update-lid

update-lid

Configure or reconcile a project for linked-intent development. Dispatches on project state — do not re-run unconditionally.

Invoked as /update-lid. The skill handles both initial bootstrap and ongoing reconciliation; the user's mental model differs ("set me up" vs. "update what we have") but the behavior dispatches on what's detected in the project, not on the user's framing.

Instruction-file anchor

LID's directives, the ## LID block, and the navigation table live in the project's agent-instructions file. Canonically that is AGENTS.md (the cross-tool convention Cursor and most agents read), with CLAUDE.md a symlink alias so Claude Code sees the same content. Never branch on which host you are running under.

• Read (detect directives, mode, version, drift): use AGENTS.md if it exists, otherwise CLAUDE.md. With the symlink the two are one file.
• Fresh bootstrap (write): create AGENTS.md and a CLAUDE.md symlink pointing at it (ln -s AGENTS.md CLAUDE.md). Where symlinks are unavailable (e.g. Windows without Developer Mode), instead write a CLAUDE.md whose only content is @AGENTS.md.
• Existing project (write): update the file that already exists, in place. A project that already uses CLAUDE.md keeps it — do not migrate it to AGENTS.md.

Below, the instruction file means the file chosen by these rules.

Detection signals

Use these exact detection rules — do not guess or use fuzzy matching.

• LID directives present: grep for the literal strings "linked-intent-dev" or "Linked-Intent Development" in the instruction file. Either match indicates LID directives are already installed.
• LID metadata block present: grep for a ## LID heading in the instruction file. The block carries two bullets:
  • - Mode: {Full|Scoped} — the project's LID mode. Case-insensitive on the mode name; whitespace tolerated.
  • - Version: {X.Y.Z} — the linked-intent-dev plugin version the project's docs conform to. A project with a ## LID block but no - Version: bullet is treated as predating versioned conventions (no - Version: bullet) (walk from the start).
• Project version vs. installed version: read - Version: from the ## LID block and compare it to the installed linked-intent-dev plugin version (the version field in plugins/linked-intent-dev/.claude-plugin/plugin.json, the canonical LID conventions version). When the project version is lower, the project lags and version-walk applies.
• Arrow-maintenance overlay present: docs/arrows/ directory exists at the project root.
• Convention drift: any of the required directories missing (docs/intent/, docs/high-level-design.md); the instruction-file directive sections diverge from the current template, including a malformed ## LID block (heading other than a bare ## LID, mode merged into the heading as ## LID Mode: Full, a missing - Mode: or - Version: bullet, or stray non-template bullets); a design doc whose prefix: frontmatter is an array (an unresolved multi-prefix marker — see Version-walk); or a node folder holding more than its <node>-design.md + optional <node>-specs.md pair (an un-promoted sub-LLD left as extra files). The last two are detected independently of version lag — a project already at the installed version still has them re-surfaced by reconcile-conventions, and handled the same way (surfaced with a recommended resolution, never silently left or auto-resolved).