diff --git a/layers/registry/app/components/SkillDetail.vue b/layers/registry/app/components/SkillDetail.vue
index d684cc69..e98a266f 100644
--- a/layers/registry/app/components/SkillDetail.vue
+++ b/layers/registry/app/components/SkillDetail.vue
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import { avatarProxyUrl, githubAvatarProxyUrl } from '#shared/image-proxy'
 import { skillPageUrl as exactSkillPageUrl, skillInstallCmd, skillRunCmd, skillRunPrompt } from '#shared/skill-commands'
 import { headlineTrendingAward, trendingAwardBadgeLabel, trendingAwardLabel, trendingAwardPath } from '#shared/trending-award'
 import { behaviorIcon } from '../utils/skill-behaviors'
+import { resolveSkillContextChecks } from '../utils/skill-context-checks'
 import { formatByteSize, formatTokenCount, resolveSkillContextCost, resolveSkillFileContext } from '../utils/skill-context-cost'
 import { fileIcon, highlightLangFromPath } from '../utils/skill-file-tree'
 import { partitionMetadataEntries } from '../utils/skill-metadata'
@@ -537,6 +538,11 @@ const contextCost = computed(() => data.value
     })
   : null)
 
+const contextChecks = computed(() => resolveSkillContextChecks({
+  raw: data.value?.raw ?? null,
+  frontmatter: data.value?.frontmatter ?? null,
+}))
+
 const audits = computed<SkillAudit[]>(() => liveSkill.value?.audits ?? [])
 const auditOverview = computed(() => resolveSkillAuditOverview(audits.value))
 
@@ -2142,7 +2148,7 @@ useHead(computed(() => ({
                   aria-hidden="true"
                 />
                 <span v-if="viewerContext._tag === 'skill'">
-                  <strong>{{ formatTokenCount(viewerContext.cost.tokens.metadata) }}</strong> tokens always: the name and description.
+                  <strong>{{ formatTokenCount(viewerContext.cost.tokens.metadata) }}</strong> tokens for metadata: the name and description.
                   <strong>{{ formatTokenCount(viewerContext.cost.tokens.instructions) }}</strong> when used: this file.
                   <template v-if="viewerContext.cost.resourceFileCount">
                     <strong>{{ formatTokenCount(viewerContext.cost.tokens.resources) }}</strong> more on demand in {{ viewerContext.cost.resourceFileCount }} {{ viewerContext.cost.resourceFileCount === 1 ? 'file' : 'files' }}.
@@ -2158,6 +2164,10 @@ useHead(computed(() => ({
                   Your agent does not load this file into context unless it opens it.
                 </span>
               </p>
+              <SkillContextChecks
+                v-if="viewerContext?._tag === 'skill' && data?.raw"
+                :result="contextChecks"
+              />
               <section
                 v-show="contentView === 'preview'"
                 class="skill-mdxg p-4 sm:p-6 relative"
diff --git a/layers/registry/app/components/_SkillContextChecks.vue b/layers/registry/app/components/_SkillContextChecks.vue
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..71c6b64e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/layers/registry/app/components/_SkillContextChecks.vue
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+<script setup lang="ts">
+import type { resolveSkillContextChecks } from '../utils/skill-context-checks'
+
+const { result } = defineProps<{
+  result: ReturnType<typeof resolveSkillContextChecks>
+}>()
+
+const hasError = computed(() => result.checks.some(check => check.tone === 'error'))
+const hasDescriptionCap = computed(() => result.checks.some(check => check.code === 'codex-description-cap' || check.code === 'claude-description-cap'))
+</script>
+
+<template>
+  <details class="group border-b border-default font-mono text-xs">
+    <summary
+      class="flex cursor-pointer list-none items-center gap-2 px-4 py-2 focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-primary sm:px-6 [&::-webkit-details-marker]:hidden"
+      :class="hasError ? 'text-error-700 dark:text-error' : result.checks.length ? 'text-warning-800 dark:text-warning' : 'text-muted'"
+    >
+      <UIcon
+        :name="result.checks.length ? 'i-lucide-triangle-alert' : 'i-lucide-info'"
+        class="size-3.5 shrink-0"
+        aria-hidden="true"
+      />
+      <span v-if="hasError">SKILL.md has missing or invalid fields</span>
+      <span v-else-if="hasDescriptionCap">An Agent shortens this description</span>
+      <span v-else-if="result.checks.length && result.claudeListing._tag === 'listed'">Description uses {{ result.claudeListing.percent.toFixed(1) }}% of example budget</span>
+      <span v-else>How this Skill uses context</span>
+      <UIcon name="i-lucide-chevron-down" class="ml-auto size-3.5 shrink-0 group-open:rotate-180" aria-hidden="true" />
+    </summary>
+    <div class="space-y-3 px-4 pb-3 font-sans text-sm sm:px-6">
+      <p v-if="!hasError" class="text-default">
+        Before choosing a Skill, your Agent reads its name and description.
