frontmatter-guard

# Frontmatter Guard Skill > **Convention:** see `skills/conventions/quality.md` for citation rules; this skill is structural validation, not citation auditing. ## Contract This skill guarantees: - Every brain page is scanned against the eight canonical frontmatter validation classes - Mechanical errors (nested quotes, missing closing `---`, null bytes, slug mismatch) are auto-repairable on demand with `.bak` backups - Validation logic is shared with `gbrain doctor`'s `frontmatter_integrity` subcheck — single source of truth - Reports per source (gbrain is multi-source since v0.18.0); never silently audits the wrong root ## Why This Exists Brain pages pile up over months. Agents write them with malformed frontmatter: - Missing closing `---` (entity detector bugs) - Unstructured YAML in meeting pages (ingestion bugs) - Slug mismatches (path renames not propagated) - Null bytes (binary corruption from copy-paste accidents) - Nested double quotes in titles (`title: "Alice "Ace" Example"`) Without a guard, these accumulate silently until `gbrain sync` chokes or search returns garbage. The guard makes the failure visible at audit time and trivially fixable. ## Validation classes | Code | Meaning | Auto-fixable? | |------|---------|---------------| | `MISSING_OPEN` | File doesn't start with `---` | No (needs human) | | `MISSING_CLOSE` | No closing `---` before first heading | Yes | | `YAML_PARSE` | YAML failed to parse | Sometimes (depends on cause) | | `SLUG_MISMATCH` | Frontmatter `slug:` differs from path-derived slug | Yes (removes the field) | | `NULL_BYTES` | Binary corruption (`\x00`) | Yes | | `NESTED_QUOTES` | `title: "outer "inner" outer"` shape | Yes | | `NON_STRING_FIELD` | `title`/`type`/`slug` is an unquoted non-string scalar (e.g. `title: 123`, `slug: 2024-06-01`) | No (quote the value) | | `EMPTY_FRONTMATTER` | Open + close present but nothing between | No (needs human) | ## Phases ### Phase 1: Audit Run a read-only scan across all registered sources (or one with `--source <id>`). ```bash gbrain frontmatter audit --json ``` Reports: - Per-source counts grouped by error code - Sample of up to 20 affected pages per source - Total count - Scan timestamp Output is JSON; agents parse `errors_by_code` and `per_source` to decide next steps. ### Phase 2: Validate one path Validate a single file or directory (does not require source registration): ```bash gbrain frontmatter validate <path> --json ``` Exit code 0 = clean; 1 = errors found. Use this in CI pipelines or pre-commit hooks. ### Phase 3: Fix When issues are found: ```bash gbrain frontmatter validate <path> --fix ``` `--fix` writes `<file>.bak` for every modified file before mutating. The backup is the safety contract — works whether the brain is a git repo or a plain directory. `--dry-run` previews without writing. Use this before applying fixes in batch. ### Phase 4: Pre-commit hook (optional) For brain repos that ARE git repos, install the pre-commit hook to block malformed pages from being committed in the first place: ```bash gbrain frontmatter install-hook [--source <id>] ``` The hook runs `gbrain frontmatter validate` against staged `.md`/`.mdx` files. Bypass with `git commit --no-verify`. ## Trigger words When the user says any of these, route here: - "validate frontmatter" - "check frontmatter" - "fix frontmatter" - "frontmatter audit" - "brain lint" ## Output rules - Always run `gbrain frontmatter audit --json` first; never assume a brain is clean. - Surface counts to the user in plain language; do not dump raw JSON. - For `--fix` operations: state how many files will be modified BEFORE running, then confirm. - `SLUG_MISMATCH` fixes remove the frontmatter `slug:` field — gbrain derives slug from path. Mention this when the user's title is intentionally renamed. - Never auto-fix `MISSING_OPEN` or `EMPTY_FRONTMATTER` without explicit user input — these usually mean a human author started a page and didn't finish. ## Chains with - `gbrain doctor` — the `frontmatter_integrity` subcheck reports the same counts as `audit`. - `skills/maintain/SKILL.md` — broader brain health audit; chain after this skill if other classes of issue are suspected. - `gbrain lint` — overlapping rules for skill-file lint (a CLI command, not a skill); the `frontmatter-*` rule names in lint output come from this skill's validation surface. ## Output Format Audit summary (terse, agent-friendly): ``` Frontmatter audit — 17 issue(s) across 1 source(s) [default] /Users/me/brain 17 issue(s) MISSING_CLOSE: 8 NESTED_QUOTES: 5 NULL_BYTES: 