Agent Skills Manager

Agent Skills Manager

This skill manages a unified symlink architecture: one canonical source (~/.agents_skills/) with every agent pointing to it via symlinks.

Architecture

~/.agents_skills/          ← Canonical source (all skills live here)
    ↑ symlink  ↑ symlink  ↑ symlink  ↑ symlink  ↑ symlink
.agents/     .claude/     .codex/     .opencode/   .pi/agent/
skills       skills       skills       skills       skills

~/.hermes/skills/          ← Real copy (Hermes rglob bug; sync via script)

Agent → Skill directory mapping:

Branch: Install a new skill

When the user wants to install a skill into the unified system:

1. Identify the skill source — a local path, a git repo, or a URL. If it is a repo, clone to a temporary directory first.
2. Locate the skill directory — it must contain SKILL.md. If the source has multiple SKILL.md files, list candidates and install the one the user requested.
3. Validate minimum frontmatter — SKILL.md must have name and description; if either is missing, stop and report the defect.
4. Choose the destination name — default to the source directory name unless the user requested a different folder. If ~/.agents_skills/<name> already exists, diff both SKILL.md files; overwrite only when identical or when the user explicitly wants replacement.
5. Copy into ~/.agents_skills/:

   cp -a /path/to/skill-name ~/.agents_skills/
   

6. All symlinked agents (Claude Code, Codex, Pi, OpenCode, .agents) pick it up automatically.
7. Sync Hermes only if Hermes should see the new skill:

   bash ~/.agents_skills/agent-skills-manager/scripts/sync-hermes.sh
   

8. Verify: ls ~/.agents_skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md exists.

Branch: Migrate existing skills

When the user wants to migrate from scattered skill directories to the unified architecture for the first time:

1. Analyze current state — scan each agent's skills directory:

   for dir in ~/.agents/skills ~/.claude/skills ~/.codex/skills ~/.opencode/skills ~/.hermes/skills; do
     echo "$dir: $(ls "$dir" 2>/dev/null | grep -v '^\.' | wc -l) skills"
   done
   

2. Check for existing migration — if ~/.agents_skills/ exists and agent skill paths already symlink to it, do not re-migrate; run the status branch instead unless the user requests repair.
3. Check for conflicts — identify skills with the same name in multiple agents. Diff their SKILL.md to confirm they are identical. If different, flag for user decision.
4. Create ~/.agents_skills/ and merge all unique skills. Priority: .agents > Claude Code > Codex > Hermes for conflicts, unless a higher-priority path is already a symlink to ~/.agents_skills/; in that case use the existing canonical copy.
5. Backup each real agent skills directory before replacing. Never mv an existing symlink; unlink it instead:

   if [ -L ~/.xxx/skills ]; then rm ~/.xxx/skills; else mv ~/.xxx/skills ~/.xxx/skills.bak; fi
   

6. Create symlinks for all agents except Hermes:

   ln -s ~/.agents_skills ~/.agents/skills
   ln -s ~/.agents_skills ~/.claude/skills
   ln -s ~/.agents_skills ~/.codex/skills
   ln -s ~/.agents_skills ~/.opencode/skills
   mkdir -p ~/.pi/agent && ln -s ~/.agents_skills ~/.pi/agent/skills
   

7. Sync Hermes with rsync (see sync script).
8. Verify all symlinks resolve correctly.

Branch: Repair symlinks

When the user says an agent cannot see skills or the unified setup looks broken:

1. Check expected symlinks:

   for dir in ~/.agents/skills ~/.claude/skills ~/.codex/skills ~/.opencode/skills ~/.pi/agent/skills; do
     printf "%s -> %s\n" "$dir" "$(readlink "$dir" 2>/dev/null || echo NOT_SYMLINK)"
   done
   

2. Repair only broken or wrong symlinks. If a path is a real directory, back it up before replacement:

   if [ -e ~/.xxx/skills ] && [ ! -L ~/.xxx/skills ]; then mv ~/.xxx/skills ~/.xxx/skills.bak; else rm -f ~/.xxx/skills; fi
   ln -s ~/.agents_skills ~/.xxx/skills
   

3. Do not symlink Hermes; run the Hermes sync branch instead.

Branch: Sync Hermes after changes

When the user changes ~/.agents_skills/ and wants Hermes to receive the same skills:

1. Do nothing for symlinked agents — Claude Code, Codex, Pi, OpenCode, and .agents already see the canonical source.
2. Sync Hermes because it uses a real copy:

   bash ~/.agents_skills/agent-skills-manager/scripts/sync-hermes.sh
   

3. Verify counts with the status branch.

Branch: Check status

When user wants to see the current skill distribution:

echo "=== Canonical source ==="
echo "~/.agents_skills/: $(ls ~/.agents_skills/ | grep -v '^\.' | grep -v sync-to-hermes | wc -l) skills"

echo ""
echo "=== Symlinked agents ==="
for dir in ~/.agents/skills ~/.claude/skills ~/.codex/skills ~/.opencode/skills ~/.pi/agent/skills; do
  target=$(readlink "$dir" 2>/dev/null || echo "NOT A SYMLINK")
  echo "$dir → $target"
done

echo ""
echo "=== Hermes (real copy) ==="
echo "~/.hermes/skills/: $(ls ~/.hermes/skills/ | grep -v '^\.' | wc -l) skills"

Caveats

• Hermes symlink support is version-dependent and incomplete. Public issue reports show symlinked skills can be skipped by discovery because some paths use Path.rglob("SKILL.md") or non-following directory walks; management operations may also miss skills from symlinked/external directories. Prefer a real ~/.hermes/skills/ copy synced by rsync.
• Codex .system/ directory: Codex has built-in system skills in .system/. These are included in ~/.agents_skills/ and are harmless for other agents because hidden directories are normally ignored by simple skill scans.
• Backups: Before migration, always back up each real agent's skills directory to .bak.
• The sync-to-hermes.sh in ~/.agents_skills/ root is the legacy wrapper; the canonical one lives at agent-skills-manager/scripts/sync-hermes.sh.