git:20260412.09a32a6 to git:20261004.bf7b024

43 added, 18 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: skf-rename-skill

description: Rename a skill across all its versions — transactional copy-verify-delete with platform context rebuild. Use when the user requests to "rename a skill."

---

# Rename Skill

## Overview

Renames a skill across all its versions with transactional safety — copy to the new name, verify all references updated, delete the old name only after verification succeeds. Rebuilds platform context files to reference the new name. The agentskills.io spec requires `name` to match parent directory name, so a rename is a coordinated move across 9+ locations in every version.

+ ## Conventions

+ - Bare paths (e.g. `references/<name>.md`) resolve from the skill root.

+ - `references/` holds prompt content carved out of SKILL.md (workflow stages chained via frontmatter `nextStepFile`, plus static reference docs); `scripts/` and `assets/` hold deterministic helpers and templates.

+ - `{skill-root}` resolves to this skill's installed directory (where `customize.toml` lives, if present).

+ - `{project-root}`-prefixed paths resolve from the project working directory.

+ - `{skill-name}` resolves to the skill directory's basename.

+ - **Module-level path exception:** bare paths beginning with `knowledge/` or `shared/` resolve from the SKF module root (`{project-root}/_bmad/skf/` installed, `src/` in dev), not the skill root; e.g. `shared/health-check.md`, which the terminal step chains to, and the envelope schema `shared/scripts/schemas/skf-rename-skill-result-envelope.v1.json`.

+ - **Sibling skills:** a path that names another SKF skill's folder (`skf-<name>/...`) resolves from the SKF module root, and that skill must be installed with this one. On Activation step 1 cites `skf-export-skill/assets/managed-section-format.md`, the format the context-file rebuild writes.

## Role

- You are Ferris in Management mode — a precision surgeon who operates on the entire skill group atomically. You guarantee safety via copy-before-delete: the new name is fully materialized and verified before the old name is removed, so any failure mid-operation leaves the original skill intact.

+ You are Ferris in Management mode — a precision surgeon who operates on the entire skill group atomically.

## Workflow Rules

These rules apply to every step in this workflow:

- Never delete the old skill directories until the new name has been fully materialized and verified

- Never proceed past a verification failure — roll back (delete new directories) and halt

- Never allow a rename to collide with an existing skill name

- - Read each step file completely before taking any action

- - Follow the mandatory sequence in each step exactly — do not skip, reorder, or optimize

+ - Never rename a folder SKF did not generate: select.md §4a takes that verdict from the inventory helper

- Only load one step file at a time — never preload future steps

- - If any instruction references a subprocess or tool you lack, achieve the outcome in your main context thread

+ - Every helper is required: select.md §1, §5's validator call and execute.md §0 halt (exit 4) without one, and no stage does a helper's write, scan or check by hand

- Always communicate in `{communication_language}`

+ - At any interactive prompt, the inputs `cancel`, `exit`, `[X]`, `q`, or `:q` exit cleanly with exit code 6 (`halt_reason: "user-cancelled"`)

- If `{headless_mode}` is true, auto-proceed through confirmation gates with their default action and log each auto-decision

## Stages

|---|------|------|--------------|

- | 3 | Report | steps-c/step-03-report.md | Yes |

- | 4 | Workflow Health Check | steps-c/step-04-health-check.md | Yes |

+ | 2 | Execute Rename | references/execute.md | Yes |

+ | 3 | Report | references/report.md | Yes |

+ | 4 | Workflow Health Check | references/health-check.md | Yes |

## Invocation Contract

- | Aspect | Detail |

- |--------|--------|

- | **Inputs** | old_name [required], new_name [required] |

- | **Gates** | step-01: Input Gate [use args] x2, Confirm Gate [Y] |

- | **Outputs** | Renamed skill directories, updated manifest, updated context files |

- | **Headless** | All gates auto-resolve with default action when `{headless_mode}` is true |

+ Headless callers: the inputs, flags, gate map, outputs, concurrency rule and `SKF_RENAME_SKILL_RESULT_JSON` result envelope live in `references/invocation-contract.md`, and the exit codes in `references/exit-codes.md`. Interactive runs do not need them.

