Template Sync

template-sync

Purpose. This skill is the cognition layer over bin/template-sync.sh. The script does mechanical file moves and git operations; this skill judges whether and where an asset belongs in the template, and asks you to confirm before mutating anything.

Hard rule: This skill runs only when you explicitly invoke it. There is no auto-promotion. No background hooks. No file watchers. The buffer-rotting failure mode is exactly what this skill exists to prevent.

When to invoke

• "Promote this skill back to the template" — template-sync promote
• "What's different from the template?" — template-sync status
• "Pull the latest version of skill X from the template" — template-sync pull
• "Bring this project up to date with template main" — template-sync sync-from-buffer
• "Install this skill into my project" — template-sync trial
• "Try that skill from cultivation" — template-sync trial /path/to/skill
• "Grab the catchup skill from loam" — template-sync trial catchup

Pre-flight (always)

1. Verify the project is bootstrapped: .copier-answers.yml or (legacy) template-manifest.json exists at the project root. A copier-bootstrapped project has .copier-answers.yml and satisfies this on its own — do not require the manifest. If neither is present, stop and tell the user this project wasn't bootstrapped from the template and the skill cannot operate.
2. Resolve the template clone location: prefer $TEMPLATE_PATH, then _src_path from .copier-answers.yml, then ~/Desktop/loam. Confirm the directory exists.
3. Read .copier-answers.yml (or legacy template-manifest.json) to know the project name and applied flavors — these inform layer suggestions.

Running the script from a project without bin/. Copier renders only seed/ into a project, so a bootstrapped project has no bin/template-sync.sh. Drive the script from a local loam clone with the project as the working directory:

cd <my-project>
bash ~/Desktop/loam/bin/template-sync.sh promote --layer generic .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md

Subcommands

status

Run bin/template-sync.sh status and present the table to the user. Group results by status (modified / local-only / template-only / unchanged). Don't dump unchanged unless asked.

diff <relpath>

Run bin/template-sync.sh diff <relpath> and show the result. If the diff is large (>100 lines), summarise + offer to show in chunks.

pull <relpath>

Before running:

• Run diff first.
• Confirm with the user: "About to overwrite local <relpath> with template version. Proceed?"

Then run bin/template-sync.sh pull <relpath>.

Supports both files and directories. For pulling an entire skill: template-sync pull .claude/skills/<name>.

promote <relpath> ← the key flow

This is the 10-step flow. Never skip the questions.

1. Confirm intent. "You want to promote <relpath> from this project to the template. Yes?"

2. Read the file. Use the Read tool to load the asset.

3. Generality scan. Look for and quote any of:

   • Project-specific names (the value of project_name in .copier-answers.yml (or legacy manifest), or any ~/Desktop/<other-project>/ path)
   • Hardcoded absolute paths under /Users/... or /home/... outside generic placeholders
   • Likely secrets: tokens, API keys, OAuth tokens, .env file contents (regex-style scan: (?i)(api[_-]?key|secret|token|password|bearer)\s*[:=]\s*['"]?[A-Za-z0-9_\-]{16,})
   • References to a prior project's benchmarks, papers, or venues (e.g. Rodinia, HeCBench, XSBench, RSBench, mixbench, NeurIPS, SC26)
   • Machine-local assumptions: /opt/nvidia/..., /home/samyak/..., GPU model strings

   For each hit, quote the exact line and ask the user: "Found <line>. Should I (a) abort, (b) generalize this to a placeholder, or (c) promote anyway?"

4. Suggest target layer. Based on what the asset references, propose one of:

   • generic — domain-neutral, every project benefits
   • flavor:research — research projects (paper-writing, ML experiments, HPC/parallel work)
   • flavor:software-eng — building software products

   Explain the reasoning ("This skill mentions LaTeX and bibtex → suggests flavor:research"). Ask user to confirm or override.

5. Confirm template repo is clean. If git -C <tpl> status --porcelain shows uncommitted changes, refuse to proceed and tell the user to clean up the template repo first.

6. Run the script. bin/template-sync.sh promote --layer <chosen-layer> <relpath>. The script handles branch creation, commit, push, and printing the PR command.

7. Hard rule never violated: no commits or pushes to main. The script enforces this; you reinforce it in confirmation messages.

8. After the script returns, show the user:

   • The branch name created.
   • The PR command (verbatim).
   • A reminder that the asset will only land in the template once the PR is merged.

sync-from-buffer

Run bin/template-sync.sh sync-from-buffer. For any reported "conflict (skipped)" lines, suggest the user run template-sync diff <path> to inspect, then template-sync pull <path> if they want to take the template version.

trial [--name NAME] [--force] <source-or-skill-name>

Install a skill from any source into this project's .claude/skills/.

1. Validate source. If the argument contains no slashes, resolve it as a skill name from the template's seed/.claude/skills/. Otherwise treat as a literal path.

2. Check source is valid. The source must be a directory containing SKILL.md. If not, stop with an error.

3. Check destination. If .claude/skills/<name>/ already exists and --force was not passed, refuse. Tell the user to use --force.

4. Copy. Run the script: bin/template-sync.sh trial [--name NAME] [--force] <source>.

5. Confirm. Show the user what was installed and how to remove it.

Note on cultivation/ bundles: Skills in cultivation/marketplace/ are nested: <bundle>/skills/<skill-name>/. Point trial at the individual skill directory, not the bundle root. Example: template-sync trial /path/to/loam/cultivation/marketplace/pocock-engineering/skills/tdd

Output style

• Brief. The user is making decisions; show them the relevant diffs and questions, not your reasoning.
• When in doubt, ask. Promoting the wrong asset to the wrong layer is the failure mode this skill prevents.
• Never promote silently. Every promotion produces a printed branch name + PR command in the chat.

What this skill MUST NOT do

• Do not invoke promote as a side effect of any other skill (validate, fix-bug, feature-dev, session-critique, etc.).
• Do not register a post-commit / post-edit hook that triggers promote.
• Do not promote without the generality scan in step 3.
• Do not push to the template's main directly. Always via a sync/... branch + PR.
• Do not promote .env, secrets/, or any file matching the secret regex without an explicit user override.
• Do not modify or add provenance metadata files (.source.json or similar). Provenance is tracked via git commit messages only.