check

Check for available updates to tracked repositories and installed skills without applying changes.

skillshare check                      # Check all repos and skills
skillshare check my-skill             # Check a single skill
skillshare check a b c                # Check multiple skills
skillshare check --group frontend     # Check all skills in frontend/
skillshare check x -G backend         # Mix names and groups
skillshare check --json               # Machine-readable output

When to Use

Before Updating

Preview what would change before running update:

skillshare check         # See what has updates
skillshare update --all  # Apply updates
skillshare sync          # Distribute changes

CI/CD Pipeline

Check for stale skills in CI:

result=$(skillshare check --json)
# Parse JSON to detect outdated skills

What It Does

check inspects your source directory and reports update status for:

1. Tracked repositories — Fetches from origin, shows how many commits you're behind
2. Installed skills (with metadata) — Compares installed version against the remote HEAD
3. Stale skills — Detects skills whose subdirectory was deleted from the upstream repository
4. Local-path installs — Compares the files at the path you installed from with the files recorded at install time (see Local-Path Installs)
5. Local skills — Marks skills without install metadata as "local source" (nothing to compare)
6. Skill-level targets validation — Warns about unknown target names in SKILL.md targets frontmatter fields

Unlike update, check never modifies any files.

Local-Path Installs

A skill installed from a directory on disk (skillshare install /path/to/skill) records that path and the hash of every file it copied. check re-hashes the files at that path and reports:

• up to date — the files match what was installed
• update available — a file was changed, added, or removed at the source path
• error — the source path no longer exists (local source not found: <path>)

This is useful for skills that another application ships and updates, such as a skill inside an app bundle:

skillshare install /Applications/Surge.app/Contents/Resources/Skills/surge

# After the app updates:
skillshare check surge     # → Update available
skillshare update surge    # Re-copies from the path and runs the security audit
skillshare sync

Skills installed before file hashes were recorded keep the "local source" status until they are updated or reinstalled. In project mode, a relative path (such as ./vendor/my-skill) is resolved against the project root.

When the dashboard installs the root of a directory that also contains child skills, it copies only that root's SKILL.md. check then compares only SKILL.md, and update re-copies only SKILL.md.

Example Output

$ skillshare check
! _shared-rules   3 commits behind
! _design-system  uncommitted changes
! commit          update available · github.com/anthropics/skills
! old-helper      stale — no longer in the upstream repository

! Updates available for 1 repo, 1 skill, 2 up to date, 1 local skipped, 1 stale · 3.4s

Next
  skillshare update --all          pull the updates
  skillshare update --all --prune  remove stale skills

Check Specific Skills

You can check one or more skills by name instead of scanning everything:

skillshare check my-skill                # Single skill
skillshare check skill-a skill-b         # Multiple skills

With follow_source_links: true, you can also check a followed Git checkout by its link name, for example skillshare check _dev-skills.

Use --group / -G to check all updatable skills in a group directory:

skillshare check --group frontend        # All skills under frontend/
skillshare check -G frontend -G backend  # Multiple groups
skillshare check my-skill -G frontend    # Mix names and groups

If a positional name matches a group directory (not a repo or skill itself), it is automatically expanded:

skillshare check frontend               # Auto-detected as group

Skills without metadata (local-only) are skipped when expanding groups.

Options

Flag	Description
--group, -G <name>	Check all updatable skills in a group (repeatable)
--project, -p	Check project-level skills (.skillshare/)
--global, -g	Check global skills (~/.config/skillshare)
--json	Output as JSON (for scripting/CI)
--help, -h	Show help

Auto-detection

If neither --project nor --global is specified, skillshare auto-detects: if .skillshare/config.yaml exists in the current directory, it defaults to project mode; otherwise global mode.

JSON Output

skillshare check --json

{
  "tracked_repos": [
    {"name": "_team-skills", "status": "up_to_date", "behind": 0, "branch": "main"},
    {"name": "_shared-rules", "status": "behind", "behind": 3, "branch": "develop"}
  ],
  "skills": [
    {"name": "pdf", "source": "anthropics/skills", "version": "a1b2c3d",
     "status": "up_to_date", "installed_at": "2024-06-01T10:00:00Z"},
    {"name": "commit", "source": "anthropics/skills", "version": "x9y8z7w",
     "status": "update_available", "installed_at": "2024-05-15T08:30:00Z"},
    {"name": "old-helper", "source": "anthropics/skills", "version": "d4e5f6g",
     "status": "stale", "installed_at": "2024-03-10T09:00:00Z"},
    {"name": "local-skill", "source": "", "version": "",
     "status": "local", "installed_at": "2024-04-20T12:00:00Z"}
  ]
}

Skills with "status": "error" include a message field when the reason is known, for example "message": "local source not found: /path/to/skill".

Status Indicators

Icon	Meaning
✓	Up to date
⬇	Update available (tracked repo: commits behind; skill: newer version)
⚠	Stale — subdirectory deleted or renamed upstream
!	Has uncommitted changes
•	Local source (no install metadata to compare)

Stale skills

When a skill's subdirectory was renamed or deleted upstream, check reports it as stale. Use update --prune to clean up stale skills.

Monorepo awareness

For skills installed from a subdirectory, check only reports "update available" when that specific directory changed — not when unrelated parts of the repo have new commits.

Project Mode

skillshare check -p                    # Check all project skills
skillshare check -p my-skill           # Check specific project skill
skillshare check -p --group frontend   # Check project group
skillshare check -p --json             # JSON output for project

Agent Support

skillshare check agents scopes the check to agents only, reporting drift and update status for .md files in the agents source directory:

skillshare check agents              # Check all agents
skillshare check agents --json       # JSON output for agents
skillshare check agents -p           # Check project agents

Without the agents argument, check operates on skills only (default behavior). See Agents for background.

See Also

• update — Apply updates
• list — View installed skills
• status — Show sync status
• Agents — Agent concepts