Glossary Management Skill

Glossary Management

Overview

Manage the global terminology glossary (~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md) and its Vale integration. The glossary is the Single Source of Truth (SSoT) for terminology across all projects.

When to Use This Skill

Use when:

Manually syncing glossary to Vale vocabulary files
Validating glossary format and structure
Checking for duplicate or conflicting terms across projects
Adding new terms programmatically
Troubleshooting Vale terminology warnings

Quick Commands

# Manual sync to Vale
bun ~/.claude/tools/bin/glossary-sync.ts

# Check for duplicates/conflicts across projects (invokes terminology-sync hook)
bun ~/eon/cc-skills/plugins/itp-hooks/hooks/posttooluse-terminology-sync.ts <<< '{"tool_name":"Edit","tool_input":{"file_path":"/tmp/test-CLAUDE.md"}}'

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    GLOSSARY.md (SSoT)                           │
│                ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md                       │
└─────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┘
                          │
          ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
          │               │               │
          ▼               ▼               ▼
┌─────────────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌────────────────────┐
│ accept.txt      │ │ Term.yml  │ │ Project CLAUDE.md  │
│ (Vale vocab)    │ │ (subs)    │ │ (bidirectional)    │
└─────────────────┘ └───────────┘ └────────────────────┘

SCAN_PATHS Configuration

The terminology sync hook uses SCAN_PATHS to discover project CLAUDE.md files. This is configured via an HTML comment in GLOSSARY.md:

<!-- SCAN_PATHS:
- ~/eon/*/CLAUDE.md
- ~/eon/*/*/CLAUDE.md
- ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md
-->

Format rules:

Must be an HTML comment starting with <!-- SCAN_PATHS:
Each path on its own line with - prefix
Supports glob patterns (*, **)
Paths are relative to home directory (~)

Default paths (if not specified):

~/eon/*/CLAUDE.md - Top-level project CLAUDE.md files
~/eon/*/*/CLAUDE.md - Package-level CLAUDE.md files

Table Schema (5 Columns)

Every term in GLOSSARY.md follows this 5-column format:

| Column | Required | Description | Example | | -------------- | -------- | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | | Term | Yes | Bold term name (**Term**) | **Time-Weighted Sharpe** | | Acronym | Yes | Abbreviation (or - if none) | TWSR | | Definition | Yes | Clear, concise definition | Sharpe ratio for range bars | | Unit/Range | Yes | Measurement unit or valid range | ratio, [0, 1], - | | Projects | Yes | Comma-separated project names | alpha-forge, trading-fitness |

Example row:

| **Time-Weighted Sharpe** | TWSR | Sharpe ratio for variable-duration bars using time weights | annualized ratio | alpha-forge |

Automatic Sync (Hooks)

Two PostToolUse hooks handle automatic sync:

| Hook | Trigger | Action | | ------------------------------ | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | posttooluse-glossary-sync | Edit ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md | Sync to Vale vocabulary | | posttooluse-terminology-sync | Edit project CLAUDE.md | Merge terms → GLOSSARY.md, detect conflicts |

Manual Operations

Sync Glossary to Vale

When automatic sync fails or you need to force a refresh:

bun ~/.claude/tools/bin/glossary-sync.ts

Output:

=== Glossary Bidirectional Sync ===
  Source: /Users/you/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md
  Found 25 acronyms, 24 substitutions
  Updated: .vale/styles/config/vocabularies/TradingFitness/accept.txt
  Total terms: 27
  Updated: .vale/styles/TradingFitness/Terminology.yml
  Substitution rules: 24
  Updated timestamp: 2026-01-22T00:00:00Z
=== Sync Complete ===

Validate Glossary Format

Check that GLOSSARY.md follows the correct table format:

# Check required columns
grep -E '^\| \*\*[^|]+\*\* \|' ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md | head -5

# Verify table structure (should have | Term | Acronym | Definition | Unit/Range | Projects |)
head -25 ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md

Expected format:

| Term                     | Acronym | Definition                  | Unit/Range | Projects    |
| ------------------------ | ------- | --------------------------- | ---------- | ----------- |
| **Time-Weighted Sharpe** | TWSR    | Sharpe ratio for range bars | ratio      | alpha-forge |

Check for Duplicates

Scan all project CLAUDE.md files for terminology conflicts:

# Full duplicate check (scans ~/eon/*/CLAUDE.md)
bun ~/eon/cc-skills/plugins/itp-hooks/hooks/posttooluse-terminology-sync.ts <<< '{"tool_name":"Edit","tool_input":{"file_path":"/tmp/test-CLAUDE.md"}}'

Conflict types detected:

Definition conflict: Same term, different definitions
Acronym conflict: Same term, different acronyms
Acronym collision: Same acronym used for different terms

Add New Term

To add a new term to the glossary:

Edit GLOSSARY.md directly:

| **New Term** | NT | Definition of the new term | - | project-name |

Sync will auto-trigger via posttooluse-glossary-sync hook

Verify Vale recognizes it:

echo "The NT is important" | vale --config=~/.claude/.vale.ini

Vale Integration

Files Generated

| File | Purpose | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | | ~/.claude/.vale/styles/config/vocabularies/TradingFitness/accept.txt | Accepted terms (won't be flagged) | | ~/.claude/.vale/styles/TradingFitness/Terminology.yml | Substitution rules (suggests canonical form) |

Running Vale

# Check a single file (run from file's directory for glob patterns to match)
cd ~/eon/trading-fitness && vale --config=~/.claude/.vale.ini CLAUDE.md

# Check all CLAUDE.md files
find ~/eon -name "CLAUDE.md" -exec sh -c 'cd "$(dirname "$1")" && vale --config=~/.claude/.vale.ini "$(basename "$1")"' _ {} \;

Important: Vale glob patterns in .vale.ini (like [CLAUDE.md]) are relative to cwd. Always run Vale from the file's directory or use absolute paths with matching glob patterns.

Troubleshooting

Terms Not Being Recognized

Check sync timestamp:

grep "Last Sync" ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md

Force manual sync:

bun ~/.claude/tools/bin/glossary-sync.ts

Verify Vale config path:

cat ~/.claude/.vale.ini | grep StylesPath

Hook Not Triggering

Check hook is registered:

grep "glossary-sync" ~/.claude/settings.json

Verify hook file exists:

ls -la ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/cc-skills/plugins/itp-hooks/hooks/posttooluse-glossary-sync.ts

Vale Output Shows "0 files" But File Exists

This happens when Vale's glob patterns don't match the file path. The posttooluse-vale-claude-md.ts hook handles this by:

Walking up from the file's directory to find .vale.ini
Changing to the file's directory before running Vale
Stripping ANSI escape codes for reliable output parsing

If running Vale manually, ensure you're in the file's directory:

# Wrong - may show "0 files"
vale --config=/path/to/.vale.ini /absolute/path/to/CLAUDE.md

# Correct - cd first
cd /absolute/path/to && vale --config=/path/to/.vale.ini CLAUDE.md

Duplicate Vocabulary Directories

If you see Vale inconsistencies:

# Check for duplicate vocab dirs (should only have config/vocabularies/)
ls -la ~/.claude/.vale/styles/

# Remove any stale Vocab/ directory
rm -rf ~/.claude/.vale/styles/Vocab/

References

Vale Documentation
GLOSSARY.md: ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md (local file)
itp-hooks CLAUDE.md

Agent Skills: Glossary Management

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files