Janitor Fix

Auto-Fix

Automatically fix common skill issues. Dry-run by default — shows what would change without modifying files.

Overview

Repairs frontmatter problems (missing delimiters, empty descriptions, missing version fields) across user, project, and codex-scope skills, and — in --prune mode — removes broken symlinks and empty skill directories. Plugin/marketplace skills are never modified (changes would be overwritten on update).

Prerequisites

• Claude Code with the skills-janitor plugin installed (provides scripts/fix.sh)
• bash 3.2+ (the stock macOS bash works; no external dependencies)
• Write access to the user's own skill directories (~/.claude/skills, ./.claude/skills, ~/.agents/skills)

Instructions

Step 1: Preview first (always)

bash ~/.claude/skills/skills-janitor/scripts/fix.sh            # preview fixes
bash ~/.claude/skills/skills-janitor/scripts/fix.sh --prune    # preview broken/orphaned removals

Step 2: Show the user the preview and confirm

Never jump straight to --apply. Present the [DRY RUN] lines and ask before writing.

Step 3: Apply

bash ~/.claude/skills/skills-janitor/scripts/fix.sh --apply           # apply fixes
bash ~/.claude/skills/skills-janitor/scripts/fix.sh --prune --apply   # remove broken skills

What it fixes:

• Adds missing frontmatter delimiters (---)
• Fills empty description fields with a template
• Adds missing version field (defaults to "1.0.0")
• Generates template descriptions using the skill folder name

Prune mode finds and removes:

• Broken symlinks — skill folder points to deleted source
• Empty directories — skill folder with no SKILL.md
• Orphaned skills — user-scope copies of plugin skills

Safety model: dry-run by default (must pass --apply to write), skips plugin/marketplace skills, logs ALL changes with timestamps to data/changelog.log, always asks for confirmation before removing.

Output

Per-skill action lines ([DRY RUN] / [FIXED] / [PRUNED] / [SKIP]) followed by a summary of fixable issues, skipped items, and prunable entries. In dry-run mode the summary ends with "Run with --apply to make these changes."

Error Handling

• Error: A fix produced an unexpected result in a SKILL.md

Solution: Every applied change is logged in data/changelog.log with a timestamp — show the log entry and restore the affected field manually; template descriptions are meant to be replaced by the author.

• Error: [SKIP] Plugin/marketplace skill - don't modify

Solution: Expected behavior, not an error. Plugin content is fixed upstream — suggest the user report the issue to the plugin author instead.

• Error: Prune lists a skill the user wants to keep

Solution: Do not run --apply. A "broken symlink" that should be kept means its target moved — recreate the link (ln -sfn <new-target> <link>) instead of pruning.

Examples

Example 1: Safe fix cycle

Input: "Fix my skills."

Output: Run the dry-run, present the [DRY RUN] list ("3 fixable: 2 missing descriptions, 1 missing version"), ask for confirmation, then run --apply and report the [FIXED] lines.

Example 2: Cleanup of broken leftovers

Input: "Remove broken skills."

Output: Run --prune (dry-run), show what would be removed and why (broken symlink targets, empty dirs), confirm, then --prune --apply and report the [PRUNED] lines.

Resources

• Fix script (plugin-relative): {baseDir}/../../scripts/fix.sh
• Change log of applied fixes: data/changelog.log in the plugin directory
• For finding issues: /janitor-report
• For usage + token cost: /janitor-value