# Health Check

> Audit Markdown project notes for staleness — find projects marked active that stopped moving weeks ago. Run it weekly, or whenever asked how the portfolio is doing.

- Skill: `yorketang1993/health-check` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add yorketang1993/health-check`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/yorketang1993/health-check/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Security
- Author: YorkeTang1993 (https://skillmd.com/u/yorketang1993)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/yorketang1993/health-check

---


# Health Check

Find the projects that went quiet.

## When to use

- The user asks how their projects are doing, what's stalled, or what to work on
- Start of a weekly review
- Any time the user says something like "what have I forgotten about"

## How to run

```bash
python3 health_check.py <projects-dir>
```

Common options: `--stale 14` `--zombie 60` `--json` `--today YYYY-MM-DD`

If the user hasn't said where their project notes live, ask once. Do not guess
and scan their whole home directory.

## How to read the result

| Flag | Means |
|---|---|
| ZOMBIE | status says live, untouched 60+ days — the real finding |
| STALE | nothing in 14+ days |
| EMPTY | file created, never filled in |
| EXPIRED GOAL | quarterly target names a quarter that already ended |

A `[git]` or `[mtime]` tag after a date means there was no date in the file's
frontmatter and it fell back. Say so when you report it — a project can look
stale purely because nobody committed the note.

## How to report it

Lead with the uncomfortable number, then the zombies, then one recommendation.

```
11 of 12 active projects haven't moved in 2+ weeks.
Two are still marked `active` after 84 and 79 days.

  auto-store        84d   "30-day push to 10 orders", declared 84 days ago
  value-investing   79d   dashboard created, never filled in

Suggest marking both `paused` today, or giving each one a next action.
```

**Report the real number even when it's embarrassing.** A health check that
finds "11 of 12 stale" and softens it to "a few need attention" has destroyed
its own reason to exist.

## Boundaries

- **Read-only. Never edit the project files.** It reports; the user decides.
- **Never touch a file just to reset its staleness clock.** That makes every
  future report a lie. If a project is dead, the honest move is `status: paused`.
- Don't propose fixes for every flagged project. Name the worst two or three.
- Don't run it unprompted more than once a week.