Handbook Sync - Update Project Handbook Skill

Handbook Sync - Update Project Handbook

Purpose

Syncs the central handbook from ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/ to the current project's resources/handbook/ folder.

This ensures your project has the latest Amplify Gen 2 documentation, patterns, and best practices.

When to Use

User says:

"Sync the handbook"
"Update the handbook"
"Pull latest handbook"
"Refresh handbook docs"
"Get latest handbook"

Workflow

Step 1: Verify Central Handbook Exists

Check that ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/ directory exists and has content:

ls ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/README.md

If it doesn't exist, tell the user:

❌ Central handbook not found at ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/

Please clone the AmplifyHandbook repo:
  git clone https://github.com/ChinchillaEnterprises/AmplifyHandbook.git ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook

Step 2: Create Project Handbook Directory

mkdir -p resources/handbook

Step 3: Sync Everything

Copy everything from central handbook to project:

cp -r ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/* ./resources/handbook/

Important: This overwrites everything in the project's handbook with the latest from the central source.

What gets copied:

All markdown documentation files
All code examples
Complete folder structure (auth/, data/, functions/, webhooks/, frontend/, troubleshooting/)
README.md and navigation files

Note: AmplifyHandbook repo contains only documentation (no SKILL.md)

Step 4: Verify Success

ls -la resources/handbook/README.md

Step 5: Confirm to User

Tell the user:

✅ Handbook synced successfully!
   - Source: ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/
   - Destination: ./resources/handbook/
   - All documentation is now up to date

What This Does

ONE-WAY sync: Central → Project

~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/  (central, source of truth)
         ↓
         ↓  cp -r command
         ↓
./resources/handbook/              (project, local copy)

This is NOT a two-way sync. Changes in the project's resources/handbook/ are NOT pushed back to central.

Important Notes

To Get Latest Central Handbook

Before syncing to a project, ensure your central handbook is up to date:

cd ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/
git pull

This gets the latest handbook updates from the AmplifyHandbook repo.

To Contribute New Patterns

If you want to add new patterns to the central handbook, use the handbook-updater skill instead. It will:

Update files in ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/
Commit and push to GitHub
Make updates available to the whole team

Complete Example

User: "Sync the handbook"

Claude:

# Step 1: Verify central handbook exists
ls ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/README.md

# Step 2: Create project directory
mkdir -p resources/handbook

# Step 3: Copy everything
cp -r ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/* ./resources/handbook/

# Step 4: Verify
ls -la resources/handbook/README.md

Output:

✅ Handbook synced successfully!
   - Source: ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/
   - Destination: ./resources/handbook/
   - All documentation is now up to date

Troubleshooting

"No such file or directory" for central handbook

Problem: ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/ doesn't exist

Solution:

git clone https://github.com/ChinchillaEnterprises/AmplifyHandbook.git ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook

If it exists but is out of date:

cd ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/
git pull

"Permission denied"

Problem: Can't write to resources/handbook/

Solution: Check you're in a project directory where you have write permissions.

Remember

This skill does a full overwrite of resources/handbook/
Always pulls from ~/.claude/AmplifyHandbook/ (central)
To update central handbook, use handbook-updater skill
To read handbook, use handbook skill

Agent Skills: Handbook Sync - Update Project Handbook

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files