyze Current State

Run pattern recognition, duplication detection, and complexity analysis.

2. Identify Improvements

Prioritize extraction candidates:

• High duplication + high impact = highest priority
• High complexity + low modularity = high priority
• Single-use but complex = medium priority

3. Create Extraction Plan

For each candidate:

1. Define new skill name and category
2. Specify extraction boundaries (what moves, what stays)
3. Identify workflows that will invoke the new skill
4. Estimate token savings

4. Execute Extractions

Use create-skill meta-skill for each new skill:

1. Write failing test first
2. Extract logic into new SKILL.md
3. Update parent workflows to invoke new skill
4. Validate integration

5. Validate Improvements

Metrics:

• Total token count before/after
• Duplication eliminated (lines of duplicated logic removed)
• Modularity score (number of reusable components)
• Maintainability (ease of updating)

Success Criteria

Workflow is refined when:

• No logic duplicated across 3+ workflows
• All workflows <1000 tokens
• Quality gates extracted and reusable
• Context assembly patterns standardized
• Skill dependencies clearly mapped
• Token efficiency maximized

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Extracting too aggressively	Keep skills >100 words; don't over-modularize
Missing CSO opportunities	Optimize descriptions for auto-discovery
Breaking working workflows	Test before/after with real scenarios
Not updating invoking workflows	Ensure parent workflows reference new skills
Forgetting documentation	Use documentation-sync quality gate (all 6 files)

Related Skills

• create-skill: Use after identifying extraction candidates
• skill-discovery: Find existing skills before creating duplicates
• using-skills: Ensure extracted skills are used mandatorily
• documentation-sync: Required for maintaining documentation consistency after extraction