An agent skill audit examines the complete skill package for behavior that may exceed its stated purpose. Reviewers check instruction precedence, referenced scripts, network access, file writes, external tools, credential handling, and commands that could execute code.
Repository reputation alone is not enough because instructions can change and dependencies can introduce additional behavior. A careful audit reads the actual version being installed, limits permissions, and repeats review after meaningful updates.
ELI5
An agent skill audit is a careful inspection of a reusable AI skill before it is trusted. The reviewer checks the instructions, included files, scripts, tools, network access, permissions and handling of sensitive information.
For example, a skill described as a document formatter might also contain a script that uploads files to an external service. Reading the exact installed version and limiting its permissions can reveal that unexpected behavior before the skill is used with real documents.
