mall-self-curation

name	mall-self-curation
description	How the Plugin Mall scans, scores, and prunes itself. The Mall is a self-curating repo; this skill is its operational playbook for the weekly catalog refresh and trust scoring. Use when working on the scan pipeline, debugging a stuck weekly PR, or onboarding to Mall internals.
lastReviewed	"2026-05-29T00:00:00.000Z"

Mall Self-Curation

The Plugin Mall is self-curating. Day-to-day operations (inventory, scoring, catalog publishing, staleness pruning) run inside this repo's .github/workflows/scan-sources.yml. This skill is the operational playbook for that pipeline.

When to Use

• Authoring or debugging anything under scripts/scan-sources.cjs / normalize-frontmatter.cjs / compute-trust.cjs / list-refs.cjs / render-catalog.cjs
• Weekly catalog-refresh PR (catalog-refresh/YYYY-MM-DD) is stuck or producing surprising deltas
• New source added to sources/supported-stores.json — verifying it flows through the pipeline
• New plugin shape encountered (frontmatter convention we haven't seen before)
• Onboarding to Mall internals

The pipeline (per .github/workflows/scan-sources.yml)

  bootstrap-sources.cjs            ─┐
  scan-sources.cjs                  │
  normalize-frontmatter.cjs         ├─▶ catalog/index.json
  list-refs.cjs                     │   catalog/stores/*.json
  compute-trust.cjs                 │   scoring/trust-audit.{json,md}
  render-catalog.cjs               ─┘   catalog/INDEX.md + per-store + per-category
                                        README.md (storefront)

Each step is idempotent: re-running with no upstream changes produces byte-identical output.

Step	Owns	Reads	Writes
bootstrap-sources.cjs	Source-repo clones into $SOURCES_DIR	sources/supported-stores.json	$SOURCES_DIR/<name>/ (one shallow clone per third-party store; plugin-mall is excluded — it's this repo)
scan-sources.cjs	Per-plugin metadata extraction	sources/supported-stores.json + $SOURCES_DIR/<name>/<pluginDir>/<plugin>/ + this repo's plugins/<category>/<name>/ (for plugin-mall self-scan)	catalog/stores/<store>.json (without trust scores yet)
normalize-frontmatter.cjs	Standard + extended + raw three-layer schema	catalog/stores/<store>.json (plugins[*].frontmatter.raw)	catalog/stores/<store>.json (plugins[*].frontmatter.standard + extended)
list-refs.cjs	Per-plugin version discovery	$SOURCES_DIR/<name>/.git/ + plugin source_path	catalog/stores/<store>.json (plugins[*].available_refs)
compute-trust.cjs	Trust score (provenance + 5 signals)	catalog/stores/*.json + scoring/github-stats.json	catalog/stores/*.json (store_trust + plugins[*].trust_score) + scoring/trust-audit.{json,md}
render-catalog.cjs	JSON → MD rendering	catalog/stores/*.json	catalog/index.json + catalog/INDEX.md + catalog/stores/<store>.md (one per store) + catalog/categories/<cat>.md (one per category) + README.md (storefront) + sources/SOURCES.md (rendered registry)

The plugin-mall self-entry — load-bearing rule

sources/supported-stores.json includes one entry with name: "plugin-mall" and provenance: true. This entry refers to this repo itself and is the mechanism that puts Mall-curated plugins in the same catalog as third-party plugins.

Two rules govern it:

1. Bootstrap MUST skip plugin-mall. This repo is already checked out; cloning it from itself is wasteful and could cause race conditions during the workflow. bootstrap-sources.cjs filters by name !== "plugin-mall".
2. Scan MUST include plugin-mall. The scan walks $REPO_ROOT/plugins/ (not $SOURCES_DIR/plugin-mall/) and produces catalog/stores/plugin-mall.json like any other store. scan-sources.cjs resolves the path conditionally: third-party stores use $SOURCES_DIR/<name || local_dir_name>/<pluginDir>; plugin-mall uses $REPO_ROOT/<pluginDir>.

Crossing this boundary (cloning self in bootstrap, or skipping self in scan) is the most common source of bugs in this pipeline.

Trust scoring formula

Computed by compute-trust.cjs; signals published alongside score so readers can audit why a score is what it is.

