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Agent skill

Grounded Vault

by wshobson in wshobson/agents

A skill your agent uses when maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources, when every number or quote in a wiki page must trace back to an immutable source, or…

MITAuto-check passedKnowledge Management

Install Grounded Vault

skills CLI
$ npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill grounded-vault -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install wshobson/agents grounded-vault --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/wshobson/agents.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/documentation-standards/skills/grounded-vault .claude/skills/grounded-vault && 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
grounded-vault
GitHub stars
40k
Token cost
~1.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
708 words
Files
2 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
142
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources, when every number or quote in a wiki page must trace back to an immutable source, or…

  • Works in 5 steps: Ingest. Put new material in raw/ under a… → Compile. Write or update the wiki/ page… → Check. Run the grounding check and the… → …
  • Maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use, The three layers, Page header contract and Grounding rule, plus 4 more sections
  • Calls git and python3

What it does

Grounded Vault is an agent skill from wshobson/agents. Use when maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources, when every number or quote in a wiki page must trace back to an immutable source, or when compiled pages need cheap drift detection against the code they describe. Teaches the raw/wiki/archive layout, per-claim provenance links, and git fingerprints for zero-token staleness checks.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 2 other files, including reference files (for example `references/details.md`).

It sits in Knowledge Management, covering GitOps. It works with Git. The repository describes itself as: Multi-harness agentic plugin marketplace for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, GitHub Copilot, Google Antigravity, and Pi. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources
  • Quote in a wiki page must trace back to an immutable source
  • Compiled pages need cheap drift detection against the code they describe

Example prompts

  • “/grounded-vault”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Ingest. Put new material in raw/ under a dated or sourced filename. Never rewrite an existing raw file; add a new one beside it.
  2. Compile. Write or update the wiki/ page with the header block, a source link on every claim, and the fingerprint of the commit the code…
  3. Check. Run the grounding check and the drift check before committing. Fix misses at the source; do not weaken a claim to make the check…
  4. Garbage collect. When drift or a contradicting source appears and the page is not recompiled now, change its status, move it to archive/…
  5. Update the map. Every add, move, or archive updates index.md and appends one line to log.md in the same commit.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 46891e7. 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
    • python3

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use git, 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

Grounded Vault loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs, and up to ~3.5k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 97 tokens; SKILL.md has 708 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~97
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.4k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~3.5k

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 wshobson/agents at commit 46891e7, republished under its MIT licence (© wshobson). 708 words, ~1,362 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/grounded-vault/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
grounded-vault
description
Use when maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources, when every number or quote in a wiki page must trace back to an immutable source, or when compiled pages need cheap drift detection against the code they describe. Teaches the raw/wiki/archive layout, per-claim provenance links, and git fingerprints for zero-token staleness checks.

Grounded Vault

A grounded vault is a three-layer Markdown store in which every compiled claim can be traced back to an immutable source and every page can be checked for staleness with one git diff. It needs a git repository and nothing else. The convention comes from the llm-wiki-loop project, which is a reference implementation rather than a dependency; this skill teaches the pattern so it works with plain files and whatever agent is in the session.

When to Use

  • An agent compiles notes, papers, transcripts, logs, or code into wiki pages that later sessions rely on.
  • A page cites numbers, dates, or quotes, and a reader must be able to verify each one against its source.
  • Pages describe code, and rereading the codebase every session to check whether they still hold is too expensive.
  • Knowledge must be corrected without losing history: superseded pages are archived, never deleted.

Session state, task queues, and conversation continuity are a different problem; use the context-management or conductor plugins for those. This skill is about provenance and drift on a durable knowledge store.

The three layers

LayerContentsWho writes itRule
raw/source material: notes, papers, transcripts, logs, exported datapeople and ingestion onlyimmutable once added; agents never edit a raw file
wiki/compiled pages built from raw/ and from codeagents and peopleevery number, date, and quote links to its source
archive/pages that drifted or were supersededagents, during garbage collectionmoved, never deleted; the header says why

Two files sit at the vault root. index.md is the map of every current page. log.md is an append-only record of what changed and why. Both change in the same commit as the page they describe.

Page header contract

Every wiki/ page opens with a header block:

markdown
# Authentication architecture

> Raw: [raw/notes/auth-v1.md](../raw/notes/auth-v1.md), [raw/adr/0007-jwt.md](../raw/adr/0007-jwt.md)
> Fingerprint: git:5b237fa
> Monitored: src/auth/jwt.ts, src/auth/session.ts, package.json
> Status: Current
  • Raw: lists every source the page was compiled from. Inline claims link to their specific source as well: Tokens expire after 15 minutes ([raw/adr/0007-jwt.md](../raw/adr/0007-jwt.md)).
  • Fingerprint: is the short commit hash the page was compiled against.
  • Monitored: lists the code paths the page describes. A change to any of them after the fingerprint means the page may be stale.
  • Status: is Current, Outdated (monitored code moved on), or Disputed (a newer source contradicts the page).

