Safe Install

You are the safe-install skill — an operator-protective wrapper around install/uninstall/update operations.

What this skill does

Defaults for Lintel install operations that the operator explicitly asked for (v3.6 backlog 5.1):

1. Version-before-every-change (not just at install) — back up the current LINTEL_HOME state before ANY destructive operation
2. Uninstall with restore — default to restoring the latest backup. Currently NO uninstall path (grep uninstall = 0 hits in the whole repo)
3. Update-from-repo OR cmd — the operator can pinpoint an update from a specific git ref or a live cmd
4. Make backup visible — backup path announced explicitly; not silent

Builds on the existing backup pattern (install/install.sh:76 cp -r "$LINTEL_HOME" "$BACKUP"). Generalizes it to all destructive ops.

When to use

• /li:safe-install --update (updates Lintel from latest main; auto-backup first)
• /li:safe-install --uninstall (clean uninstall + restore latest backup automatically)
• /li:safe-install --backup-only (snapshot LINTEL_HOME without changing anything)
• /li:safe-install --list-backups (show available restore points)
• /li:safe-install --restore <backup-id> (manual restore to a specific snapshot)

When NOT to use

• First-time install — install/install.sh is canonical (this wraps subsequent ops)
• Mid-cycle skill debug — use bin/li-doctor instead
• Reading current state — bin/li-doctor --quick

Workflow

Step 1 — Detect operation mode

case "${1:-}" in
  --update)        op="update" ;;
  --uninstall)     op="uninstall" ;;
  --backup-only)   op="backup" ;;
  --list-backups)  op="list" ;;
  --restore)       op="restore"; restore_id="${2:?need backup id}" ;;
  *)               echo "Usage: /li:safe-install [--update|--uninstall|--backup-only|--list-backups|--restore <id>]"; exit 2 ;;
esac

Step 2 — Backup current state (on update/uninstall)

LINTEL_HOME="${LINTEL_HOME:-$HOME/.lintel}"
BACKUP_ROOT="${LINTEL_HOME}.backups"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_ROOT"

if [ "$op" = "update" ] || [ "$op" = "uninstall" ] || [ "$op" = "backup" ]; then
  ts=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
  backup_path="$BACKUP_ROOT/snapshot-$ts"
  cp -r "$LINTEL_HOME" "$backup_path"

  # VISIBLE ANNOUNCE
  echo "📦 Backup created: $backup_path"
  echo "   ($(du -sh "$backup_path" | awk '{print $1}'))"
  echo "   To restore: /li:safe-install --restore $ts"
  echo ""
fi

Step 3 — Execute operation

update:

• Pull latest from the configured Lintel-repo source
• Run install/install.sh in update-mode
• Surface a diff summary of changed files
• If anything fails → auto-restore from backup, surface the error

uninstall:

• Confirm via AskUserQuestion ("Will remove $LINTEL_HOME. Latest backup at . Proceed?")
• Remove $LINTEL_HOME
• Surface "Uninstalled. To restore: /li:safe-install --restore $ts"

backup-only:

• Just creates backup (Step 2). No state change.

list:

• ls $BACKUP_ROOT/snapshot-* | format as a table
• Most recent first
• Size + date per snapshot

restore:

• Locate $BACKUP_ROOT/snapshot-
• Confirm via AskUserQuestion ("Will replace current $LINTEL_HOME with snapshot from . Proceed?")
• Remove current $LINTEL_HOME
• cp -r <backup> $LINTEL_HOME
• Verify via bin/li-doctor --quick

Step 4 — Backup retention

Default: keep the last 5 snapshots. Prune those older than 30 days.

cd "$BACKUP_ROOT"
ls -1t snapshot-* | tail -n +6 | xargs -r rm -rf
find . -maxdepth 1 -name 'snapshot-*' -mtime +30 | xargs -r rm -rf

Surface "Pruned N old snapshots (kept latest 5 + recent 30 days)."

Pause-points

• On --uninstall: hard-block for operator confirmation (destructive op)
• On --restore: hard-block for operator confirmation (replaces current state)
• If backup fails mid-update: surface + offer abort

Integration

Reads:

• $LINTEL_HOME (snapshot source)
• $BACKUP_ROOT (restore source)
• install/install.sh (for update mode, called as subprocess)

Writes:

• $BACKUP_ROOT/snapshot-<ts>/ (backup target)
• $LINTEL_HOME (modified by underlying operation)

Consumed by:

• Operator (manual invocation)
• bin/li-update (could wrap this instead of doing inline backup) — future refactor

Anti-patterns

• Silent backup — the backup path MUST be announced to the operator. Otherwise the "can't find the backup" pattern recurs.
• No retention enforcement — backups become disk spam. Always prune.
• Skip confirm on destructive ops — uninstall + restore are both one-way. Always confirm.
• Backup to the same disk as live — for safety, recommend the backup path be on a separate disk/path if possible.

Failure recovery

• Update fails → auto-restore latest backup → exit BLOCKED with error
• Restore fails (corrupted backup): fall back to the previous snapshot, surface a warning
• Disk full → refuse + surface free-space-instructions