Artifacts written by `evolve --generate` are inert: Claude Code (and every
spec-compliant Agent Skills client) injects only `name` + `description` at
startup and will not load an artifact missing them.
Today the generator writes:
- skills: `# {name}` with no frontmatter block at all
- commands: `# {cmd_name}` with no frontmatter block at all
- agents: `model`/`tools` only, no `name`, no `description`
So the whole evolve pipeline terminates in files that can never load. I hit
this on a real install: 12 generated artifacts across two projects, none of
which Claude Code had ever seen.
This adds a `_evolved_description()` helper and emits proper frontmatter for
all three artifact kinds. The description is sanitised for the two things that
break loaders: `: ` in an unquoted scalar (rejected by strict YAML parsers)
and `<`/`>` (system-prompt injection risk).
Adds two tests to tests/scripts/instinct-cli-evolve-generate.test.js. Both
fail against current main and pass with this change.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude Code 2.1.233 removed the todo/task tools by default on Opus 4.8, Sonnet 5,
Fable 5, Mythos 5 and newer models (TodoWrite, TaskCreate/Get/Update/List).
CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TODO_TOOLS=1 restores them, but that is a per-machine
environment setting that does not travel with a skill, so this skill cannot assume
its reader has a task list at all.
Three claims are wrong for most readers on a current version:
- "What Survives Compaction" listed "TodoWrite task list" unconditionally
- "Plan is in TodoWrite or a file" as the reason to compact at Planning→Implementation
- "Once plan is finalized in TodoWrite, compact to start fresh"
This is load-bearing advice rather than a cosmetic detail: "my todo list survives
compaction" is a reason to compact INSTEAD of writing state down. If the tools are
absent there is no list to survive, so the reader follows the advice, compacts, and
the plan is simply gone.
Changes:
- Promote "Files on disk" into the survives table — the claim that holds on every
version and model.
- Make the task-list row conditional and add a short caveat naming the version, the
env var, and the fact that it does not travel with the skill.
- Point readers at a file as the durable record before compacting.
- Reword the Decision Guide and Best Practices lines so neither depends on the tool
existing.
Applied identically to the Codex (.agents/) and Kiro (.kiro/) mirrors so the three
copies agree. Those mirrors have pre-existing drift from the main skill; this change
deliberately does not touch anything beyond the same three claims.
Verified locally: all eight scripts/ci/ validators pass (unicode-safety, skills,
agents, commands, rules, hooks, install-manifests, no-personal-paths), plus
catalog:check, command-registry:check, and harness-adapter-compliance (12 adapters).
No emoji in the added block, per check-unicode-safety.
haelyra