sync-skills

name	sync-skills
description	Fetch skills from projects on the current system, genericize them, and add to the claude-skills repository. Use when user says "sync skills", "fetch skills", "import skills from projects", or wants to pull skills from their local projects into this public repo.

Sync Skills from Local Projects

Overview

This skill scans projects on the current system for Claude Code skills (.claude/skills/ directories), identifies new or updated skills, genericizes them by stripping project-specific content, and adds them to this repository.

Workflow

Step 1: Identify the Claude Skills Repo

The target repo is the claude-skills project. Confirm its location - it should be the current working directory or specified by the user.

Step 2: Scan for Skills

Search for skills across local projects:

Find all directories matching: <projects-root>/*/.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md

Default projects root: [your projects root] (e.g. ~/Documents/Projects/). The user may override this with a different path.

For each found skill, collect:

• Skill name (directory name)
• Source project name
• SKILL.md content
• Any files in references/, assets/, scripts/ subdirectories

Step 3: Deduplicate

Compare found skills against skills already in skills/by-role/ and skills/shared/ directories of this repo:

• New skill: not present in repo - proceed to genericize
• Updated skill: present but source has newer/different content - show diff, ask user whether to update
• Identical: skip silently

Step 4: Determine the Role

For each new skill, determine which role folder it belongs in:

Valid roles: pm, engineer, qa, designer, content-creator, devops, shared, leadership, program-delivery-manager, customer-success, recruiter, consultant, sales, marketing, founder, data-scientist, data-engineer, security

If the role is unclear, ask the user before proceeding.

Step 5: Genericize

For each new or updated skill, apply these transformations:

Replace personal references:

• Author names, handles, usernames -> remove or replace with [your name]
• Newsletter/blog names -> [your newsletter]
• Specific domains (e.g., name.substack.com) -> [your-domain]
• Niche or topic tied to the author -> [your niche] or [your topic]
• Company names -> [your company]
• Team names -> [your team]
• Client names -> [your client]
• Project-specific program names -> [your program]

Remove project-specific content:

• File paths referencing the source project
• References to other project-specific skills, configs, or workflows
• Environment variables specific to the source project
• API keys, tokens, or credentials (should never exist, but check)

Preserve:

• The skill's core logic, frameworks, and checklists
• Generic examples and templates
• Anti-patterns and quality criteria
• References to general tools or platforms (LinkedIn, Substack, etc.)
• The book or methodology the skill is grounded in

Verify:

• YAML frontmatter has name and description fields
• Description has multiple trigger phrases and is pushy
• Body is under 500 lines
• No personal/project-specific content remains
• Skill is self-contained (no broken references to removed content)

Step 6: Add to Repo

For each genericized skill, use init_skill.py to scaffold and register in skills.json:

python3 scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --role <role> --description "<one-liner>" --tags "<tag1,tag2>"

This creates skills/by-role/<role>/<skill-name>/SKILL.md and adds the entry to skills.json automatically.

Then overwrite the scaffolded SKILL.md with the genericized content.

Do not manually edit install.sh - it reads from skills.json. The registry is the source of truth.

Step 7: Validate

python3 scripts/validate_skill.py

All skills must pass before committing.

Step 8: Update README

Add a row to the correct role table in README.md:

| `skill-name` | What it does | Book/methodology source |

Step 9: Report and Commit

Output a summary:

• Skills added (with source project and role assigned)
• Skills updated (with what changed)
• Skills skipped (already identical)
• Skills needing manual review (couldn't fully genericize)

Commit with a clear message:

git add skills/by-role/<role>/<skill-name>/ skills.json README.md
git commit -m "sync <skill-name> from [source project]"

Anti-Patterns

Don't blindly copy. Always read the source skill first. Some skills are deeply project-specific and can't be genericized.

Don't merge skills. If two projects have different versions of the same skill, ask the user which to keep.

Don't strip too much. The goal is to remove personal references, not gut the content. Frameworks, examples, and checklists should survive intact.

Don't forget supporting files. Check for references/, assets/, scripts/ subdirectories and copy them too.

Don't edit install.sh directly. Use init_skill.py to register skills. install.sh reads from skills.json - the hardcoded array no longer exists.

Quality Checklist

Before completing sync:

• Each new skill scaffolded with init_skill.py (creates folder + registers in skills.json)
• Each new skill has valid YAML frontmatter (name + description)
• Description has multiple trigger phrases
• No personal names, domains, or project paths remain
• Placeholder brackets used consistently: [your niche], [your newsletter], [your-domain], [your name], [your company], [your team], [your client]
• README.md skills table updated with new row
• python3 scripts/validate_skill.py passes
• Each skill is self-contained and works standalone
• Body under 500 lines per SKILL.md