+        All available Skills share that space.
+      </p>
+      <ul v-if="result.checks.length" class="space-y-2" aria-label="Skill context checks">
+        <li v-for="check in result.checks" :key="check.code" :class="check.tone === 'error' ? 'text-error-700 dark:text-error' : 'text-warning-800 dark:text-warning'">
+          {{ check.message }}
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+      <div v-if="result.claudeListing._tag === 'listed'" class="space-y-2 text-muted">
+        <p>
+          In our Claude Code example, all Skill names and descriptions share 8,000 characters.
+          This Skill uses ≈{{ result.claudeListing.characters }} characters, or {{ result.claudeListing.percent.toFixed(1) }}%.
+        </p>
+        <p v-if="result.checks.some(check => check.code === 'listing-share')">
+          The 1% threshold is a size suggestion. Longer descriptions can still fit.
+        </p>
+        <p>Your model, settings, and other Skills decide how much text your Agent can read.</p>
+      </div>
+      <p v-else-if="result.claudeListing._tag === 'explicit-only'" class="text-muted">
+        This Skill turns off automatic use in Claude Code.
+        Its description stays out of the automatic Skill list by default.
+      </p>
+      <details class="text-muted">
+        <summary class="cursor-pointer text-xs font-mono">
+          Example settings and source
+        </summary>
+        <p class="mt-2">
+          The example uses a 200k-token context and default Claude Code settings.
+          The count includes the name, description, separators, and when_to_use when present.
+          Codex also counts local file paths.
+        </p>
+        <p class="mt-2 text-xs">
+          <a href="https://github.com/smol-ai/skit/blob/08ff55d9d995b402ebd29c51bdedbe5690b9b0e0/docs/skill-context-budgets.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="underline underline-offset-2">Skit's source and limits</a>:
+          Codex 0.160.1, Claude Code 2.1.292.
+        </p>
+      </details>
+    </div>
+  </details>
+</template>
diff --git a/layers/registry/app/utils/skill-context-checks.ts b/layers/registry/app/utils/skill-context-checks.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e32b9a04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/layers/registry/app/utils/skill-context-checks.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+/** Source-only checks. No local Agent configuration or complete listing is available here. */
+export interface SkillContextCheck {
+  code: 'frontmatter' | 'name' | 'description' | 'codex-description-cap' | 'claude-description-cap' | 'listing-share'
+  tone: 'warning' | 'error'
+  message: string
+}
+
+type ClaudeListing
+  = | { _tag: 'unavailable' }
+    | { _tag: 'explicit-only' }
+    | { _tag: 'listed', characters: number, percent: number }
+
+// Versioned observations, not tokenizer counts or a visitor's configured allowance.
+// https://github.com/smol-ai/skit/blob/08ff55d9d995b402ebd29c51bdedbe5690b9b0e0/docs/skill-context-budgets.md
+// Codex 0.160.1: 1,024 code points; Claude Code 2.1.292: 1,536 combined code points.
+const CODEX_DESCRIPTION_CAP = 1024
+const CLAUDE_DESCRIPTION_CAP = 1536
+const CLAUDE_EXAMPLE_ALLOWANCE = 8000 // 200,000 context tokens × 4 characters × 1%.
