refactor-for-determinism

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Design or refactor skills by separating deterministic and non-deterministic steps. Use when creating or improving skills, especially to move repeatable workflows into scripts/ and update SKILL.md to call them.

1installs

Sourcekasperjunge/agent-resources

Added on2026-02-09

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add kasperjunge/agent-resources refactor-for-determinism

SKILL.md Content

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Refactor for Determinism

Build reliable skills by separating deterministic steps from judgment-based steps.

Core Principle

Deterministic steps belong in scripts. Use SKILL.md to orchestrate the workflow and reserve judgment for the non-deterministic parts.

Workflow

1. Identify Deterministic vs Non-Deterministic Work

For each step in the skill:

Deterministic: repeatable, mechanical, or validation-heavy steps → script candidates
Non-deterministic: judgment, interpretation, creative choices → keep in SKILL.md

Examples of deterministic steps:

Running quality checks
Verifying clean git state
Updating version strings
Promoting CHANGELOG sections
Collecting diff context for review

Examples of non-deterministic steps:

Writing changelog content
Selecting a solution approach
Code review judgments
Deciding release timing

2. Design Scripts for Deterministic Steps

For each deterministic step:

Create a script in
```
scripts/
```
within the skill directory
Make it self-contained with clear error messages
Validate inputs and exit non-zero on failure
Prefer small, single-purpose scripts

3. Update SKILL.md to Use Scripts

Replace manual command lists with script calls
Reference scripts using relative paths:
```
scripts/...
```
Keep judgment steps explicit in prose

4. Document Boundaries

Make the line between scripted and non-scripted steps obvious:

Use section headers like "Deterministic Steps" and "Judgment Steps"
Call out where human/agent judgment is required

Output Format

## Determinism Audit

### Deterministic Steps (script candidates)
- [Step] → [script name]

### Non-Deterministic Steps (keep in SKILL.md)
- [Step] → [why it needs judgment]

### Script Plan
- scripts/[name] - [purpose, inputs, outputs]

### SKILL.md Updates
- [Where to call each script]

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Scripting judgment	Keep decision-making in SKILL.md
One giant script	Split into small, focused scripts
Silent failures	Print clear errors and exit non-zero
Hardcoded paths	Use repo-relative paths
Forgetting SKILL.md updates	Always wire scripts into instructions

What NOT to Do

Do NOT hide decisions inside scripts
Do NOT make scripts that require manual editing
Do NOT mix multiple responsibilities into one script
Do NOT add extra documentation files beyond SKILL.md