--- name: Weak Agent Test slug: weak-agent-test category: Quality description: Weak Agent Test runs an adversarial harness that sends weak agents through real docx-cli document tasks and grades the results in Word. It is used to compare editing and authoring behavior, measure tool use and token cost, and produce a prioritized ergonomics report. github: "https://github.com/kklimuk/docx-cli/tree/main/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test" language: TypeScript stars: 196 forks: 8 install: "npx degit https://github.com/kklimuk/docx-cli/tree/main/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test ~/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test" installs_to: ~/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test source_path: .claude/skills/weak-agent-test/SKILL.md collection_size: 4 category_size: 1662 collection_url: "https://dirskills.com/collections/kklimuk/docx-cli" added: 2026-09-05T05:31:10.268Z last_synced: 2026-09-05T05:31:10.268Z canonical_url: "https://dirskills.com/skills/weak-agent-test" --- # Weak Agent Test Weak Agent Test runs an adversarial harness that sends weak agents through real docx-cli document tasks and grades the results in Word. It is used to compare editing and authoring behavior, measure tool use and token cost, and produce a prioritized ergonomics report. **Install:** ```bash npx degit https://github.com/kklimuk/docx-cli/tree/main/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test ~/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test ``` ## README # Adversarial review — weak-agent harness for docx-cli This harness answers one question: **can weak agents actually use docx-cli to get real work done, and what should we fix first?** It runs the `weak-agent-test` workflow (`.claude/workflows/weak-agent-test.js`), which fans out one weak exercise agent per scenario (Haiku by default — swappable to Sonnet via `args.model`), renders every output with Microsoft Word, grades each against ground-truth criteria with an **opus** judge, and has **opus** synthesize a prioritized improvement report. Exercise agents do NOT self-report tool counts — every tool-economy and token number is **measured** after the run (agents under-count their own calls ~2×, so self-reports were dropped): from the agent transcripts for the Claude arms, from each scenario's `exercise.json` ledger for the local arm. Both roll up into the same Run-metrics table (tokens, wall-clock, tool split, correctness) via `exercise-metrics.ts`. The test corpus is **bundled with this skill** under `scenarios/`, one folder per scenario, named after its key (`scenarios/mnda/`, `scenarios/invoice/`, …). Each scenario folder is self-describing and holds everything that scenario needs: - `task.md` — the AGENT-FACING request, written as a human delegating the work: the goal, the data, the intent — and **no tool vocabulary** (no `docx` commands, locators, or OOXML terms), because discovering which features deliver the outcome is part of what's measured, - `criteria.md` — the JUDGE-ONLY grading rubric (the precise, tool-specific checks). The stage step **withholds it from the agent's run workspace**, and the judge reads it from the pristine source — the agent never sees the answer key, - the fixture `.docx` to work on (edit scenarios only; authoring scenarios create their output fresh), - `assets/` — any additional inputs (data files, images; empty for most edit scenarios). The workflow's `SCENARIOS` manifest holds only the per-scenario **routing** metadata (key, bucket label, `edit`/`author` kind, the doc filename); whether a baseline gets rendered is DERIVED from the kind (every `edit` scenario has a pristine source, so it gets one — see `hasBaseline()`), not a stored field. The actual request/criteria/fixture/assets all live in the folder. The skill is therefore self-contained and travels with its test corpus. To change what a scenario tests, edit the files in its folder. (Heavy, ephemeral run outputs — edited docx, renders, reviews, the report — are dumped to `./tmp/docx-weak-agent-test//`, never into the repo.) Staging is ONE code path for every backend: `scripts/stage-scenario.ts` copies a scenario folder, strips the judge-only `criteria.md`, and verifies the inputs landed. The workflow's Stage agent runs it per scenario; the local corpus runner imports it. Each run produces, under the timestamped run dir, **one result folder per scenario** (named after its key) plus the run-level report and metrics: ``` / REPORT.md ← synthesized report; the Metrics phase appends the measured run-metrics section (local: in-run; Claude: your post-run pass) exercise-metrics.md ← measured per-exercise-agent tokens/time/tool split exercise-metrics.json / ← one per scenario; the worked-on copy lives here task.md assets/ ← (criteria.md is withheld from this copy — judge-only) .docx ← the edited/authored document renders/output/ ← the OUTPUT: Word-rendered page PNGs + read.md (markdown read view) renders/baseline/ ← the pristine "before": page PNGs + read.md (every EDIT scenario; absent only for the authored eliot-journal — no source to diff) review.md ← the judge's saved review for this task (written in-run) verdict.json ← the judge's structured verdict incl. taskSuccess (written in-run by the judge — the correctness source the Metrics phase reads) metrics.json ← this task's measured tokens/time/tool split + correctness (local: in-run Metrics phase; Claude: your post-run pass) ``` The **render step fires the moment each task finishes** (for both arms) and produces, for the OUTPUT and — whenever a pristine source exists (every edit scenario) — its BASELINE "before", BOTH deliverables in each render dir: the page PNGs AND a `read.md` (the markdown read view of that doc). The judge reads all four (output PNGs + read.md, baseline PNGs + read.md) to compare before/after both visually and textually. The workflow's render step is **idempotent**: for the **local backend** the corpus runner already produced the SAME artifacts at the SAME paths as it went, so the render step just reuses them (re-rendering only anything missing) — no double-render; for the **Claude backend** nothing is pre-rendered, so it does the full Word render. Either way the judge grades Word-rendered PNGs (the local harness runs on the mac, where the corpus's default render engine IS Word). ## Steps Run these in order from the repo root. Do NOT skip the build — the global `docx` on PATH is a stale binary; the harness must test the CURRENT working tree. ### 1. Preflight — ALWAYS rebuild (mandatory gate) The whole harness is meaningless if it tests a stale binary, so the build is a hard gate, not an optional step. **Always run `bun run build:binary`, even if `dist/docx` already exists** — never reuse a prior build. Abort the whole run if any check below fails. ```bash REPO="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)" cd "$REPO" SCENARIOS_DIR="$REPO/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test/scenarios" # this skill's bundled corpus (one folder per scenario) # Word must be installed (this harness renders with Word, not LibreOffice). test -d "/Applications/Microsoft Word.app" || echo "WARNING: Microsoft Word not found — render phase will fail." # (1) Build the CURRENT working tree into a fresh standalone binary. Abort on failure. bun run build:binary || { echo "BUILD FAILED — abort"; exit 1; } BINARY="$REPO/dist/docx" # (2) Hard gate: the fresh binary must match package.json's version AND have `render`. # `--version` prints "docx X.Y.Z"; take the 2nd space-delimited field. NOTE: use `cut`, # NOT an awk field reference — a literal dollar-N positional token gets clobbered by # slash-command positional-arg substitution when this skill runs with arguments, mangling # the gate. Keep this whole block free of dollar-N tokens for the same reason. EXPECTED="$(bun -e 'console.log(require("./package.json").version)')" GOT="$("$BINARY" --version | cut -d' ' -f2)" echo "built docx $GOT (package.json: $EXPECTED)" [ "$GOT" = "$EXPECTED" ] || { echo "VERSION MISMATCH ($GOT != $EXPECTED) — build is stale, abort"; exit 1; } "$BINARY" render --help >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "render MISSING — build stale/broken, abort"; exit 1; } echo "preflight OK: fresh $GOT binary with render" ``` If