4 sample: people/jane.md — MISSING_CLOSE companies/acme.md — NESTED_QUOTES (+ 12 more) Fix with: gbrain frontmatter validate /Users/me/brain --fix ``` JSON envelope (when `--json` is passed): ```json { "ok": false, "total": 17, "errors_by_code": { "MISSING_CLOSE": 8, "NESTED_QUOTES": 5, "NULL_BYTES": 4 }, "per_source": [ { "source_id": "default", "source_path": "/Users/me/brain", "total": 17, "errors_by_code": { "MISSING_CLOSE": 8, "NESTED_QUOTES": 5, "NULL_BYTES": 4 }, "sample": [{ "path": "people/jane.md", "codes": ["MISSING_CLOSE"] }] } ], "scanned_at": "2026-04-25T22:30:00.000Z" } ``` `gbrain frontmatter validate <path> --json` returns a similar envelope keyed on per-file results instead of per-source. ## Prevention — Writing Valid Frontmatter **This is the most important section.** Fixing broken frontmatter is good. Not writing broken frontmatter in the first place is better. ### YAML arrays (the historical #1 error source) ```yaml # Correct: single-quoted YAML flow (canonical form gbrain emits) tags: ['yc', 'w2025', 'ai'] # Correct: unquoted scalars (fine when values have no special chars) tags: [yc, w2025, ai] # Correct: block style tags: - yc - w2025 # Tolerated post-v0.37.5.0 but non-canonical: JSON-style double quotes tags: ["yc", "w2025"] # Broken: mixed JSON objects and strings (invalid YAML) tags: [{"name": "sports"}, "posterous"] ``` **Why this used to break:** before v0.37.5.0, the validator counted unescaped `"` characters and flagged any line with 3+. A flow sequence like `tags: ["yc", "w2025"]` has 4 unescaped `"` by design — it's valid YAML, but the dumb counter flagged it anyway. One brain saw 6,981 of these on a single doctor run. v0.37.5.0 parses suspicious values with `js-yaml.safeLoad` before flagging, so JSON-style arrays no longer trigger NESTED_QUOTES. **Why you should still write the canonical form:** the auto-fix engine (`gbrain frontmatter validate --fix`) and the inferred-frontmatter serializer both emit single-quoted YAML for `tags:` / `aliases:`. Writing the canonical form in new content keeps the source files stylistically consistent and makes diffs against `--fix` runs empty. **The classic LLM trap:** code like `tags: [${items.map(t => JSON.stringify(t)).join(', ')}]` produces `tags: ["yc", "w2025"]`. Use single quotes with an apostrophe fallback: `tags: [${items.map(t => t.includes("'") ? JSON.stringify(t) : "'" + t + "'").join(', ')}]`. Or use a YAML library that knows how to emit canonical YAML. ### Quoted scalars ```yaml # Correct: single quotes for values with special chars title: 'My "Quoted" Title' # Correct: double quotes when value has apostrophes title: "Men's Fashion Guide" # Broken: double quotes wrapping inner double quotes title: "My "Quoted" Title" ``` ### When to quote at all - **Unquoted** is fine for simple values: `type: person`, `batch: w2025` - **Quote** when the value contains `: " ' # [ ] { } | > & * ! ? ,` or starts with `@` - **Single quotes** are the default safe choice - **Double quotes** only when the value itself contains apostrophes ## Anti-Patterns **Don't auto-fix `MISSING_OPEN` or `EMPTY_FRONTMATTER` without user input.** These usually mean a human author started a page and didn't finish — silently inserting `---` markers around an unfinished draft is wrong. **Don't use `--fix` to "make doctor green" without reading the audit first.** SLUG_MISMATCH cases are surfaced for manual review specifically because gbrain derives the slug from path. A mismatch usually means the user renamed a file intentionally; auto-removing the slug field is the right outcome only when you've confirmed the rename was deliberate. **Don't skip the `.bak` backups.** The `.bak` is the safety contract for non-git brain repos. If `.bak` files accumulate after a fix run, that's a feature, not a bug — the user can review the diffs and delete the backups when satisfied. **Don't run `audit` on a brain where sources aren't registered.** The CLI returns "no registered sources to audit" gracefully, but the migration emits a `skipped: no_sources` phase result. Don't paper over this with a manual path-walk; the right fix is to register the source via `gbrain sources add`. **Don't install the pre-commit hook on brain dirs outside any git repo.** The install-hook command skips them automatically with a one-line note (a brain that is a subdirectory of a host repo is fine — the hook installs at the host root, scoped to that subdirectory). If you see "skipped, not a git repo" and want validation at write time anyway, use the `audit` command on a cron schedule.