SKILLEMALL.ai
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BD pubmed-edirect

Search and retrieve literature from PubMed using NCBI's EDirect command-line tools. ⚠️ Advanced skill requiring manual installation.

modbender/skill-library-mcp Agent Skills author: modbender MIT 10 files · 3 scripts body ≈ 1 251 tokens Open the sourcegithub.com↗ analyzed 2 d ago

Search and retrieve literature from PubMed using NCBI's EDirect command-line tools.

As a process D 44/100 · Unfinished process — weak spots: result and completion, when it triggers, inputs and preconditions

ProcedureInfrastructureData and analyticsWriting and documentstype and topics are labelled automatically from the skill text
Runs in: OpenClaw Claude / Claude Code ChatGPT / Codex Gemini CLI Cursor GitHub Copilot / VS Code Qwen Code Kimi Code CLI Z.ai (GLM) DeepSeek (Deep Code) Mistral Vibe LangChain (deepagents) Goose OpenCode
JSON
Technical rating
B
76/100
safety, quality, tests
Safety 60%
78
Quality 40%
73
Run on models
none yet
Process rating
D
44/100
Unfinished process
Result and completion w 14
0
Inputs and preconditions w 11
0
Failures and branches w 10
0
the three weakest of ten parameters · all ten

What is at stake

Medium-severity findings: the skill is probably honest, but read what alarmed the scanner.

Dangerous commands medium severity

Below is the worst case for this category. The finding here is medium: the guard saw a sign, not a proof.

If you install

The skill contains commands that delete files, rewrite disks or execute code fetched from the network. The agent may run them without asking if it believes the instructions require it.

For the author

Replace destructive commands with safe equivalents that ask for confirmation, scope them to one folder, and stop piping curl into a shell: pin a version and a checksum.

How to improve

  1. Say in the description WHEN to use the skill ("use when…", example requests): that is the agent's main cue.
For the model run — optional
  • Your own cases (evals/evals.json, 4–6 real requests with expected answers): the full check would then run those instead of a model-drafted suite.
  • A spec.yaml with trigger phrases and assertions — a behaviour contract for CI; `skilltest init` writes a template.

Guard findings · 6

✓ No critical or high findings

Medium and low: 6
  • medium Dangerous commands cmd-pipe-to-shell INSTALL.md:64
    Downloads and executes remote code from an unrecognised host (pipe to shell) (security demo / example)
    curl https://example.com/install.sh | bash
    demo
  • medium Dangerous commands cmd-shell-rc INSTALL.md:109
    Writes to a shell startup file
    echo 'export PATH="$HOME/edirect:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
  • medium Dangerous commands cmd-shell-rc INSTALL.md:130
    Writes to a shell startup file
    echo 'export NCBI_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"' >> ~/.bashrc
  • medium Dangerous commands cmd-shell-rc INSTALL.md:131
    Writes to a shell startup file
    echo 'export NCBI_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"' >> ~/.zshrc  # If using zsh
  • low Dangerous commands cmd-pipe-to-shell INSTALL.md:93
    Downloads and executes remote code from an unrecognised host (pipe to shell) (security demo / example; quoted — discussed, not commanded)
    **Security Note:** Avoid piping remote scripts directly to your shell (e.g., `sh -c "curl | bash"`). Downloading first allows you to verify the content before execution, following best security practi
    demoquoted
  • low Dangerous commands cmd-shell-rc INSTALL.md:140
    Writes to a shell startup file (security demo / example)
    echo 'export NCBI_EMAIL="yo…@….com"' >> ~/.bashrc
    demo

Files scanned: 10. Evidence is masked. Grey chips explain why severity was lowered.

Against the Agent Skills spec

  • warning description-no-when description does not say WHEN to use the skill (no "use when")
  • note frontmatter-key unknown frontmatter key "requires"
  • note frontmatter-key unknown frontmatter key "install"

Process rating: all ten parameters 44/100

  • 0Result and completion. Does not say what the result is
  • 0Inputs and preconditions. Does not say what the process needs to start
  • 0Failures and branches. Linear process with no failure handling
  • 0Progress reporting. Says nothing while it works
  • 20When it triggers. No condition that starts the skill
  • 60Tools and files. Uses tools (bash, web) that frontmatter does not declare
  • 85Steps. 48 steps, 2 vague phrases
  • 100Consistency. Name and required fields are in place
  • 100Execution cost. Instruction body is 1251 tokens
  • 100Running it twice. No mutating operations
  • medium Safety rules and hard prohibitions inside a skill: they belong in the system prompt, here they protect nothing
  • low 11 top-level sections: this looks like several domains in one skill

Everything here is measured from the skill text rather than judged by a model, so the numbers are checkable. A parameter weighs more when it is a more common reason for the process to stall.

Quality signals

  • +5Description has no quoted example phrases that should trigger the skill
  • +4Description does not say when NOT to use the skill (false activations)
  • +3Output format is not stated: the model decides each time
  • +1No license
  • +2Single-language instructions
  • +3Description length 132: enough signal without eating the budget
  • +4Structure: 19 headings
  • +3Step-by-step instructions: 48 items
  • +4Has examples (6 code blocks)
  • +3All 3 scripts are documented

Quality base 70; lint remarks subtract, signals add up to 100. Result: 73.