Preamble (run first)

_VS_DIR=""
for _d in \
  "${VARA_SKILLS_DIR:-}" \
  "$HOME/.claude/skills/vara-skills" \
  ".claude/skills/vara-skills" \
  "$HOME"/.claude/plugins/cache/vara-skills/vara-skills/*; do
  if [ -n "$_d" ] && [ -f "$_d/bin/vara-skills-update-check" ]; then
    _VS_DIR="$_d"; break
  fi
done
if [ -n "$_VS_DIR" ]; then
  export VARA_SKILLS_DIR="$_VS_DIR"
  _UPD=$("$_VS_DIR/bin/vara-skills-update-check" 2>/dev/null || true)
  [ -n "$_UPD" ] && echo "$_UPD" || true
fi

If output shows UPGRADE_AVAILABLE <old> <new>: read ../vara-skills-upgrade/SKILL.md and follow the "Inline upgrade flow" (auto-upgrade if configured, otherwise ask user with 3 options, write snooze if declined). If JUST_UPGRADED <from> <to>: tell user "Running vara-skills v{to} (upgraded from v{from})!" and continue.

Ship Sails App

Role

Use this as the first stop for the provisional Sails-builder pack. Route the builder by repo state and next required artifact, then hand off to the narrower skill.

Local Handbook

• ../../references/gear-execution-model.md
• ../../references/gear-messaging-and-replies.md
• ../../references/gear-gas-reservations-and-waitlist.md
• ../../references/sails-rs-imports.md
• ../../references/delayed-message-pattern.md
• ../../references/sails-program-and-service-architecture.md
• ../../references/sails-idl-client-pipeline.md
• ../../references/sails-gtest-and-local-validation.md
• ../../references/scale-binary-decoding-guide.md
• ../../references/voucher-and-signless-flows.md

Standard Defaults

• Start with Sails for standard Vara work, not raw low-level gstd. Use sails-rs 1.0.0 as the current baseline unless the target repo already pins a different version.
• In standard Sails repos, cargo build runs build.rs: program or wasm crates usually call sails_rs::build_wasm(), while the repo may also emit .idl and typed client outputs from that same build flow.
• For dedicated Rust client crates, prefer sails-rs = { version = "...", features = ["build"] } with sails_rs::build_client::<Program>().
• Treat direct sails-client-gen-v2 and sails-idl-gen wiring as a manual pipeline for explicitly non-standard repo layouts.
• In #[program], public constructors return Self; name that constructor shape and the chosen state ownership pattern explicitly in planning artifacts.
• In #[service], only methods tagged with #[export] are public Sails routes. Event-producing paths should use emit_event.
• Standard Vara account addresses are Substrate SS58 addresses, not Ethereum 0x addresses. Local tooling commonly uses Vara prefix 137.
• Treat the program .idl as the source of truth. The normal JS or TS path is sails-js or sails-cli plus GearApi, generating outputs such as lib.ts and typed program or service classes. Use parseIdl only for an explicitly dynamic runtime path.
• For normal Sails constructor or service calls, generated clients or equivalent Sails Header-aware encoding are the default path; do not model the payload as a bare raw struct.
• If shared DTO derives or event derives start failing in a standard Sails crate, check the #[codec(crate = sails_rs::scale_codec)] and #[scale_info(crate = sails_rs::scale_info)] pattern before deeper debugging.
• Deferred work uses delayed messages measured in blocks. A program can send a delayed message to itself or another actor. If the flow needs gas to survive across blocks, use reserved gas or ReservationId; reservation duration is bounded and is not a value top-up.
• For delayed self-messages, use the named payload-plus-guard recipe in ../../references/delayed-message-pattern.md instead of inventing a one-off byte layout.
• If the flow checks remaining execution budget, use Syscall::gas_available().
• For gasless and signless UX patterns (vouchers, sessions, EZ-transactions), see ../../references/voucher-and-signless-flows.md.
• For local validation, use dev accounts or user-provided SS58 addresses, keep seed phrases and private keys out of commit-ready examples, and do not invent program IDs, voucher IDs, or account addresses.
• Check the repo's build.rs before inventing manual generation commands. Prefer this order:
  1. sails_rs::build_client::<Program>()
  2. explicit sails_idl_gen::generate_idl_to_file::<Program>(...) plus ClientGenerator::from_idl_path(...)
• For binary decoding questions, match the decoder to the source: generated client or .idl for standard Sails interface paths, ProgramMetadata for full state, and state.meta.wasm for state-function output. Use plain Decode::<T> only when the bytes are known to be a bare SCALE payload.

Greenfield Bootstrap

• For a new Sails/Vara project from scratch, prefer the official template bootstrap: cargo sails new <project-name>.
• This creates the standard workspace layout with app, client, src, tests, top-level build.rs, and baseline Cargo wiring.
• For an existing repository, follow the repo’s current layout instead of re-bootstrapping it through the CLI template.

Route By Situation

• Missing local Rust toolchains, Wasm targets, cargo-sails, or the gear binary: ../sails-dev-env/SKILL.md
• No repo or greenfield workspace request: ../sails-new-app/SKILL.md
• Existing Sails repo with feature or behavior change: ../sails-feature-workflow/SKILL.md
• Confusion about #[program], #[service], state, or service boundaries: ../sails-architecture/SKILL.md
• Need to reason about replies, delays, timeouts, reservations, or waitlist behavior: ../gear-message-execution/SKILL.md
• Broken build.rs, missing IDL, or generated client drift: ../sails-idl-client/SKILL.md
• Need to author or debug gtest: ../sails-gtest/SKILL.md
• gtest is green and the next step is a typed live-node smoke run: ../sails-local-smoke/SKILL.md
• Need to add a fungible token or token-backed accounting layer with awesome-sails: ../awesome-sails-vft/SKILL.md
• Need a frontend for a Sails app (new or existing project without one): npx create-vara-app <name> --idl <idl-path>, then ../sails-frontend/SKILL.md for customization
• Need to extend or repair an existing React or TypeScript frontend: ../sails-frontend/SKILL.md
• Raw hex, reply-byte ambiguity, event decoding confusion, or metadata-vs-IDL uncertainty: ../gear-message-execution/SKILL.md
• Building for the ethexe feature (EVM-compatible Gear programs): ../sails-ethexe-architecture/SKILL.md (planning) or ../sails-ethexe-implementer/SKILL.md (implementation)

Required Artifact Chain

Keep the builder on this document chain inside docs/plans/:

YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-spec.md -> ...-architecture.md -> ...-tasks.md -> ...-gtest.md

Use shared templates from:

• ../../assets/spec-template.md
• ../../assets/architecture-template.md
• ../../assets/task-plan-template.md
• ../../assets/gtest-report-template.md

Routing Reminder

• Route to the new-app path when the builder is starting from scratch.
• Mention later architecture, gtest, and local-node validation so the builder sees the full Sails path instead of just the first step.

Guardrails

• Treat this as a candidate first-wave catalog, not a frozen public taxonomy.
• Keep the flow standard Gear/Vara Sails only.
• If the task jumps straight to deployment or a live network without green gtest, redirect to testing first.