How do I install the Attic Doctor skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add nishikantaray/attic-doctor in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Attic Doctor safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Attic Doctor?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Attic Doctor free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free. This skill is licensed under MIT.

Who published Attic Doctor?

NishikantaRay (@nishikantaray) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Attic Doctor by nishikantaray — Agent Skill

Name: Attic Doctor
Author: NishikantaRay

Attic Doctor

Check the CONTENTS of .attic/ for drift: orphaned items, stale index lines, malformed frontmatter, oversized hooks, and leaked credentials. Use when the user says "check the attic", "attic doctor", "is the attic healthy", or "did anything leak into the attic". Never use this for git, merge or conflict problems, even though they sound like breakage: every merge conflict goes to attic-git.

NishikantaRay Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Attic doctor

node "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../attic/scripts/attic.js" validate

Exit 0 is healthy. Exit 3 means errors were found.

Report what it printed, then act:

Problem	Fix
INDEX line points at a missing item file	Remove the line, or restore the item if it was deleted by mistake.
Item file not listed in INDEX.md	Run `attic.js rebuild` to regenerate the index from the item files.
Missing or malformed frontmatter	Repair the file to match `references/item-format.md`.
Hook over 100 chars	Shorten it; the index is injected into every session.
Possible credential	Stop. Tell the user which file and line, recommend rotating the credential, and remove the value from the item. If `.attic/` is committed, it is in git history too.

If the index is badly out of step with the items (many orphans, or it has been hand-edited into garbage), rebuild it rather than fixing lines one by one. Items are the source of truth; the index is derived:

node "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../attic/scripts/attic.js" rebuild --dry-run
node "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../attic/scripts/attic.js" rebuild

Do not bulk-delete items to make the check pass. Ask before removing anything the user did not create in this session.

Frequently asked questions