skillmaker adopt

skillmaker adopt [path] [--source <url-or-path>] [--ref <ref>]
skillmaker adopt --triage [path]
skillmaker adopt --from-manifest [file]

Imports pre-existing SKILL.md files — from a skills repo you didn’t build in Skillmaker Studio — as Skill Bundles, in place. adopt runs on top of a workspace; it does not create one (skillmaker init first). It discovers every SKILL.md under path (default: the current directory), and wraps each one as a bundle without moving any files: bundle.json and the journal’s bundle.created event get written, but the skill’s directory stays exactly where it was.

This is the strategic front door for the “adopt-first” thesis: most skill authors already have a repo full of SKILL.md files before they ever hear of Skillmaker Studio, and the studio should meet that repo where it is rather than demanding a rewrite.

What it does

Discovers SKILL.md files under path and, for each one not already adopted, writes a bundle.json next to it (identity only — see The Skill Bundle) and journals bundle.created.
Layout-aware pathname mapping, applied by convention rather than configuration: a skill under a deprecated/ directory is adopted archived (bundle.archived follows bundle.created); a skill under an in-progress/ directory is adopted at stage idea.
Computes an initial version from the bundle’s hashed design/output and journals skill.version_recorded with label "adopted", so every adopted skill starts with a real, hashed version — never “unversioned.”
Preserves nonstandard frontmatter fields it doesn’t recognize (version, triggers, allowed-tools, and other conventions your repo already uses) rather than stripping them.
Detects (but does not import) manifest files (e.g. plugin.json) and existing eval/test infrastructure — these are reported, not touched.
Idempotent: re-running skips skills already adopted (skipped, reason already-adopted); nothing is double-imported or overwritten.

Options

Flag	Meaning
`path`	Directory to scan for `SKILL.md` files. Defaults to the current directory.
`--source <url-or-path>`	Upstream repo/path this batch was imported from; recorded on each adopted skill’s marker
`--ref <ref>`	Ref/tag/commit alongside `--source`; ignored without `--source`
`--triage`	Sweep without acting: write `adopt-manifest.md` at the workspace root, one row per discovered skill
`--from-manifest [file]`	Execute a triage manifest (default `adopt-manifest.md` at the workspace root) as individual adoptions
`--json`	Emit a structured report instead of text

--triage / --from-manifest split adoption into a review-then-act pair: the sweep challenges provable arrivals instead of silently adopting them, and the manifest is yours to edit before executing it.

`--source` / `--ref` (upstream provenance)

adopt’s whole pitch is receipts, so the batch’s origin is one too: pass --source (a repo URL or local path) and optionally --ref (a tag, branch, or commit) and every skill adopted in that batch records where it came from — persisted on the bundle’s adopt marker and echoed by --json as upstream: {source, ref}. Omit it and adoption works exactly as before (no provenance recorded); this is opt-in, not required.

skillmaker adopt existing-skills/ --source https://github.com/mattpocock/skills --ref 391a270

skillmaker: adopt -- found 2 SKILL.md file(s), adopted 2, skipped 0 (already adopted)
upstream:    https://github.com/mattpocock/skills @ 391a270
adopted:
  + code-review <- existing-skills/code-review
  + house-style <- existing-skills/house-style

This is provenance at adopt time, not a live drift-vs-upstream check — “has the source repo changed since I adopted?” (skillmaker upstream diff or similar) is tracked as future work; see the Roadmap.

Output

Real output adopting two skills, one archived from a deprecated/ path:

skillmaker: adopt -- found 2 SKILL.md file(s), adopted 2, skipped 0 (already adopted)
adopted:
  + old-thing <- existing-skills/deprecated/old-thing [archived]
      warning: adopted from a "deprecated/" directory
  + frobnicate-widgets <- existing-skills/frobnicate-widgets

Re-running is a no-op:

skillmaker: adopt -- found 2 SKILL.md file(s), adopted 0, skipped 2 (already adopted)
skipped (already adopted):
  - existing-skills/deprecated/old-thing
  - existing-skills/frobnicate-widgets

--json on the re-run:

{"found":2,"adopted":[],"skipped":[{"relativePath":"existing-skills/deprecated/old-thing","reason":"already-adopted"},{"relativePath":"existing-skills/frobnicate-widgets","reason":"already-adopted"}],"warnings":[],"manifests":[],"evalInfra":[]}

An adopted bundle looks like any other bundle afterward — skillmaker status frobnicate-widgets reports stage idea, a real version hash, and a skill.version_recorded event labeled "adopted" as its last event.

Known limitation

Publish’s layout-awareness for adopted bundles (respecting the original repo’s directory conventions on the way out, not just on the way in) is flagged as follow-up work — today the production-state guard on publish (bundle must reach published) blocks it from being reachable regardless.