AI agent skills have two independent dimensions: content and control — most libraries neglect one

Short summary

AI skill libraries conflate two independent dimensions: content (domain knowledge packed into ordered steps) and control (evidence discipline enforced through gates). A skill can be strong on either dial alone, but failure occurs when nobody in the stack owns the missing dimension. Content without control produces plausible but unverified outputs; control without domain knowledge audits shallow results as cleanly as deep ones.

• •Skills carry two independent dials: content (domain knowledge) and control (evidence gates)
• •Failure starts when no skill in the stack owns the missing dial
• •Content-heavy skills without gates yield plausible but unverified answers; domain-neutral control cannot judge decision quality

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.