agent-skills-frontmatter-compatibility

name	agent-skills-frontmatter-compatibility
description	Fix packaging and validation failures caused by fragile SKILL frontmatter when publishing or syncing skills into Toby's davidtoby/agent-skills repository. Use when rebuild_all_packages.py fails early on a promoted skill, especially after copying local-only community skills such as lark-* into the repo.

Agent Skills Frontmatter Compatibility

Use the smallest metadata-only fix that keeps the skill meaning intact.

Quick checklist

1. Inspect SKILL.md frontmatter before changing the body.
2. Remove unsupported frontmatter fields; in this repo, version: is a common offender.
3. Rewrite description: as a plain single-line YAML string.
4. Avoid YAML block scalars for descriptions (> and |).
5. Avoid brittle placeholder-heavy description text such as raw angle-bracket tokens when the packager/parser is failing.
6. Re-run a full rebuild after the metadata fix because repo validation checks the whole repo, not only the changed skill.

Preferred rebuild step

Run:

python3 scripts/rebuild_all_packages.py

If you were iterating on one skill first, still finish with a full rebuild once the frontmatter fix is in place.

Practical rule

Prefer changing metadata formatting over editing substantive instructions. If the skill body is reasonable, leave it alone.

Known symptom pattern

If rebuild_all_packages.py fails immediately on a newly promoted local-only skill, suspect frontmatter compatibility before deeper refactors.

Reference

Read references/examples.md for concrete fixes that already worked in Toby's repo.