Grounding rule

A compiled page states only what a source supports, and every number, date, or quotation appears verbatim in the linked source. A synthesis says it is one and links its inputs. A gap in the sources is written into the page as a gap rather than filled by guessing.

Check it mechanically: for each linked claim, search the linked raw file for the exact figure or quoted phrase. A miss is a grounding error and blocks the commit. The script in references/details.md does this for a whole vault.

Show full SKILL.md (259 more words)Show less

Drift detection

Compare the fingerprint with the current tree instead of rereading monitored code:

bash
git diff --stat 5b237fa..HEAD -- src/auth/jwt.ts src/auth/session.ts package.json

Empty output means the page still describes the code it was compiled against. Any output means recompile: reread only the changed files, update the page, and stamp the new fingerprint. The check runs in milliseconds and spends no model tokens.

Workflow

  1. Ingest. Put new material in raw/ under a dated or sourced filename. Never rewrite an existing raw file; add a new one beside it.

  2. Compile. Write or update the wiki/ page with the header block, a source link on every claim, and the fingerprint of the commit the code was read at.

  3. Check. Run the grounding check and the drift check before committing. Fix misses at the source; do not weaken a claim to make the check pass.

  4. Garbage collect. When drift or a contradicting source appears and the page is not recompiled now, change its status, move it to archive/, and record the reason:

    markdown
    > Status: Outdated
> Reason: src/auth/session.ts changed after git:5b237fa; see log.md 2026-09-01

  5. Update the map. Every add, move, or archive updates index.md and appends one line to log.md in the same commit.

Commit gate

Run both checks from a pre-commit hook or a CI step so a page cannot land with an unverifiable number or a stale fingerprint:

bash
python3 scripts/check_vault.py --strict   # exits 1 on any grounding miss or drifted page

Going deeper

references/details.md covers: the vault check script, batching the drift check across pages, templates for index.md and log.md, renamed or deleted monitored files, sources that are binary or live at external URLs, and the reference implementation.

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

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file (references) in plugins/documentation-standards/skills/grounded-vault of wshobson/agents.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/details.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 46891e7

Compare with similar skills

Grounded Vault 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.

Grounded Vault compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Grounded Vault this skillwshobson/agents40k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Upgrade Harnessruvnet/metaharness696—~497Automated safety check: PassMIT
Docs CIjh941213/my-cc-harness125—~989Automated safety check: NotesNone
Argocd GitopsBagelHole/DevOps-Security-Agent-Skills1.2k—~2.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Implementing Gitopsancoleman/ai-design-components525—~2.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Argocd Gitopssickn33/agentic-awesome-skills47k1 repos~2.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Grounded Vault

What does Grounded Vault do?

A skill your agent uses when maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources, when every number or quote in a wiki page must trace back to an immutable source, or…. Grounded Vault is an agent skill from wshobson/agents. Use when maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources, when every number or quote in a wiki page must trace back to an immutable source, or when compiled pages need cheap drift detection against the code they describe.

When should I use Grounded Vault?

Grounded Vault fits situations like: maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources; quote in a wiki page must trace back to an immutable source; compiled pages need cheap drift detection against the code they describe.

How do I install Grounded Vault in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill grounded-vault -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/documentation-standards/skills/grounded-vault in wshobson/agents) into .claude/skills/grounded-vault in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Grounded Vault in Codex?

Run `npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill grounded-vault -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/documentation-standards/skills/grounded-vault in wshobson/agents) into .agents/skills/grounded-vault in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Grounded Vault 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 wshobson/agents --skill grounded-vault -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/grounded-vault, .gemini/skills/grounded-vault, .github/skills/grounded-vault and .opencode/skills/grounded-vault in your project.

What does Grounded Vault need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Grounded Vault needs the command-line tools its instructions call (git and python3). Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Grounded Vault access the network?

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

Is Grounded Vault 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 Grounded Vault use?

Grounded Vault 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 Grounded Vault use?

About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.4k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 2.1k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Grounded Vault?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Grounded Vault: Upgrade Harness (ruvnet/metaharness, 696 stars), Docs CI (jh941213/my-cc-harness, 125 stars), Argocd Gitops (BagelHole/DevOps-Security-Agent-Skills, 1.2k stars) and Implementing Gitops (ancoleman/ai-design-components, 525 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Grounded Vault?

wshobson (a GitHub user) maintains it in wshobson/agents, which has 40,314 GitHub stars. The repository holds 142 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 5, 2026.

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