diff --git a/.claude/skills/peltier/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/peltier/SKILL.md
index fa55131..24b9542 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/peltier/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/peltier/SKILL.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 name: peltier
-description: Prove a performance change is real — or refuse to claim it. Use when optimizing code for speed, verifying a claimed speedup ("is this actually faster?", "did my optimization work?"), checking for a performance regression ("did this PR make things slower?"), or comparing the performance of two implementations. Runs peltier's trust layer: equivalence gates, A/A environment calibration, interleaved A/B with bootstrap confidence intervals. Never reports a naked percentage and never claims a win that is not statistically significant. Do NOT use for correctness-only work.
+description: "Prove a performance change is real — or refuse to claim it. Use when optimizing code for speed, verifying a claimed speedup ('is this actually faster?', 'did my optimization work?'), checking for a performance regression ('did this PR make things slower?'), or comparing the performance of two implementations. Runs peltier's trust layer — equivalence gates, A/A environment calibration, interleaved A/B with bootstrap confidence intervals. Never reports a naked percentage and never claims a win that is not statistically significant. Do NOT use for correctness-only work."
 ---
 
 # peltier — prove it, or claim nothing
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index aec64d5..efc13a8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -105,6 +105,23 @@ jobs:
       - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable
       - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
 
+      - name: SKILL.md frontmatter is loadable
+        run: |
+          python3 - <<'PY'
+          import sys, yaml, pathlib
+          p = pathlib.Path(".claude/skills/peltier/SKILL.md")
+          text = p.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+          if not text.startswith("---\n"):
+              sys.exit("SKILL.md must open with a --- frontmatter block")
+          fm = yaml.safe_load(text.split("---", 2)[1])   # raises on malformed YAML
+          for key in ("name", "description"):
+              if not isinstance(fm.get(key), str) or not fm[key].strip():
+                  sys.exit(f"frontmatter '{key}' must be a non-empty string")
+          if fm["name"] != p.parent.name:
+              sys.exit(f"frontmatter name '{fm['name']}' != directory '{p.parent.name}'")
+          print(f"frontmatter OK: name={fm['name']}, description={len(fm['description'])} chars")
+          PY
+
       - name: Preflight resolves inside a peltier checkout
         run: |
           sh .claude/skills/peltier/scripts/preflight.sh | tee /tmp/pf.txt