| name | skill-curation |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| description | Consolidate, dedupe, and prune the skill library — merge overlapping skills into one (absorbed_into), delete truly dead skills, and keep the manifest honest. Use when the doctor flags skill drift, two skills overlap, or a lifecycle run surfaces consolidation candidates. |
| triggers | ["curate skills","consolidate skills","merge skills","prune skills","skill dedupe"] |
Skill Curation
Consolidate, dedupe, and prune the skill library. Curation is the
counterweight to creation: every new skill is debt until it earns its place,
and a merged skill serves better than two overlapping ones.
When to Curate
- After a lifecycle run (orch-skill-lifecycle Monday deep eval)
- When 2+ skills overlap —
skills_list(category=...) shows same-domain
entries with similar descriptions
- On any deletion — always declare
absorbed_into=<umbrella> (merged
into an existing skill) or absorbed_into="" (true prune) so downstream
tooling (cron-job skill references, the curator) knows intent
- When the doctor flags skill drift, duplicates, or deployed orphans
Rules
- Prove duplication first. Load both skills and compare structure AND
content — descriptions alone lie. Overlap > 50% → merge; otherwise keep
both and note the boundary.
- Improve existing before creating. The merge target is the existing
skill — extend it, never spawn a sibling. If the two are equal weight,
keep the one with better structure, fold the other's unique sections in.
- Redirects carry real bodies. A deprecated skill keeps a body that
explicitly routes to the replacement (and an
aliases: entry in
frontmatter) — never a placeholder. Deleting a redirect without a
forwarding target orphans every reference to the old name.
- Check consumers before pruning. A deployed-only skill may be
referenced by crons, manifests, or other skills. Grep jobs.json,
install-crons.sh, and skills before
delete. Deploy warnings are not
deletes.
- Verify after every merge/delete.
skill_view both skills, re-read
the merged SKILL.md for fence balance, run the doctor, regenerate the
manifest if skills/ changed.
Manifest Discipline
- After any skill add/rename/delete: regenerate
docs/SKILLS-MANIFEST.md via gen-skills-manifest.py (never hand-edit).
- Keep category counts truthful — a stub or placeholder body in the repo is
a curation debt: flag for restore, don't let it ship.
Anti-Patterns
- Merging by description without reading both files
- Deleting a skill and leaving its references dangling
- "Fixing" a balanced file's fences (see orch-skill-lifecycle fence rule)
- Creating a new skill because the existing one needed a patch
