Skill index updater

Automatically regenerate skill indexes by scanning skill directories and updating:

• Global skills -> ~/Documents/Cline/Rules/cline_overview.md
• Local skills -> .clinerules/agents_skills.md in the repo (only when NOT in home directory)

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Note: This skill is for Cline, which does not have native skill indexing built-in.

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Quick start

# Run from any location
python3 ~/.claude/skills/skills-index-updater/scripts/update_skill_index.py

# Preview changes without writing
python3 ~/.claude/skills/skills-index-updater/scripts/update_skill_index.py --dry-run

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• PyYAML package (pip install pyyaml) - optional, falls back to regex parsing
• For Cline: ~/Documents/Cline/Rules/cline_overview.md must exist with ## Available Global Skills Index section

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How it works

The script automatically determines what to update based on your current location:

Location	Global skills	Local skills
Home directory (~/)	Updated in cline_overview.md	Skipped (none exist)
Any repo	Updated in cline_overview.md	Updated in .clinerules/agents_skills.md
Directory with .clinerules/agents_skills.md	Updated in cline_overview.md	Updated in .clinerules/agents_skills.md
Outside a repo (no agents_skills.md)	Updated in cline_overview.md	Skipped (use --force-local to override)

Skill locations

The script checks multiple locations and uses the first one with skills:

Global skills (checked in order):

1. ~/Documents/Cline/skills/
2. ~/.kiro/skills/

Local skills (checked in order):

1. ./.claude/skills/
2. ./.kiro/skills/

Scope	Output files
Global	~/Documents/Cline/Rules/cline_overview.md
Local	.clinerules/agents_skills.md in repo root

Available flags

Flag	Short	Behavior
--dry-run	-n	Show changes without writing
--init		Create .clinerules/agents_skills.md if missing (auto-prompted otherwise)
--force-local		Force local skills update even without git repo

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Workflow

1. Run the update script

python3 ~/.claude/skills/skills-index-updater/scripts/update_skill_index.py

The script will:

1. Detect your working directory and whether you're in a git repo
2. Scan global skills in ~/Documents/Cline/skills/
3. Update ~/Documents/Cline/Rules/cline_overview.md with global skills index
4. If in a repo (and not in home directory):
   • Scan local skills in .claude/skills/
   • Update .clinerules/agents_skills.md with local skills index

2. Verify output

# Check cline_overview.md update
grep -A 20 "## Available Global Skills Index" ~/Documents/Cline/Rules/cline_overview.md

# Check agents_skills.md update (if in a repo)
grep -A 10 "## Available Local Skills Index" .clinerules/agents_skills.md

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Example output

Working directory: /Users/you/projects/my-repo
Home directory: /Users/you
In home directory: False
Repository root: /Users/you/projects/my-repo

============================================================
GLOBAL SKILLS
============================================================
Scanning global skills in: /Users/you/Documents/Cline/skills
  Found 5 global skills

  Skills found:
    - skill-builder (skill-builder)
    - skills-index-updater (skills-index-updater)
    - save-context (save-context)
    - humanize (humanize)
    - docx (docx)

Updated: /Users/you/Documents/Cline/Rules/cline_overview.md

============================================================
LOCAL SKILLS
============================================================
Scanning local skills in: /Users/you/projects/my-repo/.claude/skills
  Found 2 local skills

  Skills found:
    - extract-videos (extract-videos)
    - download-transcripts (download-transcripts)

Updated: /Users/you/projects/my-repo/.clinerules/agents_skills.md

============================================================
SUMMARY
============================================================
Index update complete.

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Output formats

Global skills (in cline_overview.md)

## Available Global Skills Index
*(Auto-generated - do not edit manually)*

  path: Documents/Cline/skills/skill-builder
  name: skill-builder
  description: Create, evaluate, and improve Agent skills...
---
  path: Documents/Cline/skills/humanize
  name: humanize
  description: Convert AI-written text to more human-like writing...
---

Local skills (in .clinerules/agents_skills.md)

## Available Local Skills Index
_This index is for IDEs that don't natively support skills. Skip if your IDE reads SKILL.md directly._

- **Name:** `extract-videos`
  - **Trigger:** Extract video URLs from various sources...
  - **Path:** `.claude/skills/extract-videos/SKILL.md`

- **Name:** `download-transcripts`
  - **Trigger:** Download and process video transcripts...
  - **Path:** `.claude/skills/download-transcripts/SKILL.md`

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Quality rules

• Descriptions come from frontmatter - Never manually edit the index
• Global and local are separate - Each goes to its own file
• Run after every skill change - Create, delete, or modify triggers update

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Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Solution
"cline_overview.md not found"	Missing Cline config	Create ~/Documents/Cline/Rules/cline_overview.md with index section
Skill not appearing	Missing frontmatter	Add name: and description: to SKILL.md
YAML parse error	Invalid frontmatter syntax	Check for tabs, missing colons
Index section not found	Missing marker	Add ## Available Global Skills Index section
Local skills skipped	Working from ~/	This is expected (no local skills in home directory)

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Additional resources

• TESTING.md - Evaluation scenarios and validation commands