update-models

A maintenance workflow for the model names used by the gpal server, which connects software to Google's Gemini models. It checks whether configured model IDs still exist and identifies newer or replacement models.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when checking model freshness, finding available Gemini models, replacing deprecated IDs, or switching to newer versions. It compares configured constants with the models available through Google's API.
Why use it?
Model providers release new versions and retire old ones, which can make an application fail or use an unintended model. This workflow helps detect and update stale configuration.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/tobert/gpal/update-models
Any agent
npx skills add tobert/gpal --skill update-models
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/tobert/gpal

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 66 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 697 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00066 $0.00697
Opus 5 $0.00033 $0.00349
Sonnet 5 $0.00013 $0.00139
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00070

Measured 2d ago against content hash 302e8128cfa6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

update-models scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.claude/skills/update-models/SKILL.md · 77 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 77 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Update Models

Maintain and update Gemini model IDs configured in the gpal MCP server.

Overview

gpal configures model IDs as constants at the top of src/gpal/server.py. Google regularly releases new model versions and deprecates old ones. This skill provides the workflow for checking freshness, discovering new models, updating constants, and verifying the changes.

Workflow

Step 1: Check Current Model Freshness

Read the gpal://models/check MCP resource. It compares every configured model against the Google API's available models list and reports status:

  • ok — Model exists in the API
  • alias — Uses a -latest alias (resolved server-side, always valid)
  • not_listed — Model not found in API (may be deprecated or renamed)

Step 2: Discover Available Models

Call the list_models MCP tool to see all models grouped by capability (generateContent, generateImages, embedContent, etc.).

Compare available models against configured constants. Look for:

  • Newer versions of existing models (e.g., gemini-3-flash-001 replacing gemini-3-flash-preview)
  • New model families worth adopting
  • Deprecated models that need replacement

Step 3: Decide on Updates

Apply these rules when choosing model updates:

Slot Strategy Rationale
Flash/Pro consult Pin to specific version Capabilities matter; test before switching
Search/Code exec Use -latest alias Stateless utility calls; safe to auto-update
Image generation Pin to specific version Output quality varies between versions
Speech Pin to specific version Voice behavior changes between versions

Prefer GA models (dated suffix like -001) over preview models when available.

Step 4: Apply Changes

Update all locations listed in references/model-update-checklist.md. The key files:

  1. src/gpal/server.py — Model constants, MODEL_ALIASES, NANO_BANANA_MODELS
  2. CLAUDE.md — Model Strategy table
  3. pyproject.toml + src/gpal/__init__.py — Version bump (both must match)

Read the full file on GitHub · 77 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 77 lines · 66 tokens per session scan A 302e8128cfa6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

update-models is a skill published in the GitHub repository tobert/gpal (10 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 66 tokens to every session and 697 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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