the version mismatches or `render` is missing, the build did not reflect the working tree — stop and fix it before running. Do not proceed on a stale binary. > First-run note: Word-for-Mac rendering triggers a one-time macOS **Automation** > permission prompt for the controlling terminal. If the render phase fails on a > fresh machine, grant it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation and > re-run. ### 2. Make an isolated run workspace (under ./tmp/) Create an empty timestamped `./tmp/` run dir **per workflow run**. **Do NOT copy the scenarios here** — the workflow's **Stage** phase runs `scripts/stage-scenario.ts` for _only the active scenarios_, seeding one subfolder per scenario (`$RUN_DIR//`), so originals stay untouched, the repo stays clean, and a single-scenario run doesn't drag the whole corpus along: ```bash TS="$(date +%Y.%m.%d-%H%M%S)" RUN_DIR="./tmp/docx-weak-agent-test/$TS" mkdir -p "$RUN_DIR" # empty; the workflow's Stage phase seeds one subfolder per active scenario from $SCENARIOS_DIR echo "RUN_DIR=$RUN_DIR" ``` ### 3. Launch the workflow (up to 3 concurrently) Invoke the `Workflow` tool with `scriptPath` pointing at the workflow file and pass the absolute paths as `args`: ``` Workflow({ scriptPath: "/.claude/workflows/weak-agent-test.js", args: { runDir: "", binary: "", scenariosDir: "", model: "haiku", // the exercise model: "haiku" (default) or "sonnet" only: } }) ``` > **Exercise agent type.** The exercise agents run as the repo's `weak-exercise` > agent type (`.claude/agents/weak-exercise.md`): minimal tools and no Skill > tool, so the session's skills catalog stays OUT of their context (it's a > per-turn token tax and leaks docx-cli/harness names into the > "capable-but-fresh agent" premise). The agent registry loads at SESSION > start — in a session older than that file, the workflow aborts with > "agent type 'weak-exercise' not found"; pass > `exerciseAgentType: "general-purpose"` to override for that session (and note > the run's base context is then ~4k tokens/turn heavier, so its token numbers > aren't comparable to weak-exercise runs). > **Never resume a benchmark run whose exercise phase failed.** If an exercise > agent dies (API error → that scenario reports no exercise/verdict), re-run > the WHOLE run in a FRESH run dir. `resumeFromRunId` replays the cached stage > step without re-copying fixtures, so re-run exercise agents would edit > already-edited documents — double redlines, double fills, unusable verdicts > (this voided run r2 on 2026-07-15, twice). The failure is worse than it > looks because the resume cache is **PREFIX-based, not keyed**: everything > issued AFTER the first missing/changed result re-runs live, not just the > dead agent. So a dead exercise for a MANIFEST-EARLY scenario (`mnda` is > first) re-runs EVERY exercise against edited docs even if you restore that > one scenario's staging state — while a dead LAST scenario (`eliot-journal`) > happens to resume cleanly. Don't gamble on manifest position: exercise-phase > failure → fresh run dir, no exceptions. Resume is only safe for failures at > or after the render phase (dead judge/synth), where nothing mutates > documents no matter how much of the suffix re-runs. **Running 3 at a time (the fast path to averaged numbers).** The benchmark methodology is 3 runs per arm/model, and runs can go **concurrently**: launch up to three Workflow invocations in one message, each with its OWN `RUN_DIR` from step 2 (suffix the timestamp, e.g. `$TS-r1`, `$TS-r2`, `$TS-r3`). This is safe because the only shared mutable resource is Microsoft Word, and the CLI itself serializes Word access across processes with an advisory lock (`src/core/render/engines/word-mac.ts`) — concurrent runs' renders queue instead of corrupting each other. Don't go beyond ~3: renders start spending more time queueing than rendering. A haiku-vs-sonnet comparison is just two batches: three runs with `model: "haiku"`, three with `model: "sonnet"` (never mix models within one run dir). `only` restricts the run to a subset of scenarios (omit it to run all 6). To run a **single task**, pass its key as a plain string — `only: "mnda"`. It also accepts an array (`only: ["mnda", "invoice"]`) or a comma/space-separated string; all forms are normalized to the same list. The keys are the folder names under `$SCENARIOS_DIR` (run `ls "$SCENARIOS_DIR"` if you need to confirm them); unknown keys abort the run with a "No scenarios matched" error listing the valid ones. > Use `scriptPath`, NOT `name: "weak-agent-test"`. Launching by name resolves to a > copy cached at session start, so any edit to the workflow made during the session is > ignored; `scriptPath` always reads the current file from disk. (The workflow also > tolerates `args` arriving as a JSON string — the runtime stringifies it — so passing > a plain object is fine.) When the tool returns, **note each run's `Transcript dir:` path it prints** — call it `TRANSCRIPT_DIR` (it looks like `…/subagents/workflows/wf_`). You need it in step 4 to measure per-agent tokens and time. With concurrent runs, keep each run's `(RUN_DIR, TRANSCRIPT_DIR)` pair matched. **Scenario keys** (omit `only` to run all 6): `mnda`, `invoice`, `resume`, `contract-markup`, `contract-finalize`, `eliot-journal`. If the user passed scenario keys as arguments to this skill (e.g. `/weak-agent-test mnda invoice`), parse them into the `only` array. Otherwise run everything. Each run is heavy (6 exercise agents, serialized Word rendering, 6 opus judges + an opus synthesis pass); it can take many minutes. Watch live progress with `/workflows`. ### 4. Save the report + measure the exercise metrics When a workflow completes, its return value is `{ arm, report, runDir, binary, exercises, verdicts }`. The `report` contains the scoreboard, per-task merits/demerits, and prioritized fixes — deliberately **without** tool-call or token numbers (nothing self-reports them). **Most of this is now written in-run — don't re-do it.** The workflow's synth agent writes `REPORT.md` to disk itself, the judge writes each `/verdict.json`, and — **for the local backend** — the workflow's final **Metrics** phase already ran `exercise-metrics.ts --append-report`, so `REPORT.md` already ends with the measured **Run metrics** section and `exercise-metrics.{md,json}` + per-`/metrics.json` already exist. So: 1. **Do NOT overwrite `$RUN_DIR/REPORT.md`.** It's authoritative on disk (synth wrote it; the Metrics phase appended to it). Only write it from the returned `report` as a *fallback* if the file is somehow missing — never over an existing one, or you'll clobber the appended metrics. 2. **Metrics** — the **measured per-exercise tokens (input AND output) + wall-clock + docx/non-docx tool split + correctness**. The workflow can't measure tokens/time itself (the runtime gives its JS no token API and bans clocks), so this is a script pass — but only the **Claude** backend still needs you to run it: - **Local** (`exerciseBackend: "local"`) — **already done by the workflow's Metrics phase** (reads each `/exercise.json` `_local` block + `verdict.json`). Nothing to run; just confirm `REPORT.md` ends with a "Run metrics" section. - **Claude** (`exerciseBackend: "claude"`) — run it now (the token pass reconstructs from the transcripts, and `TRANSCRIPT_DIR` — the path you noted in step 3 — is only known after launch, so the workflow can't do this itself). The 4th arg is the exercise model (`args.model`, default `haiku` — **pass `sonnet` if you ran sonnet**, or it matches no agents and emits an empty table). `--append-report` adds the section to `REPORT.md` with no shell redirect: ```bash bun "$REPO/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test/scripts/exercise-metrics.ts" \ "" "$RUN_DIR" "$BINARY" "haiku" --append-report ``` Repeat per concurrent run (match each RUN_DIR with its own TRANSCRIPT_DIR). Either way you end up with the **Run metrics** section on `REPORT.md`, run-level `$RUN_DIR/exercise-metrics.{md,json}` (tagged with `backend`), and each scenario's measured row in `$RUN_DIR//metrics.json`. Token cost is reported as **effective input** (cache-weighted: fresh/non-cache input + cache write ×1.25 + cache read ×0.1) plus **output**, kept separate — NOT a single "total tokens", because cache reads are ~10× cheaper than fresh input and lumping them in overstates cost. The raw cache split is in the Totals table and `exercise-metrics.json`. 