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Agent skill

Update Skills

by sbusso in sbusso/claudeclaw

Check for and apply updates to installed skill branches from upstream.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Update Skills

skills CLI
$ npx skills add sbusso/claudeclaw --skill update-skills -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install sbusso/claudeclaw update-skills --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/sbusso/claudeclaw.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/update-skills .claude/skills/update-skills && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
update-skills
GitHub stars
194
Token cost
~1.3k tokens
SKILL.md length
725 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
23
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Check for and apply updates to installed skill branches from upstream.

  • Works in 6 steps: Preflight → Detect installed skills with available… → Present results → …
  • Development work in your project
  • Calls git and npm

What it does

Update Skills is an agent skill from sbusso/claudeclaw. Check for and apply updates to installed skill branches from upstream.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.3k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Development. It works with Git. The repository describes itself as: Use Claude to orchestrate agents like OpenClaw. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Development work in your project

Example prompts

  • “/update-skills”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Preflight
  2. Detect installed skills with available updates
  3. Present results
  4. Apply updates
  5. Validation
  6. Summary

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 1395af4. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • git
    • npm

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use git and npm, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Update Skills loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 21 tokens; SKILL.md has 725 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~21
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.3k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from sbusso/claudeclaw at commit 1395af4, republished under its MIT licence (© sbusso). 725 words, ~1,267 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/update-skills/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
update-skills
description
Check for and apply updates to installed skill branches from upstream.

About

Skills are distributed as git branches (skill/*). When you install a skill, you merge its branch into your repo. This skill checks upstream for newer commits on those skill branches and helps you update.

Run /update-skills in Claude Code.

How it works

Preflight: checks for clean working tree and upstream remote.

Detection: fetches upstream, lists all upstream/skill/* branches, determines which ones you've previously merged (via merge-base), and checks if any have new commits.

Selection: presents a list of skills with available updates. You pick which to update.

Update: merges each selected skill branch, resolves conflicts if any, then validates with build + test.

Goal

Help users update their installed skill branches from upstream without losing local customizations.

Operating principles

  • Never proceed with a dirty working tree.
  • Only offer updates for skills the user has already merged (installed).
  • Use git-native operations. Do not manually rewrite files except conflict markers.
  • Keep token usage low: rely on git commands, only open files with actual conflicts.

Step 0: Preflight

Run:

  • git status --porcelain

If output is non-empty:

  • Tell the user to commit or stash first, then stop.

Check remotes:

  • git remote -v

If upstream is missing:

  • Ask the user for the upstream repo URL (default: https://github.com/sbusso/claudeclaw.git).
  • git remote add upstream <url>

Fetch:

  • git fetch upstream --prune

Step 1: Detect installed skills with available updates

List all upstream skill branches:

  • git branch -r --list 'upstream/skill/*'

For each upstream/skill/<name>:

  1. Check if the user has merged this skill branch before:
    • git merge-base --is-ancestor upstream/skill/<name>~1 HEAD — if this succeeds (exit 0) for any ancestor commit of the skill branch, the user has merged it at some point. A simpler check: git log --oneline --merges --grep="skill/<name>" HEAD to see if there's a merge commit referencing this branch.
    • Alternative: MERGE_BASE=$(git merge-base HEAD upstream/skill/<name>) — if the merge base is NOT the initial commit and the merge base includes commits unique to the skill branch, it has been merged.
    • Simplest reliable check: compare git merge-base HEAD upstream/skill/<name> with git merge-base HEAD upstream/main. If the skill merge-base is strictly ahead of (or different from) the main merge-base, the user has merged this skill.
  2. Check if there are new commits on the skill branch not yet in HEAD:
    • git log --oneline HEAD..upstream/skill/<name>
    • If this produces output, there are updates available.

Build three lists:

  • Updates available: skills that are merged AND have new commits
  • Up to date: skills that are merged and have no new commits
  • Not installed: skills that have never been merged
Show full SKILL.md (322 more words)Show less

Step 2: Present results

If no skills have updates available:

  • Tell the user all installed skills are up to date. List them.
  • If there are uninstalled skills, mention them briefly (e.g., "3 other skills available in upstream that you haven't installed").
  • Stop here.

