Perfect Test Skill

A comprehensive and well-structured skill that demonstrates best practices in all areas.

Dependencies

• curl: HTTP client for API requests (curl --version to verify)
• jq: JSON parser (which jq to verify installation)
• Environment variable: API_KEY (obtain from https://api.example.com)

Installation

# Install curl (if not present)
sudo apt-get install curl  # Ubuntu/Debian
brew install curl          # macOS

# Install jq
sudo apt-get install jq    # Ubuntu/Debian
brew install jq            # macOS

# Set API key
export API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Usage

This skill is triggered when the user asks to "check system status" or "verify service health".

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Validate dependencies are available
2. Check API key is configured
3. Make API call to health endpoint
4. Parse response and format for user
5. Handle any errors gracefully

Example commands:

# Check if dependencies are available
command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "curl not found"
command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "jq not found"

# Make the API call
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
     -H "Accept: application/json" \
     "https://api.example.com/health" | jq '.status'

Input/Output

Input: User request like "check system status" Output: Formatted status report with:

• Service status (online/offline)
• Response time
• Any alerts or issues

Error Handling

Common issues and solutions:

• No API key: Prompt user to configure API_KEY environment variable
• Service unavailable: Return cached status if available, otherwise inform user
• Network timeout: Retry once after 2 seconds, then report network issue
• Invalid response: Log raw response and return "Unable to parse status"

Fallback strategies:

1. Primary: Live API check
2. Fallback 1: Cached status (if < 5 minutes old)
3. Fallback 2: Basic connectivity test
4. Final: Manual status check instructions

Validation steps:

# Verify API response structure
if ! echo "$response" | jq -e '.status' >/dev/null; then
    echo "Invalid response format"
    exit 1
fi

Examples

Successful execution:

$ check-status
✅ System Status: HEALTHY
📊 Response Time: 245ms
🔄 Last Updated: 2026-02-11 14:30:00

Error handling:

$ check-status
❌ Error: API_KEY not configured
💡 Solution: export API_KEY="your_key"

Limitations and Edge Cases

• Rate limits: API allows 100 calls/hour, skill caches results for 5 minutes
• Timeout: API calls timeout after 10 seconds
• Platform: Works on Linux, macOS, Windows (with WSL)
• Network: Requires internet connection for live checks

Troubleshooting

Q: Getting "command not found" for curl

A: Install curl using your package manager (see Installation section)

Q: API returns 401 Unauthorized

A: Check API key is correctly set: echo $API_KEY

Q: Slow response times

A: API is experiencing high load, try again in a few minutes

When NOT to Use This Skill

• Don't use this for detailed monitoring or alerting — use a dedicated monitoring skill instead
• Not for deploying or restarting services; this is read-only status checking
• Avoid using this for historical trend analysis

Security Notes

• API key is sensitive - never log or expose it
• All API calls use HTTPS encryption
• No data is stored locally beyond 5-minute cache
• Follows principle of least privilege