Routing Table Updater Skill

Overview

This skill maintains the /do routing indices when skills or agents are added, modified, or removed. It implements a Phase-Gated Pipeline -- scan, extract, generate, update, verify -- with deterministic script execution at each phase.

The skill reads metadata from all skills and agents (never modifies them) and validates and repairs the generated routing indices skills/INDEX.json and agents/INDEX.json. PostToolUse hooks (hooks/posttooluse-sync-skill-index.py, hooks/posttooluse-sync-agent-index.py) regenerate the indices automatically on every SKILL.md or agent-file edit; this skill covers drift those hooks miss (bulk changes, deletes outside the harness, corrupted index files).

Reference Loading Table

| Signal | Load These Files | Why | |---|---|---| | batch registration of many skills (invoked by pipeline-scaffolder) | batch-mode.md | Loads detailed guidance from batch-mode.md. | | resolving trigger conflicts: priority rules and severity levels | conflict-resolution.md | Loads detailed guidance from conflict-resolution.md. | | errors, error handling | error-handling.md | Loads detailed guidance from error-handling.md. | | worked update scenarios: new skill, conflict, manual entry, complexity change | examples.md | Loads detailed guidance from examples.md. | | extracting trigger phrases: 'use when' clauses, action verbs, domain keywords, complexity inference | extraction-patterns.md | Loads detailed guidance from extraction-patterns.md. | | routing entry format: frontmatter routing block fields, INDEX.json entry shape, regeneration | routing-format.md | Loads detailed guidance from routing-format.md. | | skill-entry examples for registering a newly created skill | skill-examples.md | Loads detailed guidance from skill-examples.md. |

Instructions

Phase 1: SCAN -- Discover All Skills and Agents

Goal: Find every skill and agent file in the repository.

Constraints: Repository must be at agents toolkit root (requires commands/do.md); only scan skills/*/SKILL.md and agents/*.md formats; file permissions must allow reading.

Step 1: Run scan script

bash
python3 ~/.claude/skills/meta/routing-table-updater/scripts/scan.py --repo $HOME/vexjoy-agent

Step 2: Validate scan output

Expected output is JSON with skills_found, agents_found, skills (array of paths to skills//SKILL.md), `agents` (array of paths to agents/.md).

Step 3: Check for gaps

Compare discovered count against expected. If missing, check directory naming, agent file naming, or file permissions.

Gate: All skill directories and agent files are discovered without permission errors. Proceed to Phase 2 only after the gate passes. See references/error-handling.md for gate failure recovery.

Phase 2: EXTRACT -- Parse Metadata

Goal: Extract YAML frontmatter, trigger patterns, complexity, and routing table targets from every discovered file.

Constraints: YAML frontmatter must be valid; required fields (name, description) must be present; trigger patterns extracted from description text; complexity inference must follow references/extraction-patterns.md.

Step 1: Run extraction script

bash
python3 ~/.claude/skills/meta/routing-table-updater/scripts/extract_metadata.py --input scan_results.json --output metadata.json

Step 2: Verify extraction completeness

For each capability, confirm extracted fields: name, description, trigger_patterns (skills), domain_keywords (agents), complexity (Simple, Medium, Complex), routing_table (Intent Detection, Task Type, Domain-Specific, or Combination).

Step 3: Validate trigger pattern quality

Review against references/extraction-patterns.md. Patterns must be specific enough to avoid false matches, broad enough to catch common phrasings, and free of generic terms.

Description trimming: skill descriptions trim safely to ≤40 router-line tokens when the frontmatter routing.triggers array stays untouched — triggers carry routing weight independently of the description. Verify trims with scripts/skill-sprawl-audit.py plus the routing-benchmark and trigger-ambiguity CI jobs (evidence: PR #801, 11 trims, routing-benchmark 68/68).

Gate: All YAML parsed successfully, required fields are present, trigger patterns are extracted for skills, and domain keywords are extracted for agents. Proceed to Phase 3 only after the gate passes. See references/error-handling.md for gate failure recovery.

Phase 3: GENERATE -- Create Routing Table Entries

Goal: Map extracted metadata to routing entries and detect trigger conflicts before the indices are rebuilt.

Constraints: Deterministic generation (no randomness); pattern conflicts detected immediately; entries sorted alphabetically; duplicates within the same group block gate passage.

