Gentleman-Programming Activation Contract
Use this skill after installing, removing, creating, moving, or renaming skills, or when a delegator needs a fresh skill index.
Hard Rules
- The registry is an index, not a compiler or summary.
SKILL.mdremains the source of truth. - Do not generate or inject compact rules by default; preserve author intent by passing exact skill paths to subagents.
- Always write
.atl/skill-registry.mdregardless of SDD persistence mode. - Save the registry to Engram as
topic_key: skill-registrywhen available, withcapture_prompt: false. - Skip
sdd-*,_shared, andskill-registry; deduplicate by skill name, preferring project-level skills over user-level skills. - Add
.atl/to.gitignorewhen possible unless explicitly disabled.
Decision Gates
| Situation | Action |
|---|---|
| Same skill exists globally and in project | Keep the project-level skill |
| Same skill exists in multiple global locations | Keep the first source in scan order |
| No skills found | Write an empty registry so agents stop searching blindly |
| Agent will delegate work | Select matching registry rows and pass their SKILL.md paths |
Execution Steps
- Scan all known user and project skill directories for
*/SKILL.md. - Read frontmatter only as needed to extract
nameanddescriptiontrigger text. - Render
.atl/skill-registry.mdwith scanned sources, registry contract, skill name, trigger/description, scope, and exact path. - Persist to Engram when available using
title: skill-registry,topic_key: skill-registry,type: config, andcapture_prompt: false. - Return the registry path, skill count, cache status, and whether Engram was updated.
Output Contract
Return:
- Project name and
.atl/skill-registry.mdpath. - Number of indexed skills.
- Whether the cache was hit or regenerated.
- Any skipped or duplicate skills when relevant.
References
docs/skill-style-guide.md— how skills should be authored before indexing.skills/_shared/skill-resolver.md— how delegators use the index.