Updates and baselines

skills check compares installed remote skills with their recorded upstream revisions. It never changes Library content. The examples below continue with the review skill installed in Library and sources; its full Library key is repos/toolbox/review.

1. Check

skills check repos/toolbox/review
skills check --repo toolbox
skills check --all

Repository-wide and all-skills checks update the status of installed skills only. They may report newly discovered upstream skills, but do not install them.

2. Preview

skills update repos/toolbox/review --dry-run

The preview may download upstream content for comparison, but does not apply it to the Library.

3. Resolve local changes

If both the upstream and local copies changed, choose which complete copy to keep:

Choice	Content after update	Revision and baseline	Later checks
--take local	Keeps local content	Unchanged	May report the same upstream update again
--take upstream	Replaces the complete skill and removes local-only files	Updated	Compares against the new upstream state

skills update repos/toolbox/review --take local
skills update repos/toolbox/review --take upstream

Without either choice, the result is needs-resolution. --force is an alias for --take upstream. Per-file merging with --take-file is not supported. Back up any local edits you need before taking the upstream copy.

Invalid or unsafe upstream content, or an unexpected declared-name change, stops replacement and preserves the installed copy and deployments.

4. Apply

skills update repos/toolbox/review

If the revision did not change, Skills Manager leaves the skill in place instead of reinstalling it. An applied update may trigger the configured root backup.

Accept local content or change its source

skills accept KEY
skills set-source KEY REFERENCE --subpath PATH

skills accept records the current content as the baseline without changing the source revision or uploading the edits. skills set-source changes the recorded source without replacing content or creating a new baseline. Run skills show and skills status afterward to inspect the result.

What the baseline records

Remote skills store an installed revision and a content hash. Git sources use repository revisions; archives use content hashes. A newer repository revision does not imply that every installed skill changed.

The hash covers relative paths, file contents, and symlink targets. It ignores timestamps, permissions, .git, __pycache__, .DS_Store, and *.pyc. The hash detects changes but cannot restore files. Local skills have no remote baseline until a source is recorded.