trellis-skill-assimilator

name

trellis-skill-assimilator

description

Extract reusable engineering capabilities from external GitHub skill projects and produce safe Trellis absorption plans. Use when the user provides a GitHub repository URL, skill project URL, open-source agent skill collection, or asks to compare or update projects such as superpowers, gsd, CodeStable, loop-engineering, ponytail, or similar. Analyze README/SKILL.md/references/scripts/license and produce source analysis, capability extraction, absorption card, Trellis target mapping, risk judgment, update-scan delta report, and verification scenario recommendations. Do not copy third-party skill text directly; absorb capability patterns, workflow structure, and verifiable design only.

Trellis Skill Assimilator

Overview

Convert useful patterns from external GitHub skill projects into governed Trellis capabilities. The goal is not to copy a skill. The goal is to answer:

• What engineering problem does the project solve?
• Which Trellis capabilities are missing or weak?
• Which capabilities should be absorbed, watched, or rejected?
• Which Trellis stage, reference, or gate should receive the capability?
• How will we verify that the absorption improves output quality?

Guardrails

• Do not copy large passages from third-party skills.
• Absorb by capability, not by project name.
• Do not absorb a capability without a Trellis target.
• Do not merge a capability without a verification scenario.
• When license is unclear, strong copyleft, commercially restricted, or untrusted, only summarize ideas; do not move text, scripts, or templates.
• Do not directly modify Trellis core skills; first produce an absorption plan and verification recommendation, then wait for user confirmation.
• Do not put absorption governance into trellis-zero-to-mvp, trellis-mvp-to-delivery, or trellis-delivery-controller.

Modes

Initial Assimilation

Use for first-time analysis of an external GitHub skill project.

1. Read references/source-analysis-template.md.
2. Analyze repository README, skill directories, SKILL.md, references, scripts, docs, and license.
3. Read references/capability-taxonomy.md and classify findings as capabilities.
4. Read references/trellis-target-map.md and map capabilities to Trellis targets.
5. Read references/license-safety-policy.md and decide the absorption boundary.
6. Use references/absorption-card-template.md to output the absorption card.

Update Scan

Use when a previously analyzed project changes.

1. Read the existing absorption card or user-provided last_analyzed_ref.
2. Compare current ref against last_analyzed_ref for README, SKILL.md, references, scripts, docs, and license changes.
3. Read references/update-scan-policy.md and analyze only new capabilities, changed capabilities, risk changes, or updates to already absorbed capabilities.
4. Output a delta absorption report.

Output

Every run must output:

• Source Analysis.
• Capability Extraction.
• Absorption Card.
• Trellis Target Map.
• License and Safety Notes.
• Evaluation Requirements.
• Recommendation: absorb, watch, reject, or needs-human-review.

If recommending absorption, also provide:

• Trellis files to add or modify.
• Purpose of each change.
• New verification scenario.
• Rollback condition.
• Whether strong-model or human review is required.

References

• references/source-analysis-template.md - Read when analyzing external repository structure and capability.
• references/absorption-card-template.md - Read when producing an absorption card.
• references/capability-taxonomy.md - Read when classifying and naming capabilities.
• references/trellis-target-map.md - Read when mapping to Trellis targets.
• references/license-safety-policy.md - Read when deciding license and content movement boundaries.
• references/update-scan-policy.md - Read when scanning an already analyzed project for changes.