versioning-skills

Versioning Skills

Use git to track changes during skill development. Initialize repos after creating skills, commit after each logical change, and use git commands to compare versions or revert mistakes.

When Creating a New Skill

After running init_skill.sh, immediately initialize git:

cd /home/claude/skill-name
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit: skill structure"

When Editing Skills

After each logical change (adding a section, fixing an example, refactoring), commit:

cd /home/claude/skill-name
git add .
git commit -m "Add: validation workflow pattern"

Commit message patterns:

• "Add [feature]: description" - New functionality
• "Fix [issue]: description" - Bug fixes
• "Update [section]: description" - Content changes
• "Refactor [component]: description" - Structural changes
• "Remove [feature]: description" - Deletions

When User Asks "What Changed?"

Never display diffs inline — redirect to files and provide links (see below). Only create a diff or changelog when the user explicitly asks ("what changed?", "show differences").

Don't preemptively create:

• CHANGELOG.md files
• Change documentation
• "Here's what I modified" summaries

Why: The updated code/docs ARE the documentation. Creating separate changelogs wastes tokens and duplicates information.

When user asks, show commit history:

cd /home/claude/skill-name
git log --oneline

Save diff to file (prevents token waste):

cd /home/claude/skill-name
git diff <commit-hash-1> <commit-hash-2> > /mnt/user-data/outputs/changes.diff

Then provide: [View changes](computer:///mnt/user-data/outputs/changes.diff)

For multiple diffs:

# Changed files list
git diff --name-only <commit-1> <commit-2> > /mnt/user-data/outputs/changed-files.txt

# Full diff
git diff <commit-1> <commit-2> > /mnt/user-data/outputs/full-diff.diff

# Summary stats
git diff --stat <commit-1> <commit-2> > /mnt/user-data/outputs/diff-stats.txt