## On Activation

1. Load config from `{project-root}/_bmad/skf/config.yaml` and resolve:

- `project_name`, `output_folder`, `user_name`, `communication_language`, `document_output_language`

- `skills_output_folder`, `forge_data_folder`, `sidecar_path`

- - `snippet_skill_root_override` (optional string) — when set, the context-file rebuild in step-02 preserves any snippet `root:` prefix that matches the override instead of rewriting it to the target IDE's skill root. See `skf-export-skill/assets/managed-section-format.md` for full semantics.

- - Generate and store `timestamp` as `YYYYMMDD-HHmmss` format. This value is fixed for the entire workflow run.

+ - `snippet_skill_root_override` (optional string): when set, the context-file rebuild in step 2 passes it to `assemble` as `--skill-root-override`, so every row's `root:` takes it instead of the target IDE's skill root. See `skf-export-skill/assets/managed-section-format.md` for full semantics.

- 2. **Resolve `{headless_mode}`**: true if `--headless` or `-H` was passed as an argument, or if `headless_mode: true` in preferences.yaml. Default: false.

+ 2. **Bind the invocation once**, in every mode:

+ - `{headless_mode}`: true if `--headless` or `-H` was passed as an argument, or if `headless_mode: true` in `{sidecar_path}/preferences.yaml`. Default: false.

+ - `{acknowledge_official}`: true if `--acknowledge-official` was passed, else false.

+ - `{dry_run}`: true if `--dry-run` was passed, else false.

+ - `{old_name_arg}` and `{new_name_arg}`: the current name and the new name the invocation supplied, as arguments or in a request such as "rename cognee to cognee-ai", each null when absent. select.md §4 and §5 take a supplied name in either mode instead of asking for it.

- 3. Load, read the full file, and then execute `./steps-c/step-01-select.md` to begin the workflow.

+ 3. **Resolve workflow customization.** Run:

+ ```bash

+ uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_customization.py --skill {skill-root} --project-root {project-root} --key workflow

+ ```

+ It merges the bundled `{skill-root}/customize.toml` with `{project-root}/_bmad/custom/skf-rename-skill.toml` (team overrides, committed) and `.user.toml` (personal overrides, gitignored). When it exits non-zero, prints no JSON or is missing, print one line, `[activation/warn] customization_resolver_unavailable: <reason>` (`<reason>`: its first stderr line, `not found` when the script is missing, `no JSON` when it printed none). If the resolver cannot run, read `{skill-root}/customize.toml` alone and use its bundled defaults: the `{project-root}/_bmad/custom/` overrides do not apply to this run. In that case keep the reason as `{customization_resolver_unavailable}` (unset when the resolver ran) for select.md §1 to record once it has created `{run_dir}`.

+ Apply the scalar fallback now so stage files don't have to repeat the conditional logic. For each of the two scalars, if the merged value is empty or absent, the bundled default applies:

+ - `{forceSourceAuthorityInHeadless}` ← true when `workflow.force_source_authority_in_headless` is `"true"` or the TOML boolean `true`, else false (a headless run halts on an `"official"` skill unless it passes `--acknowledge-official`)

+ - `{onCompleteCommand}` ← `workflow.on_complete` if non-empty, else empty string (no-op — step 3 skips the post-completion hook invocation)

+ Stash both as workflow-context variables. Stage files reference them directly, with no conditional at the usage site.

+ Then apply the resolved array surfaces so they are not silent no-ops: execute each entry in `workflow.activation_steps_prepend` in order now; treat every entry in `workflow.persistent_facts` as standing context for the whole run (entries prefixed `file:` are paths or globs whose contents load as facts: the bundled default loads every `project-context.md` under `{project-root}`; an entry prefixed `!` drops each earlier entry it names and loads nothing itself, so an override's `"!file:{project-root}/**/project-context.md"` turns that default off); and after activation completes, execute each entry in `workflow.activation_steps_append` in order.

+ 4. Load, read the full file, and then execute `references/select.md` to begin the workflow.