If updates are available:

  • Show the list of skills with updates, including the number of new commits for each:
    skill/<name>: 3 new commits
skill/<other>: 1 new commit
  • Also show skills that are up to date (for context).
  • Use AskUserQuestion with multiSelect: true to let the user pick which skills to update.
    • One option per skill with updates, labeled with the skill name and commit count.
    • Add an option: "Skip — don't update any skills now"
  • If user selects Skip, stop here.

Step 3: Apply updates

For each selected skill (process one at a time):

  1. Tell the user which skill is being updated.
  2. Run: git merge upstream/skill/<name> --no-edit
  3. If the merge is clean, move to the next skill.
  4. If conflicts occur:
    • Run git status to identify conflicted files.
    • For each conflicted file:
      • Open the file.
      • Resolve only conflict markers.
      • Preserve intentional local customizations.
      • git add <file>
    • Complete the merge: git commit --no-edit

If a merge fails badly (e.g., cannot resolve conflicts):

  • git merge --abort
  • Tell the user this skill could not be auto-updated and they should resolve it manually.
  • Continue with the remaining skills.

Step 4: Validation

After all selected skills are merged:

  • npm run build
  • npm test (do not fail the flow if tests are not configured)

If build fails:

  • Show the error.
  • Only fix issues clearly caused by the merge (missing imports, type mismatches).
  • Do not refactor unrelated code.
  • If unclear, ask the user.

Step 5: Summary

Show:

  • Skills updated (list)
  • Skills skipped or failed (if any)
  • New HEAD: git rev-parse --short HEAD
  • Any conflicts that were resolved (list files)

If the service is running, remind the user to restart it to pick up changes.

© sbusso, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/update-skills of sbusso/claudeclaw.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 1395af4

Compare with similar skills

Update Skills next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Update Skills compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Update Skills this skillsbusso/claudeclaw194—~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Finishing a Development Branchobra/superpowers297k5 repos~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Code Review ChecklistshareAI-lab/learn-claude-code78k4 repos~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Code Design Rationale Investigatorcursor/plugins11k9 repos~2.6kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Contributor-First PR MergeHKUDS/OpenHarness16k1 repos~847Automated safety check: PassMIT
Finishing A Development Branchfarm-fe/farm5.6k34 repos~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Update Skills

What does Update Skills do?

Check for and apply updates to installed skill branches from upstream. Update Skills is an agent skill from sbusso/claudeclaw. Check for and apply updates to installed skill branches from upstream.

When should I use Update Skills?

Update Skills fits situations like: development work in your project.

How do I install Update Skills in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add sbusso/claudeclaw --skill update-skills -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/update-skills in sbusso/claudeclaw) into .claude/skills/update-skills in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Update Skills in Codex?

Run `npx skills add sbusso/claudeclaw --skill update-skills -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/update-skills in sbusso/claudeclaw) into .agents/skills/update-skills in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Update Skills in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add sbusso/claudeclaw --skill update-skills -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/update-skills, .gemini/skills/update-skills, .github/skills/update-skills and .opencode/skills/update-skills in your project.

What does Update Skills need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Update Skills needs the command-line tools its instructions call (git and npm).

Does Update Skills access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use git and npm, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Update Skills safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Update Skills use?

Update Skills is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Update Skills use?

About 1.3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.1k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Update Skills?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Update Skills: Finishing a Development Branch (obra/superpowers, 297k stars), Code Review Checklist (shareAI-lab/learn-claude-code, 78k stars), Code Design Rationale Investigator (cursor/plugins, 11k stars) and Contributor-First PR Merge (HKUDS/OpenHarness, 16k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Update Skills?

sbusso (a GitHub user) maintains it in sbusso/claudeclaw, which has 194 GitHub stars. The repository holds 23 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 12, 2026.

Source: sbusso/claudeclaw on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.