3. Present in chat: the **Executive summary**, the **per-task merits/demerits**, and the **measured metrics** — correctness (N/6 success), total docx vs other calls + docx share, fresh/cache input + output tokens, total wall-clock, and the per-scenario outliers. For a multi-run batch, also give the across-runs averages (tasks solved of 6, effective input, output, wall-clock). Tell the user where the artifacts live: - `/REPORT.md` — findings + scoreboard + per-task merits/demerits + measured metrics table - `/exercise-metrics.json` — the raw numbers - `//` — one folder per scenario, each holding that task's worked-on `.docx`, its `read.md` (markdown read view) and `renders/` (the Word PNGs the judge looked at), `review.md` + `verdict.json` (the judge's saved review + verdict), and `metrics.json` (that task's measured tokens/time/tool split + correctness) ## Backends & arms The exercise slot is **swappable**; everything downstream (render → opus judge → opus synthesis, all against the same rubrics) is identical for every backend and arm — that's what makes the numbers comparable. - **Exercise model** (`args.model`): `"haiku"` (default) or `"sonnet"` — same workflow, same prompts, only the exercise agents' model changes. - **Local harness** (`args.exerciseBackend: "local"`): the exercises run OUT OF BAND on the local-first agent harness (model built in), then the workflow renders/judges/synthesizes the results identically. Two steps: 1. `bun "$REPO/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test/scripts/run-local-corpus.ts" "$SCENARIOS_DIR" "$RUN_DIR" "$BINARY" [--context N] [--timeout SEC] [key...]` — serial (single GPU); stages via the same `stage-scenario.ts`, runs the harness per scenario, and parses each session ledger into `$RUN_DIR//exercise.json` (it also writes a run-level `$RUN_DIR/corpus.log` orchestration log itself — no stdout redirect needed). Every number is ledger-MEASURED (the local model is never asked to self-report), including a code-computed `status` (`completed` = the harness process ran to its own stop, `failed` = the watchdog killed it or it crashed on a signal — lifecycle only; the judge owns quality). `LOCAL_MODEL_PATH`/`LOCAL_MMPROJ_PATH` env vars override the harness's built-in model for control runs. 2. Collect the results DETERMINISTICALLY and pass them to the workflow inline, so it skips its LLM LOAD agent and the code-computed `status`/account reach the judge straight from disk: ```bash EXERCISES="$(bun "$REPO/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test/scripts/collect-exercises.ts" "$RUN_DIR")" ``` then launch with `{ runDir, binary, scenariosDir, exerciseBackend: "local", modelLabel: "", exercises: }`. The workflow runs the normal Render/Judge/Synthesize pipeline on them. (If you omit `exercises`, the workflow falls back to an LLM LOAD agent that reads the exercise.json files itself — the `status` is still code-computed on disk, but prefer the deterministic collect so nothing re-reads it through a model.) The point of this arm is marketing the local harness by its **competitiveness with Haiku**: same tasks, same judge, same rubrics — only the exercise brain differs. Its cost/effort is ledger-measured into each `exercise.json` under `_local`, and the workflow's final **Metrics** phase rolls it up (via `exercise-metrics.ts --local`) into the SAME Run-metrics table the Claude arms get — tokens, wall-clock, tool split, correctness — appended to `REPORT.md` **automatically, in-run** (no post-run step for this backend), so the local-vs-Haiku numbers are directly comparable. - **Competitor arm** (`args.arm: "anthropic-docx-skill"`): the A/B bake-off against Anthropic's bundled docx skill. First provision it with `bun "$REPO/.claude/skills/weak-agent-test/scripts/stage-competitor.ts" [RUN_DIR]` (fetches the real skill and installs/verifies its full toolset — fairness gate), then pass `arm: "anthropic-docx-skill", competitorDir: ""`. Only the exercise agents' tool instructions differ; grading is identical. ## Not