skill-curation

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

1. Prove duplication first. Load both skills and compare structure AND content — descriptions alone lie. Overlap > 50% → merge; otherwise keep both and note the boundary.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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