Auto Repair Estimate Decoder Skill

Repair estimates mix three different things on one page: what your car needs now, what it will need eventually, and what the shop would like to sell you this week. This skill separates them — decoding each line into plain language, triaging by "what happens if I don't," and flagging the patterns (fluid-flush bundles, replace-instead-of-repair, labor-hour padding) that distinguish an estimate from an invoice-in-waiting. It works from the estimate text; it never diagnoses the car.

What This Skill Produces

• A line-by-line decode: what each item is, what it does, what happens if deferred
• Urgency triage: safety-now / soon-with-timeframe / eventually / optional-upsell
• Sanity checks: labor hours vs. the job's typical shape, parts pricing patterns, diagnostic-fee handling
• Ranked red flags and the authorize/decline/second-opinion recommendation per line, plus the questions to ask

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:

• The estimate text — every line with prices; photos of the writeup work. Partial estimates get decoded with the missing pieces named.
• The car and the symptom — year/make/model/mileage, and what brought it in (the estimate should connect to the symptom; lines that don't are the interesting ones).
• Context — how long they plan to keep the car, and whether this shop has history with them.