| name | sync-skills |
| description | Manage the Claude Code skill set tracked by this repo — add/remove skills in skills.txt, install them onto the machine, and round-trip edits to custom skills. Use when changing which skills are installed or updating the private claude-skills repo. |
Sync skills
The skill folders under ~/.claude/skills/ (~130 MB) are intentionally untracked. The
reproducible record is home/private_dot_claude/skills.txt (a manifest of source GitHub repos,
with optional : allowlists). The installer is home/dot_local/bin/executable_install-claude-skills
→ ~/.local/bin/install-claude-skills; it clones into ~/.cache/claude-skills/ and copies skill
folders into ~/.claude/skills/.
Change which skills are installed
- Edit the source manifest
home/private_dot_claude/skills.txt — add a owner/repo line or
extend a : skill1 skill2 … allowlist. Allowlisted names must match the upstream folder name
exactly, or the installer prints a warning (renamed/removed upstream).
- Deploy the manifest first:
chezmoi apply ~/.claude/skills.txt. ⚠️ The installer reads the
deployed ~/.claude/skills.txt, NOT the source — skip this and it uses the old list.
- Install:
install-claude-skills (idempotent; copies from the clone cache). Add --force to
refetch fresh clones and overwrite existing folders.
- Verify:
ls ~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md for each one you added.
Custom (authored-by-me) skills
Live in the private repo tom1484/claude-skills, listed in skills.txt like any upstream
repo. The installer clones private repos via authenticated gh (needs gh auth login / SSH).
To change one: edit + push there, then install-claude-skills --force.
Reverse sync — edited a DEPLOYED skill in place
Run publish-claude-skills before any install-claude-skills --force (force overwrites
in-place edits from upstream). It copies each edited ~/.claude/skills/<skill>/ into the cached
clone of a repo you own (owner == your gh login, so it can never push to upstream), commits,
and prints the git push — stopping before pushing so you review first.
Commit
skills.txt is the tracked artifact — commit changes to it. The installed folders are not tracked.