+
+export function resolveSkillContextChecks(input: {
+  raw: string | null
+  frontmatter: Record<string, unknown> | null
+}): { checks: SkillContextCheck[], claudeListing: ClaudeListing } {
+  const checks: SkillContextCheck[] = []
+  if (!input.raw)
+    return { checks, claudeListing: { _tag: 'unavailable' } }
+  const fields = input.frontmatter
+  if (!fields) {
+    checks.push({ code: 'frontmatter', tone: 'error', message: 'SKILL.md needs a valid YAML header with a name and description.' })
+    return { checks, claudeListing: { _tag: 'unavailable' } }
+  }
+  const name = typeof fields.name === 'string' ? fields.name.trim() : ''
+  const description = typeof fields.description === 'string' ? fields.description.trim() : ''
+  if (!name)
+    checks.push({ code: 'name', tone: 'error', message: 'The name in the SKILL.md header is missing or is not text.' })
+  if (!description)
+    checks.push({ code: 'description', tone: 'error', message: 'The description in the SKILL.md header is missing or is not text.' })
+  if (!name || !description)
+    return { checks, claudeListing: { _tag: 'unavailable' } }
+
+  if (Array.from(description).length > CODEX_DESCRIPTION_CAP)
+    checks.push({ code: 'codex-description-cap', tone: 'warning', message: 'Codex shortens descriptions longer than 1,024 characters. Put when-to-use details first.' })
+
+  const explicitOnly = fields['disable-model-invocation'] === true || fields['disable-model-invocation'] === 'true'
+  if (explicitOnly)
+    return { checks, claudeListing: { _tag: 'explicit-only' } }
+
+  const combined = [description, typeof fields.when_to_use === 'string' ? fields.when_to_use : ''].filter(Boolean).join(' ').trim()
+  const combinedCharacters = Array.from(combined)
+  if (combinedCharacters.length > CLAUDE_DESCRIPTION_CAP)
+    checks.push({ code: 'claude-description-cap', tone: 'warning', message: 'Claude Code shortens description plus when_to_use after 1,536 characters by default. Put when-to-use details first.' })
+
+  // Matches Skit's estimated name, separator, capped description, and newline row.
+  const characters = Array.from(`${name}: ${combinedCharacters.slice(0, CLAUDE_DESCRIPTION_CAP).join('')}\n`).length
+  const percent = characters / CLAUDE_EXAMPLE_ALLOWANCE * 100
+  if (characters * 100 > CLAUDE_EXAMPLE_ALLOWANCE)
+    checks.push({ code: 'listing-share', tone: 'warning', message: 'A shorter description leaves more room for other Skills. This entry exceeds our 1% size suggestion.' })
+  return { checks, claudeListing: { _tag: 'listed', characters, percent } }
+}
diff --git a/test/unit/skill-context-checks.test.ts b/test/unit/skill-context-checks.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7d3e3d9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unit/skill-context-checks.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
+import { resolveSkillContextChecks } from '../../layers/registry/app/utils/skill-context-checks'
+
+const source = (frontmatter: Record<string, unknown> | null) => ({ raw: 'source', frontmatter })
+
+describe('skill context checks', () => {
+  it('counts the rendered Claude row and flags strictly above 1% of the example allowance', () => {
+    const atLimit = resolveSkillContextChecks(source({ name: 'x', description: 'a'.repeat(76) }))
+    const above = resolveSkillContextChecks(source({ name: 'x', description: 'a'.repeat(77) }))
+    expect(atLimit.claudeListing).toEqual({ _tag: 'listed', characters: 80, percent: 1 })
+    expect(atLimit.checks).toEqual([])
+    expect(above.checks.map(check => check.code)).toEqual(['listing-share'])
+  })
+
+  it('caps Unicode descriptions by characters and includes when_to_use for Claude', () => {
+    const result = resolveSkillContextChecks(source({ name: 'x', description: '😀'.repeat(1025), when_to_use: 'b'.repeat(512) }))
+    expect(result.checks.map(check => check.code)).toEqual(['codex-description-cap', 'claude-description-cap', 'listing-share'])
+    expect(result.claudeListing).toEqual({ _tag: 'listed', characters: 1540, percent: 19.25 })
+  })
+
+  it('keeps explicit-only Claude Skills out of the listing estimate', () => {
+    const result = resolveSkillContextChecks(source({ 'name': 'x', 'description': 'a'.repeat(2000), 'disable-model-invocation': true }))
+    expect(result.claudeListing).toEqual({ _tag: 'explicit-only' })
+    expect(result.checks.map(check => check.code)).toEqual(['codex-description-cap'])
+  })
+
+  it('reports missing or invalid source metadata without counting repository fallback text', () => {
+    expect(resolveSkillContextChecks(source(null)).checks.map(check => check.code)).toEqual(['frontmatter'])
+    const invalid = resolveSkillContextChecks(source({ name: 5, description: ['not a string'] }))
+    expect(invalid.checks.map(check => check.code)).toEqual(['name', 'description'])
+    expect(invalid.claudeListing).toEqual({ _tag: 'unavailable' })
+  })
+
+  it('does not report source defects while the source is unavailable', () => {
+    expect(resolveSkillContextChecks({ raw: null, frontmatter: null })).toEqual({ checks: [], claudeListing: { _tag: 'unavailable' } })
+  })
+})