---
name: read-managed-skill-before-update
description: "Before manage_skill update (which overwrites the whole body), read the existing SKILL.md via skill:// and merge; recover lost bodies from the git repo tracking managed-skills."
---

# Never overwrite a managed skill blind

`manage_skill action:"update"` replaces the **entire** `SKILL.md` body. Issuing it without the current text in hand silently destroys whatever the earlier session learned.

## Rule

1. Read first: `read skill://<name>` (or the file at `~/.omp/agent/managed-skills/<name>/SKILL.md`) in the SAME turn as the update call, then re-issue the body as existing-content + additions.
2. Keep additions append-shaped: a new section at the end, not a rewrite of prose that already worked. Near-duplicate sections are cheaper to clean up than lost knowledge.
3. If a body was already clobbered, recover before rewriting: `~/.omp/agent` (or the agent home) is commonly git-tracked — `git -C ~/.omp/agent log --oneline -- managed-skills/<name>/SKILL.md` then `git -C ~/.omp/agent show HEAD:managed-skills/<name>/SKILL.md`. If untracked, the version is gone; say so instead of pretending the rewrite preserved it.

Detection detail: a clobber usually shows up as a skill that still reads coherently but has lost the concrete env vars, paths, or trap list that made it actionable — i.e. the version you rewrote from memory of a sibling skill.