skillmaker adopt

skillmaker adopt [path]

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.
--json	Emit a structured report instead of text

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.

See also

Adopting an existing repo — a full walkthrough with real output against a scratch repo, plus real numbers from adopting two real-world skills repos.