Signal and Pitfall Sections

Write signals as observations and pitfalls as the mistakes that produce false findings

Use when: a skill needs to help a reader decide mid-procedure whether they are on track

Avoid when: the procedure is entirely deterministic and has no judgement step

Procedure

1. List the observations that confirm the skill is working
2. Phrase each as something visible in a response, header or byte count
3. List the mistakes that have produced false positives for this technique
4. Phrase each pitfall as a specific action to avoid
5. Remove any signal that is really an interpretation
6. Check the pitfalls against your own past notes

Signals

• each signal can be verified from a capture
• each pitfall names a concrete wrong action
• no signal restates a step
• the pitfalls explain a class of false positive

Patterns

1. Observable signal

age header resets to zero when the header changes

2. Actionable pitfall

replaying a POST that creates a record each time

3. Removed signal

looks suspicious: too vague to verify

Pitfalls

• Writing signals that are conclusions rather than observations
• Listing pitfalls that are just restatements of the steps
• Omitting the false-positive class that this technique invites

Done when

• every signal is verifiable from captured evidence
• every pitfall names an action and the false finding it causes

References

• OWASP - reporting
• Anthropic - skills