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---
name: validate
description: >-
Check that an Open Knowledge Format (OKF) bundle is conformant with the v0.2
spec (§11). Use when asked to validate, lint, or check an OKF bundle, or before
committing changes to one. Runs a deterministic Python checker — not an
eyeball pass. Also migrates a v0.1 bundle to v0.2 in place with `--migrate`.
user-invocable: true
argument-hint: "[bundle-dir] [--strict | --max-warnings N] [--migrate]"
allowed-tools: Bash
---
# Validate an OKF bundle
Run the deterministic conformance checker against the target bundle. Default to
the project's `.okf/` directory when no path is given.
```bash
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/okf_validate.py" $ARGUMENTS
```
If `uv` is unavailable, fall back to:
```bash
python3 -m pip install --quiet pyyaml && \
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/okf_validate.py" $ARGUMENTS
```
`${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}` resolves whether this skill runs as part of the `okf`
plugin or is installed standalone (e.g. via `npx skills add`), so the checker is
always found alongside the skill.
Interpret the result:
- **ERROR** → a hard §11 conformance failure (no parseable frontmatter, a
missing/empty `type`, or a file the checker cannot read as UTF-8). The bundle
is non-conformant. Fix every one.
Only `index.md` and `log.md` are reserved: §11.1 makes *every* other `.md` in
the tree a concept, convention files included. An `AGENTS.md` or `README.md`
dropped next to a bundle is therefore an ERROR until it carries frontmatter with
a `type` (`Document` reads well), which is the fix; a skip-list would put the
checker out of conformance. Move the file above the bundle root if it is not
knowledge.
- **warn** → soft guidance (missing recommended field, non-ISO log date, broken
cross-link, a malformed v0.2 family, a footnote naming no source, an actor
that misses the §7 shapes, an Attested Computation missing `runtime`, a
computation path that resolves nowhere, frontmatter in a reserved file (§8,
§9), a root `index.md` carrying extra keys or declaring a different
`okf_version` (§12)). Never blocks; broken links in particular are explicitly
tolerated by the spec (§6.1). Fix when cheap.
One warning is worth more than the others: a §7 near-miss such as `Human:dana`
or `human/dana`. §5.3 keys trust tiers off the exact lowercase `human:` prefix,
so the concept silently reads as machine-confirmed when a person did review it.
Fix that one on sight.
v0.1 bundles validate too: a legacy `timestamp` or `# Citations` section is
reported as a warning naming its v0.2 replacement (`generated.at`, `sources`),
never as an error (§13.1). Under `--strict` those warnings do fail the run —
that is the migration nudge, and `--migrate` is the door.
## Migrating a v0.1 bundle
`--migrate` **rewrites the bundle in place** before validating — the one mode of
this skill that is not read-only, so say what it will touch before running it on
a bundle the user has not asked to migrate. It is textual (comments, key order
and quoting survive) and idempotent.
```bash
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/okf_validate.py" .okf --migrate --strict
```
It hoists `timestamp` to `generated: { by: process:okf-migrate, at }`, lifts a
`# Citations` list into `sources`, and bumps `okf_version`. Two limits worth
repeating to the user: `generated.by` cannot be recovered for pre-v0.2 content
(hence the `process:` actor — the concept stays correctly `unverified` under
§5.3), and per-claim `[^id]` attribution was never encoded in v0.1, so only the
source list moves up.
## Exit codes
Non-zero if any error is present, or if warnings exceed the gate:
`--strict` allows none, `--max-warnings N` allows N, the default allows any.
Add `--json` for machine-readable output (useful in CI).