frontmatter-guard

Files (2)

• SKILL.md
• routing-eval.jsonl

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Frontmatter Guard Skill

> **Convention:** see `skills/conventions/quality.md` for citation rules; this skill is structural validation, not citation auditing.

## Contract

This skill guarantees:
- Every brain page is scanned against the seven canonical frontmatter validation classes
- Mechanical errors (nested quotes, missing closing `---`, null bytes, slug mismatch) are auto-repairable on demand with `.bak` backups
- Validation logic is shared with `gbrain doctor`'s `frontmatter_integrity` subcheck — single source of truth
- Reports per source (gbrain is multi-source since v0.18.0); never silently audits the wrong root

## Why This Exists

Brain pages pile up over months. Agents write them with malformed frontmatter:
- Missing closing `---` (entity detector bugs)
- Unstructured YAML in meeting pages (ingestion bugs)
- Slug mismatches (path renames not propagated)
- Null bytes (binary corruption from copy-paste accidents)
- Nested double quotes in titles (`title: "Phil "Nick" Last"`)

Without a guard, these accumulate silently until `gbrain sync` chokes or search returns garbage. The guard makes the failure visible at audit time and trivially fixable.

## Validation classes

| Code | Meaning | Auto-fixable? |
|------|---------|---------------|
| `MISSING_OPEN` | File doesn't start with `---` | No (needs human) |
| `MISSING_CLOSE` | No closing `---` before first heading | Yes |
| `YAML_PARSE` | YAML failed to parse | Sometimes (depends on cause) |
| `SLUG_MISMATCH` | Frontmatter `slug:` differs from path-derived slug | Yes (removes the field) |
| `NULL_BYTES` | Binary corruption (`\x00`) | Yes |
| `NESTED_QUOTES` | `title: "outer "inner" outer"` shape | Yes |
| `EMPTY_FRONTMATTER` | Open + close present but nothing between | No (needs human) |

## Phases

### Phase 1: Audit

Run a read-only scan across all registered sources (or one with `--source <id>`).

```bash
gbrain frontmatter audit --json
```

Reports:
- Per-source counts grouped by error code
- Sample of up to 20 affected pages per source
- Total count
- Scan timestamp

Output is JSON; agents parse `errors_by_code` and `per_source` to decide next steps.

### Phase 2: Validate one path

Validate a single file or directory (does not require source registration):

```bash
gbrain frontmatter validate <path> --json
```

Exit code 0 = clean; 1 = errors found. Use this in CI pipelines or pre-commit hooks.

### Phase 3: Fix

When issues are found:

```bash
gbrain frontmatter validate <path> --fix
```

`--fix` writes `<file>.bak` for every modified file before mutating. The backup is the safety contract — works whether the brain is a git repo or a plain directory.

`--dry-run` previews without writing. Use this before applying fixes in batch.

### Phase 4: Pre-commit hook (optional)

For brain repos that ARE git repos, install the pre-commit hook to block malformed pages from being committed in the first place:

```bash
gbrain frontmatter install-hook [--source <id>]
```

The hook runs `gbrain frontmatter validate` against staged `.md`/`.mdx` files. Bypass with `git commit --no-verify`.

## Trigger words

When the user says any of these, route here:
- "validate frontmatter"
- "check frontmatter"
- "fix frontmatter"
- "frontmatter audit"
- "brain lint"

## Output rules

- Always run `gbrain frontmatter audit --json` first; never assume a brain is clean.
- Surface counts to the user in plain language; do not dump raw JSON.
- For `--fix` operations: state how many files will be modified BEFORE running, then confirm.
- `SLUG_MISMATCH` fixes remove the frontmatter `slug:` field — gbrain derives slug from path. Mention this when the user's title is intentionally renamed.
- Never auto-fix `MISSING_OPEN` or `EMPTY_FRONTMATTER` without explicit user input — these usually mean a human author started a page and didn't finish.

## Chains with

- `gbrain doctor` — the `frontmatter_integrity` subcheck reports the same counts as `audit`.
- `skills/maintain/SKILL.md` — broader brain health audit; chain after this skill if other classes of issue are suspected.
- `skills/lint/SKILL.md` (via `gbrain lint`) — overlapping rules for skill-file lint; the `frontmatter-*` rule names in lint output come from this skill's validation surface.

## Output Format

Audit summary (terse, agent-friendly):

```
Frontmatter audit — 17 issue(s) across 1 source(s)

[default] /Users/me/brain
  17 issue(s)
    MISSING_CLOSE: 8
    NESTED_QUOTES: 5

From ltdrew/Agent-brain-2, MIT.

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