using-skill-engine

Using the skill engine

This is the entry-point skill. It detects whether the current directory holds a contextualizer that has already been set up, and routes to the matching workflow.

Routing

When invoked, do the following in order. A contextualizer is installed at one of three install levels (~/.claude/skills/, ~/.claude/local/skills/, or <repo>/.claude/skills/); its research/.research-state.json is the canonical setup-state marker.

Locate the contextualizer root by searching all three install levels:

ctx_roots=$(
  for root in "$HOME/.claude/skills" "$HOME/.claude/local/skills" "$PWD/.claude/skills"; do
    [ -d "$root" ] || continue
    find "$root" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -name '*-context' 2>/dev/null
  done
)
# `|| true`: grep -c prints 0 but exits 1 on zero matches — without the
# guard a pipefail/errexit shell dies here instead of reaching case 1.
ctx_count=$(printf '%s\n' "$ctx_roots" | grep -c . || true)

Pending-proposal pre-step (runs before case dispatch)

Before dispatching to a workflow, check for pending proposals — any *-context.proposed/ directory that DISCOVER or REFRESH left behind under the same three install roots:

proposed_dirs=$(
  for root in "$HOME/.claude/skills" "$HOME/.claude/local/skills" "$PWD/.claude/skills"; do
    [ -d "$root" ] || continue
    find "$root" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -name '*-context.proposed' 2>/dev/null
  done
)

If any proposed dirs exist and the requested workflow is a mutating one (discover, refresh, new-reference), surface a one-line note naming each proposal and the three commands that gate its disposition, then exit without dispatching (the note is the entire output):

Pending proposal at <path>. Run /skill-engine:review <slug>, /skill-engine:apply <slug>, or /skill-engine:discard <slug> before re-running discover/refresh.

Rationale: re-running DISCOVER or REFRESH while a proposed dir already exists would either overwrite the pending changes silently or surface a confusing diff. The user is the right one to decide whether to promote, discard, or keep iterating; the router refuses to choose for them. The pre-step short-circuits before any case-1/case-2/case-3/case-4 branch fires.