manage-skill-dirs

name	manage-skill-dirs
description	Partial Skill: invoke by name only — config-authoring/skill-dirs' curation engine for the extra skill-scan locations improve-skill's validate engine uses — loaded by the manage gateway, not triggered by users directly.
user-invocable	false
metadata	{"internal":true}

Manage Skill Dirs

The concrete engine for the ACED skill-dirs config — the opt-in registry of extra skill-scan locations the validate engine scans on top of its two built-in default roots. It exists so a user curates those locations through a clean interface instead of hand-editing the config directly. Loaded in-session by the manage gateway; it carries a self-contained .mts script (the repo's node-≥23.6 / no-deps convention).

The config it curates

A single key — anchors = [ … ] — a list of repo-relative directory patterns. * globs one segment; ** globs zero or more segments (any depth, including zero). There is no capture token: a skill's name comes from its own directory basename, not from the pattern, so a pattern containing < or > is malformed. Each pattern names a directory whose immediate children are scanned for SKILL.md. The two default roots (the repo-root public and private agentskills-standard skill directories) are implicit and always scanned — never listed here, and never curatable.

Run an operation

node "<skill>/scripts/manage-skill-dirs.mts" [--root .] <operation>

Operation	Effect
--list	list the two fixed default roots (each explained) + every custom pattern, flagged fixed/custom
--add <pattern>	validate + append a custom pattern (creates the config if absent); refuses a fixed default root or a malformed pattern; adding an already-present pattern is a no-op
--remove <pattern>	drop a custom pattern; a no-op (config unchanged) when the pattern is absent
--edit <old> <new>	replace one custom pattern; refuses a malformed <new>; a no-op when <old> is absent
--induce <path>	from a sample directory that contains skill subdirectories, offer a literal-dir candidate and a *-generalization of a variable segment (e.g. a plugin name); refuses a path that is not a directory under the repo
--preview <pattern>	list the skills a candidate pattern would discover, without persisting it; a malformed pattern is refused, a zero-match pattern reports none

Curate with preview. The intended flow: take the user's sample path → --induce it → --preview each candidate to show the matched skills → confirm with the user → --add the chosen pattern. Never write a pattern the user has not seen the effect of.

Boundaries

Writes only the skill-dirs config — never a skill, spec.md, status, approval, or a freeze; it is operational config, not skill content (so manage's write-ownership guard holds). It does not scan or validate skills — that is improve-skill's validate engine, which reads this config. This engine validates on the write side so a bad pattern is never persisted.

When node is absent, an agent performs the same edits by hand: read the anchors array, apply the CRUD, validate a pattern is repo-relative with only literal / * / ** segments (never < or >), and never write a fixed default root.