Skill Discovery & Pre-Install Check

Combined entry point for finding skills on GitHub and for evaluating a specific skill (URL or local path) before installing it.

Overview

Replaces the v1.2 split between /janitor-search and /janitor-precheck. The dispatcher picks the right mode from the argument shape. Search results are relevance-gated (a repo must carry a skill signal in its name/description/topics) and ranked by relevance before stars, so generic mega-repos don't crowd out actual skills.

Prerequisites

• Claude Code with the skills-janitor plugin installed (provides scripts/discover.sh, search.sh, precheck.sh, compare.sh)
• bash 3.2+ and curl
• Network access to api.github.com (anonymous OK; set GITHUB_TOKEN for higher rate limits and code search)

Instructions

Step 1: Dispatch on argument shape

bash ~/.claude/skills/skills-janitor/scripts/discover.sh <query-or-url> [options]

Examples:

• discover.sh seo — search for SEO-related skills
• discover.sh n8n --limit 20 — top 20 n8n skills
• discover.sh --compare marketing-seo-audit — alternatives to a local skill
• discover.sh https://github.com/user/my-skill — check before installing
• discover.sh user/my-skill — same, short form

Step 2: Present results per mode

Discovery mode — ranked list of GitHub repos with skill name, description, stars, last updated, and a one-line verdict.

Pre-install mode — overlap analysis: which of the user's existing skills (including plugin skills) overlap with the candidate by description, and a recommendation to install / skip / replace.

Output

Discovery: a numbered table (repository, stars, updated, INSTALLED/AVAILABLE status). Pre-install: overlap buckets (HIGH ≥60%, MODERATE 30–59%, LOW <30%) with shared keywords and a final verdict line (HIGHOVERLAP / MODERATEOVERLAP / SAFE).

Error Handling

1. Error: GitHub API rate limit exceeded

Solution: Set the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable (any classic token, no scopes needed) and re-run; anonymous search allows only a few requests per minute.

1. Error: Could not fetch SKILL.md from

Solution: The repo keeps its SKILL.md at a non-standard path — pass a direct URL to the SKILL.md file, or a local clone path instead.

1. Error: No results for a valid topic

Solution: The relevance gate drops repos without any skill signal. Broaden the keyword (e.g. n8n skill → n8n) or check the cached results note — results are cached for 24h in data/search-cache.json.

Examples

Example 1: Find skills by topic

Input: "Find me an n8n skill."

Output: Run discover.sh n8n, present the ranked table, and flag any result already installed.

Example 2: Check before installing

Input: "Is github.com/user/seo-helper worth installing?"

Output: Run discover.sh https://github.com/user/seo-helper, then summarize: overlap with existing skills, the verdict (e.g. "MODERATE_OVERLAP — 45% with marketing-skills:seo-audit"), and a recommendation.

Resources

• Dispatcher (plugin-relative): {baseDir}/../../scripts/discover.sh
• Search cache: data/search-cache.json (24h TTL)
• /janitor-report — health check of currently installed skills
• /janitor-value — are existing skills earning their context cost
• /janitor-fix — fix issues with installed skills