# Skill Doctor

> Use to audit Agent Skills catalogs or installed skill roots for metadata and doc-link issues; optionally apply conservative --fix-safe repairs.

- Skill: `paulrberg/skill-doctor` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add paulrberg/skill-doctor`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/paulrberg/skill-doctor/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: paulrberg (https://skillmd.com/u/paulrberg)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/paulrberg/skill-doctor

---


# Skill Doctor

Use ai-skillet's canonical validator for the supported extended skill dialect to audit local catalogs and installed
skill roots, then apply only narrow metadata repairs when requested.

## Arguments

- `--root PATH`: Scan this catalog or installed skill root. Repeatable. Default: current working directory.
- `--format text|json`: Select report format. Default: `text`.
- `--fix-safe`: Create missing `agents/openai.yaml` files or update mismatched `policy.allow_implicit_invocation`.
- `--dependencies-only`: Report only malformed or unresolved `skill-dependencies` declarations. Do not combine with
  `--fix-safe`.

## Workflow

1. Require `ai-skillet` 0.1.0 or newer on `PATH`, then run:

   ```sh
   ai-skillet doctor
   ```

   Append each parsed invocation option and its value as separate arguments, preserving quoted values. For example,
   `--root '/path with spaces' --format json` adds two options; use the argument-free form for the defaults.

2. Use JSON when another command or agent will consume the result:

   ```sh
   ai-skillet doctor --root . --format json
   ```

3. Run safe fixes only after reading the findings:

   ```sh
   ai-skillet doctor --root . --fix-safe
   ```

4. Re-run without `--fix-safe` after any manual edits.

For a dependency-only catalog gate, run:

```sh
ai-skillet doctor --root . --dependencies-only
```

## Findings

- Treat `error` findings as catalog defects that should block publishing or syncing.
- Treat `warning` findings as review-required catalog hygiene issues.
- JSON output uses schema version 1 with structured roots, counts, findings, and safe-fix records. Each finding carries
  its code, severity, path, line when known, fixability, and message.
- Frontmatter validation accepts the portable Agent Skills fields, Claude Code extensions, and repository extensions as
  one supported union. It reports unknown top-level fields; invalid field, item, and metadata-value types; invalid
  enumerated values; and `agent` or `background` used without `context: fork`.
- Explicit `disable-model-invocation: false` and `user-invocable: true` produce redundant-default warnings. Omit those
  fields to preserve the same effective defaults.
- Prompt-hygiene warnings are advisory and never auto-fix: stale model pins, oversized unconditional Markdown
  references, conflicting requirement/prohibition language, and missing completion evidence.
- Coordination-exemption errors are report-only: `coordination: exempt` must be paired with the catalog's canonical
  `coordination-exempt` sentence in ordinary Markdown prose. Inline code, fenced or indented code, blockquotes, and
  headed `Example` or `Examples` sections do not count as declarations. Neither side is repaired by `--fix-safe`.
- Dependency errors reject non-array, empty, non-string, duplicate, malformed, incorrectly ordered, self-referential, or
  unresolved local declarations. External `ORG/REPO#SKILL` identifiers are shape-checked without network access.
- Metadata, OpenAI policy, coordination, resource, README, prompt-hygiene, and CLI-version checks remain available
  outside `--dependencies-only`.
- Use `path` and `line` from JSON output for precise follow-up edits.

## Safe Fix Policy

`--fix-safe` may only:

- Create a missing `agents/openai.yaml` with `policy.allow_implicit_invocation` derived from `SKILL.md`.
- Update an existing `allow_implicit_invocation` boolean when it disagrees with `disable-model-invocation`.

Each permitted repair is staged and atomically renamed into place, preserving the target's permissions for updates. A
failed safe fix exits 3 without partially rewriting its target.

`--fix-safe` does not rewrite frontmatter, descriptions, README rows, `references/version.txt`, or relative links.
Unknown fields, invalid types or values, cross-field errors, redundant defaults, and coordination declarations are
report-only. Make those edits manually and verify with a fresh audit.

## Related Skills

- `skill-doctor` only audits the roots you pass; it does not search for them. To locate skill installs, duplicates, and
  cross-references across the machine, use `ai-skillet map`.

## Exit Codes

- `0`: Clean, or all requested safe fixes succeeded and no findings remain.
- `1`: The audit completed and findings remain; report them as review work, not as an operational crash.
- `2`: Invalid arguments or unreadable environment.
- `3`: A requested safe fix failed.

## User-Facing Output

Keep `--format json` byte-valid and undecorated. For human output, lead with `### 🩺 Skill Doctor — ✅ clean`,
`### 🩺 Skill Doctor — ⚠️ review required`, or `### 🩺 Skill Doctor — ⛔ blocked` for exit 2/3, then show roots and
error/warning/fix counts in a compact table. List safe fixes separately from remaining findings. For review-required or
blocked outcomes, end with the smallest manual next action; for a clean result, stop after the summary. Keep paths, line
numbers, codes, raw findings, commands, and diagnostics exact.