Type: Skills feedback
Severity: Medium

Description

The skill-creator example skill at /mnt/skills/examples/skill-creator/SKILL.md is 33,168 characters. The view tool silently truncates at ~16,000 characters, cutting the file in the middle without warning. This means any model loading the skill-creator to help a user create or modify a skill is working from an incomplete copy of its own instructions.

What gets truncated

The truncation cuts through the middle of the eval/iteration workflow — specifically lines 113-373 are marked as truncated on first read. This section contains:

• Writing patterns and style guidance
• Test case creation and the evals.json schema
• The complete "Running and evaluating test cases" procedure (spawn runs, draft assertions, capture timing, grade/aggregate, launch viewer)

The sections that survive (beginning and end) include the high-level overview, skill anatomy, and the claude.ai/Cowork adaptation notes — but the core eval loop that the skill repeatedly emphasizes is in the truncated middle.

Impact

• A model using skill-creator on claude.ai reads ~16K of a 33K skill and works from incomplete instructions
• The eval workflow — which the skill identifies as its most important contribution — is partially or fully missing depending on where truncation lands
• No warning is emitted. The model believes it has the full skill.

Expected behavior

Any of:

1. The skill-creator skill should be restructured to stay under the truncation limit (using bundled reference files for the detailed eval procedures, as the skill's own "Progressive Disclosure" section recommends), or
2. The view tool should warn when truncation occurs so the model knows to read the remainder, or
3. Increase the character limit on the view tool's read operation so larger skills can be fully loaded

Notes

This is related to but separate from the general 16K silent truncation issue (which affects user skills loaded on cold start). The skill-creator is an example skill, so it doesn't load on cold start — but it does load via view when triggered, and the same truncation applies.