| name | propagate-skill |
| description | Propagate explicitly requested skills, rules, and their changes across the user's other local repositories, creating missing applicable copies while preserving repository-specific guidance. Use when the user invokes /propagate-skill or $propagate-skill alongside a skill or rule creation or update request. |
Propagate Skill Changes
Replicate the requested semantic change, not the originating skill file wholesale.
Dependencies
coordinate-repositories — coordinate the generic multi-repository work this skill delegates.
Workflow
- Identify every skill or rule created, updated, or explicitly invoked in the same user message, excluding
propagate-skill itself only when it is the workflow trigger rather than an artifact to propagate. Resolve skill sources at .agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md and rule sources at .agents/rules/<name>.md. For every selected skill, read its declared ## Dependencies section, add each named skill dependency to the artifact set, and repeat recursively until the dependency graph is complete. Deduplicate dependencies and report cycles rather than recursing indefinitely. Propagate dependencies even when the user named only the parent skill.
- Determine whether the workspace is on the user's local computer or in a cloud or ephemeral environment. Use filesystem layout, repository remotes, environment markers, and accessible sibling repositories as evidence. If the environment is cloud or remains ambiguous, do not search broadly or mutate other repositories; report the limitation or ask the user.
- On a local computer, find the repository collection containing the current repository by inspecting its parent directories and nearby Git worktrees. Search bounded repository roots first; do not crawl the entire home directory when the collection root is discoverable.
- Establish the in-scope target repositories from the bounded collection and the user's request. Exclude repositories whose primary purpose is developing, packaging, testing, or operating the agent-synchronization system itself: treat them as system repositories, not consumers, even when they contain
.agents artifacts. Do not create, update, or include propagated skills or rules in those repositories unless the user specifically requests a change to that system repository. Assess each explicitly named skill or rule independently for applicability to every remaining candidate target, using that repository's languages, frameworks, tooling, workflow, and existing agent configuration; do not use predefined skill-to-repository mappings. For every explicitly named skill, update its existing .agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md or create the missing skill directory and source file only in targets where the assessment is positive. For every explicitly named rule, update its existing .agents/rules/<name>.md or create it only where the assessment is positive. Apply propagation only inside the named .agents/skills/<name>/ or .agents/rules/<name>.md paths; never create or edit provider mirrors such as .codex, .claude, or .cursor.
- Before comparing, read the complete originating file and the complete existing target file (when present), plus enough nearby target guidance to understand its repository-specific context. Never infer that files are identical from matching names, prior propagation, hashes, or a partial diff. Compare full text, line counts, and an exact diff before deciding whether a target is current. For a requested shared artifact, make canonical source files byte-for-byte identical across applicable targets, including frontmatter, headings, examples, and whitespace. If a same-named target file implements an older or different artifact, replace it completely rather than preserving a partial semantic merge. Only retain a target-specific variant when the user explicitly authorizes it; record the variance and verify it separately.
- If origin-specific guidance is irrelevant to or conflicts with a target and cannot be generalized without changing its meaning, omit it from that target or remove it if replication already introduced it. Keep it unchanged in the origin, record the exact conflict, and ask whether the originating skill should also be corrected. Never overwrite conflicting target-specific guidance.
- Treat guidance present only in another repository as a separate consistency opportunity, not part of the requested replication. Preserve it in place, summarize the specific difference, and ask whether it should also be merged into the originating skill and the other matching repositories.
- For changes limited to
.agents skills or rules, validate the Markdown and run git diff --check; do not run unit, integration, typecheck, lint, build, agent-sync, or source-to-mirror tests because no repository has tests for skill content. Do not hand-edit provider mirrors; repository CI owns their generation.
- For cross-repository coordination, follow
coordinate-repositories for bounded discovery, isolated-worktree safety, validation, and pull-request state handling. When the user authorizes persistent propagation, carry only canonical .agents artifacts and agent-synchronization implementation or workflow files; exclude provider outputs, unrelated in-progress work, and manually copied mirrors. Before deciding to reuse an existing pull request, query its current state: a merged pull request is treated as no pull request, so create a new branch and focused pull request. Reuse only an open pull request for the same active branch and task scope. Title the pull request as a synchronization of agent files (for example, chore: sync agent files); do not frame consumer changes as modernizing or changing the synchronization system.
- Report the repositories updated, skipped, or blocked; the requested delta applied; validation results; every created pull-request link; and any repository-specific guidance awaiting the user's consistency decision.
Guardrails
- Preserve dirty worktrees and unrelated changes.
- Never reuse, alter, or clean a non-default working branch to perform propagation. Keep the original checkout intact and isolate the carry-over of canonical agent-system work.
- Create a missing same-named skill when the user explicitly names it for propagation; create a missing named rule only in repositories where it applies. Do not infer authority to create unrequested artifacts.
- Author and replicate canonical
.agents artifacts; provider-specific outputs must be generated only by the repository synchronization system when it is in scope.
- Treat locally generated provider outputs as disposable test artifacts and leave their publication to CI.
- Keep replicated code examples and reusable instructions repository-neutral; retain domain-specific material only where it is relevant to that target.
- Do not turn textual similarity into authority: apply only the current request's intended artifact, then verify the resulting canonical files are exactly identical wherever no user-authorized variant exists.
- Never propagate secrets, absolute machine paths, generated mirrors, or repository-specific operational details to unrelated repositories.