Core-Edit — Cross-Repo Skill Editor

Edit a skill inside dotfiles-core from within an overlay repo. Handles the submodule cd, commit, push (to both remotes), and overlay pointer-bump in one supervised sequence.

Prerequisites

This skill requires an overlay context — a repo with .gitmodules referencing .claude/dotfiles-core. Running it from a standalone dotfiles-core clone is an error.

Step 1 — Detect context

Verify overlay context:

# Must be run from the overlay root (or a subdir)
# Find overlay root by walking up to find .gitmodules
git rev-parse --show-toplevel

Check:

1. The result has .gitmodules at the root that references dotfiles-core.
2. .claude/dotfiles-core/.git exists (submodule initialized).

If either check fails:

ERROR: /core-edit must be run from inside an overlay repo with a dotfiles-core submodule.
Current directory does not appear to be an overlay root.
Hint: cd to your dotfiles overlay directory and re-run.

Stop.

Step 2 — Validate skill argument

The user must provide a skill name:

/core-edit <skill-name>

Check that .claude/dotfiles-core/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/ exists.

If missing:

ERROR: skill '<skill-name>' not found in dotfiles-core.
Available skills:
  <list from ls .claude/dotfiles-core/.claude/skills/>

Stop.

If found: confirm the path and proceed.

Step 3 — Show current content

Before editing, show the user what's in the skill:

cat .claude/dotfiles-core/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md | head -30

Report: "Opening .claude/dotfiles-core/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md for editing."

Step 4 — Present targeted edit

Ask the user what they want to change. Receive the edit intent and apply it using the standard Edit tool on the file at:

.claude/dotfiles-core/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md

Run leakage check on the modified file before proceeding:

bash .claude/dotfiles-core/scripts/check-no-leakage.sh .claude/dotfiles-core/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/

If the leakage check fails, it reports file/line references only (matched content is withheld by design) — ask the user to revise the edit against those locations and re-check. Do not commit a file with leakage tokens. On machines without the company-context marker the check skips cleanly.

Step 5 — Show diff and confirm

git -C .claude/dotfiles-core diff .claude/skills/<skill-name>/

Present the diff. Ask:

Commit this change to dotfiles-core?
  -> y = Yes, commit and push
  -> n = Discard
  -> e = Edit more

Step 6 — Commit and push to core

On y:

cd .claude/dotfiles-core
git add .claude/skills/<skill-name>/
git commit -m "feat(<skill-name>): <user-provided description>"
git push origin main
cd ../..

Report the commit SHA:

Committed to dotfiles-core: <sha> — <message>
Pushed to origin (GHE).

Step 7 — Bump submodule pointer in overlay

# In overlay root
new_sha=$(git -C .claude/dotfiles-core rev-parse --short HEAD)
git add .claude/dotfiles-core
# Overlays that install from a copied tree (no VCS at $HOME) pin core in a
# tracked version file; keep it in step with the submodule pointer.
if [ -f .claude/dotfiles-core.version ]; then
  # Braces bind the redirect to both branches; without them a tagged HEAD
  # prints the tag to the terminal and the file keeps its old value.
  { git -C .claude/dotfiles-core describe --tags --exact-match HEAD 2>/dev/null \
      || git -C .claude/dotfiles-core rev-parse HEAD; } > .claude/dotfiles-core.version
  git add .claude/dotfiles-core.version
fi
git commit -m "core: bump pointer to ${new_sha} (<skill-name> update)"

Report:

Overlay submodule pointer bumped to <new_sha>.
Commit: core: bump pointer to <new_sha> (<skill-name> update)

Step 8 — Reinstall

Re-run core's installer to pick up any changes to the skill directory (symlinks are resolved at install time, so this is usually a no-op for skill edits — but it ensures freshness):

bash .claude/dotfiles-core/install.sh

Summary

Report:

/core-edit complete.
  Skill:         <skill-name>
  Core commit:   <sha>
  Pointer bump:  overlay @ <new_sha>
  Reinstall:     done

Gate rules

• Always confirm before committing to either repo (Step 5 gate).
• Never commit a leakage-check failure. The check in Step 4 is mandatory.
• Never edit files outside the target skill directory in the core repo.
• Pointer bump is mandatory after every core commit. Leaving the overlay pinned to an old SHA creates confusion.