Gardening Skills Wiki

What the source does

• FilesystemNone observedNo reads or writes in the source
• NetworkNone observedNo outbound calls in the source
• ShellNone observedNo commands run in the source
• DependenciesPinnedNothing floats
• SecretsNone foundNo keys in source

Five audit layers

Gates applied: no behavioural pass.

Audit 0.4.1 · source sha 6d51b9a892b5 · 26 Oct 2026Report an issue or request a re-scan

• Publisherobra GitHub userOwner of the repository this skill is read from
• Source folderobra/superpowers-skills/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wikiThe exact folder we audited
• LicenceMITAs the repository states it
• Commit pinned for this verdict6d51b9a892b5A new audit runs when the source changes
• Repository statusArchivedLast push 376 days ago
• Sandboxed runNot runSkills are read, not executed; layer L4 is skipped

Its description: Maintain skills wiki health - check links, naming, cross-references, and coverage

---
name: Gardening Skills Wiki
description: Maintain skills wiki health - check links, naming, cross-references, and coverage
when_to_use: when adding, removing, or reorganizing skills, or periodically to maintain wiki health and validate links
version: 1.1.0
languages: bash
---

# Gardening Skills Wiki

## Overview

The skills wiki needs regular maintenance to stay healthy: links break, skills get orphaned, naming drifts, INDEX files fall out of sync.

**Core principle:** Automate health checks to maintain wiki quality without burning tokens on manual inspection.

## When to Use

**Run gardening after:**
- Adding new skills
- Removing or renaming skills
- Reorganizing categories
- Updating cross-references
- Suspicious that links are broken

**Periodic maintenance:**
- Weekly during active development
- Monthly during stable periods

## Quick Health Check

```bash
# Run all checks
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# Or run specific checks
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-links.sh
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-naming.sh
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-index-coverage.sh

# Analyze search gaps (what skills are missing)
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/analyze-search-gaps.sh
```

The master script runs all checks and provides a health report.

## What Gets Checked

### 1. Link Validation (`check-links.sh`)

**Checks:**
- Backtick-wrapped `@` links - backticks disable resolution
- Relative paths like skills/ or skills/gardening-skills-wiki/~/ - should use skills/ absolute paths
- All `skills/` references resolve to existing files
- Skills referenced in INDEX files exist
- Orphaned skills (not in any INDEX)

**Fixes:**
- Remove backticks from @ references
- Convert skills/ and skills/gardening-skills-wiki/~/ relative paths to skills/ absolute paths
- Update broken skills/ references to correct paths
- Add orphaned skills to their category INDEX
- Remove references to deleted skills

### 2. Naming Consistency (`check-naming.sh`)

**Checks:**
- Directory names are kebab-case
- No uppercase or underscores in directory names
- Frontmatter fields present (name, description, when_to_use, version, type)
- Skill names use active voice (not "How to...")
- Empty directories

**Fixes:**
- Rename directories to kebab-case
- Add missing frontmatter fields
- Remove empty directories
- Rephrase names to active voice

### 3. INDEX Coverage (`check-index-coverage.sh`)

**Checks:**
- All skills listed in their category INDEX
- All category INDEX files linked from main INDEX
- Skills have descriptions in INDEX entries

**Fixes:**
- Add missing skills to INDEX files
- Add category links to main INDEX
- Add descriptions for INDEX entries

## Common Issues and Fixes

### Broken Links

```
❌ BROKEN: skills/debugging/root-cause-tracing
   Target: /path/to/skills/debugging/root-cause-tracing/SKILL.md
```

**Fix:** Update the reference path - skill might have moved or been renamed.

### Orphaned Skills

```
⚠️  ORPHANED: test-invariants/SKILL.md not in testing/INDEX.md
```

**Fix:** Add to the category INDEX:

```markdown
- skills/gardening-skills-wiki/test-invariants - Description of skill
```

### Backtick-Wrapped Links

```
❌ BACKTICKED: skills/testing/condition-based-waiting on line 31
   File: getting-started/SKILL.md
   Fix: Remove backticks - use bare @ reference
```

**Fix:** Remove backticks:

```markdown
# ❌ Bad - backticks disable link resolution
`skills/testing/condition-based-waiting`

# ✅ Good - bare @ reference
skills/testing/condition-based-waiting
```

### Relative Path Links

```
❌ RELATIVE: skills/testing in coding/SKILL.md
   Fix: Use skills/ absolute path instead
```

**Fix:** Convert to absolute path:

```markdown
# ❌ Bad - relative paths are brittle
skills/testing/condition-based-waiting

# ✅ Good - absolute skills/ path
skills/testing/condition-based-waiting
```

### Naming Issues

```
⚠️  Mixed case: TestingPatterns (should be kebab-case)
```

**Fix:** Rename directory:

```bash
cd ~/.claude/skills/testing
mv TestingPatterns testing-patterns
# Update all references to old name
```

### Missing from INDEX

```
❌ NOT INDEXED: condition-based-waiting/SKILL.md
```

**Fix:** Add to `testing/INDEX.md`:

```markdown
## Available Skills

- skills/gardening-skills-wiki/condition-based-waiting - Replace timeouts with condition polling
```

### Empty Directories

```
⚠️  EMPTY: event-based-testing
```

**Fix:** Remove if no longer needed:

```bash
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/event-based-testing
```

## Naming Conventions

### Directory Names

- **Format:** kebab-case (lowercase with hyphens)
- **Process skills:** Use gerunds when appropriate (`creating-skills`, `testing-skills`)
- **Pattern skills:** Use core concept (`flatten-with-flags`, `test-invariants`)
- **Avoid:** Mixed case, underscores, passive voice starters ("how-to-")

### Frontmatter Requirements

**Required fields:**
- `name`: Human-readable name
- `description`: One-line summary
- `when_to_use`: Symptoms and situations (CSO-critical)
- `version`: Semantic version

**Optional fields:**
- `languages`: Applicable languages
- `dependencies`: Required tools
- `context`: Special context (e.g., "AI-assisted development")

## Automation Workflow

### After Adding New Skill

```bash
# 1. Create skill
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/category/new-skill
vim ~/.claude/skills/category/new-skill/SKILL.md

# 2. Add to category INDEX
vim ~/.claude/skills/category/INDEX.md

# 3. Run health check
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# 4. Fix any issues reported
```

### After Reorganizing

```bash
# 1. Move/rename skills
mv ~/.claude/skills/old-category/skill ~/.claude/skills/new-category/

# 2. Update all references (grep for old paths)
grep -r "skills/gardening-skills-wiki/old-category/skill" ~/.claude/skills/

# 3. Run health check
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# 4. Fix broken links
```

### Periodic Maintenance

```bash
# Monthly: Run 

Excerpt, first 6,000 characters of SKILL.md, verbatim from the audited commit. It is text from someone else’s repository, quoted so you can judge it before your agent reads it.

git clone https://github.com/obra/superpowers-skills
git -C superpowers-skills checkout 6d51b9a892b5

Works in

1. 2026-10-26
   ✓SAFE B 89 / 100

   first audit · source 6d51b9a892b5

Questions about Gardening Skills Wiki

• github.com/obra/superpowers-skills/tree/main/skills/meta/gardeni — the audited source at commit 6d51b9a892b5 and every finding aboveObserved · 26 Oct 2026

Spotted something wrong? Report a correction · Methodology