Step 1: Run generation script

bash
python3 ~/.claude/skills/meta/routing-table-updater/scripts/generate_routes.py --input metadata.json --output routing_entries.json

Step 2: Understand the generation process

1. Group each capability by the routing classification extracted in Phase 2
2. Detect pattern conflicts (see references/conflict-resolution.md)
3. Sort entries alphabetically within groups

Step 3: Review conflict detection output

Low-severity conflicts: script applies specificity rules automatically. High-severity conflicts: script blocks gate passage and requires manual resolution.

Gate: All capabilities are mapped, conflicts are documented, and no duplicates remain within the same group. Proceed to Phase 4 only after the gate passes. See references/error-handling.md for gate failure recovery.

Phase 4: UPDATE -- Repair INDEX.json

Goal: Bring skills/INDEX.json and agents/INDEX.json in line with filesystem state.

Constraints: Both indices are generated, gitignored artifacts — repair means regenerating from frontmatter via the repo scripts; hand-edits to index files are lost on the next regeneration; source SKILL.md and agent files stay untouched; run from the repo root.

Step 1: Regenerate both indices

bash
cd $HOME/vexjoy-agent
python3 scripts/generate-skill-index.py
python3 scripts/generate-agent-index.py

Step 2: Check for phantom entries

Every entry's file path must exist on disk:

bash
python3 - <<'EOF'
import json, os
for idx, key in (("skills/INDEX.json", "skills"), ("agents/INDEX.json", "agents")):
    entries = json.load(open(idx))[key]
    phantom = [n for n, e in entries.items() if not os.path.exists(e["file"])]
    print(idx, len(entries), "entries,", len(phantom), "phantom", phantom or "")
EOF

Gate: Both generators exit 0 and both indices contain zero phantom file paths. On generator failure, fix the offending frontmatter (the error names the file) and rerun. Proceed to Phase 5 only after the gate passes.

Phase 5: VERIFY -- Validate Routing Correctness

Goal: Final validation of the skill package and the rebuilt indices.

Constraints: No duplicate trigger phrases within an index; every index entry's file path exists; complexity values must match Simple/Medium/Complex; overlapping patterns documented with priority rules.

Step 1: Run validation script

bash
python3 ~/.claude/skills/meta/routing-table-updater/scripts/validate.py

Validates skill package structure, SKILL.md frontmatter, and script executability. Exit 0 = pass.

Step 2: Understand verification checks

1. Structural: Skill package complete (SKILL.md, scripts, references), frontmatter parses
2. Content: No duplicate triggers, every index entry's file path exists (Phase 4 Step 2 check)
3. Conflicts: Overlapping patterns documented, priority rules applied

Gate: All checks pass. Task complete ONLY if final gate passes. See references/error-handling.md for gate failure recovery.

Examples

See references/skill-examples.md for worked examples (new skill created, agent description updated, conflict detection, manual entry preserved).

Batch Mode

When invoked by pipeline-scaffolder Phase 4 (INTEGRATE), this skill operates in batch mode to register N skills and 0-1 agents in a single pass.

See references/batch-mode.md for batch input format, batch process, and the batch vs single mode comparison table.

Integration

This skill is typically invoked after other creation skills complete:

• After skill-creator: New skill created, routing tables need updated entry
• After skill/agent modification: Description or trigger changes require routing refresh
• During repository maintenance: Periodic sync to catch manual drift
• After pipeline-scaffolder Phase 3: N skills created for a domain, all need routing (batch mode)

Invocation by other skills:

skill: routing-table-updater

The skill reads metadata from all skills and agents but never modifies them. Its only write targets are the generated indices skills/INDEX.json and agents/INDEX.json, always via the repo generator scripts.

Error Handling

See references/error-handling.md for the full error matrix (YAML parse errors, routing conflicts, manual entry overwrites, markdown validation failures) and per-phase gate failure recovery.

References

Reference Files

• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/routing-format.md: routing entry format specification (frontmatter routing block fields, INDEX.json entry shape, regeneration commands)
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/extraction-patterns.md: Trigger phrase extraction patterns (regex, keyword maps, complexity inference)
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/conflict-resolution.md: Conflict types, priority rules, severity levels, resolution process
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/examples.md: Real-world examples of routing table updates (new skill, updated agent, conflict detection, manual preservation)
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/skill-examples.md: Worked examples for the 5-phase pipeline (Phase 1-5 walkthroughs)
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/batch-mode.md: Batch mode invocation by pipeline-scaffolder (input format, process, comparison)
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/error-handling.md: Error matrix and per-phase gate failure recovery