Skill index updater Skill

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)

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

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

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):

~/Documents/Cline/skills/
~/.kiro/skills/

Local skills (checked in order):

./.claude/skills/
./.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 |

Workflow

1. Run the update script

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

The script will:

Detect your working directory and whether you're in a git repo
Scan global skills in ~/Documents/Cline/skills/
Update ~/Documents/Cline/Rules/cline_overview.md with global skills index
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

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.

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`

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

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) |

Additional resources

TESTING.md - Evaluation scenarios and validation commands

Agent Skills: Skill index updater

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files