Signal	Range	Source	Mall-as-store	Third-party typical
Provenance	0 or +50	supported-stores.json provenance field	+50	0
Store maintenance	0–15	scoring/github-stats.json last_commit recency	15	0–15
Store adoption	0–10	GitHub stars + contributors via scoring/github-stats.json	10	0–10
License clarity	0–10	OSI-approved=10, clear non-permissive=7, ambiguous=0	7 (PolyForm-NC)	0–10
Frontmatter completeness	0–10	description + version + lastReviewed presence	10	0–10
README presence	0–5	README ≥ 200 chars	5	0–5

Mall-as-store ceiling: 97/100. Third-party stores cap at 50 by construction (no provenance). Per-plugin score adds up to +20 from plugin-specific signals on top of store score.

If the formula drifts from this table, update this skill in the same commit. Changes to the weights or signals are [behaviour]-class commits; changes that alter what the published-signal contract guarantees are [constitutional].

Workflow + cadence

• Weekly cron: Mondays 11:00 UTC per .github/workflows/scan-sources.yml
• PR-back: only when catalog/, scoring/, README.md, or sources/SOURCES.md change (timestamp-only deltas filtered)
• Manual dispatch: workflow_dispatch available for ad-hoc re-scans (e.g., after adding a store to supported-stores.json)
• Editorial review on PR: each catalog-refresh PR is the human surface for any deltas — score changes, new plugins, staleness flags

What the Mall does vs out-of-scope

Concern	Owner
Add / remove a source store from supported-stores.json	Mall (this skill + source-inventory)
Tune trust score weights	Mall (this skill + compute-trust.cjs)
Scan / score / render / publish pipeline	Mall
Decide a plugin earns a slot in any consumer project's baseline	Out of scope (consumer-owned decision)
Coherence with a specific consumer project	Out of scope (consumer-owned audit)
Reframe what counts as "curated"	Out of scope (editorial decision, not pipeline)
Periodic review of how the catalog is consumed downstream	Out of scope (consumer-owned)

If a question crosses the line into editorial or downstream policy, route it out of the workflow. Don't self-modify cross-repo policy from inside the Mall.

Curation log

Every editorial Mall decision lands in docs/curation-log.md in this repo (Mall's own append-only log). Decisions ship with re-eval dates; routine refreshes do not need log entries unless they triggered a curation action.

Anti-Patterns

Anti-pattern	Correction
Editing brain files (skills/instructions/prompts/agents) under plugins/ during the workflow	The workflow MUST NOT modify plugins/ — editorial changes ship via PR review only. The workflow only writes to catalog/, scoring/, README.md, sources/SOURCES.md.
Bootstrap re-cloning plugin-mall from itself	bootstrap-sources.cjs MUST filter name !== "plugin-mall".
Scan skipping plugin-mall	scan-sources.cjs MUST include plugin-mall (walks $REPO_ROOT/plugins/, not bootstrapped sources).
Trust score without published signals	Every score MUST come with its signal breakdown in catalog/stores/<store>.json trust_signals field.
Hardcoded "curated" tier flag in code	There is NO tier flag in the schema. Curation bias emerges from provenance: true in supported-stores.json.
Quietly fudging the license signal so Mall scores 100	Score honestly. PolyForm-NC = 7/10. The provenance +50 already carries the first-party trust weight.

Falsifiability

This skill needs revision if any of the following occur by 2026-08-29 (90 days):

• The workflow modifies a file outside catalog/, scoring/, README.md, sources/SOURCES.md ≥1 time
• Trust scores cluster oddly (e.g., third-party score consistently > 60 — provenance bonus undercalibrated)
• Mall-curated plugins fail to rank #1 in /mall-search for the same name as a third-party entry (provenance signal not flowing)
• A new source-shape (frontmatter convention) breaks normalize-frontmatter.cjs ≥2 times without surfacing in scoring/trust-audit.md
• The boundary table (what the Mall does vs out-of-scope) produces wrong-routing decisions ≥2 times in a quarter

Track in docs/curation-log.md tagged [MALL-SELF-CURATION].

Related

• source-inventory/SKILL.md — managing supported-stores.json
• store-evaluation/SKILL.md — scoring a candidate store before adding it
• staleness-discipline/SKILL.md — pruning stale entries
• mall-maintenance-rules.instructions.md — always-on routing for this skill