mcpField
S
sn-update

sn-update

github.com/opensensenovaAgent workflows6.0k109 installsUpdated 2d ago
Repository

About sn-update

sn-update refreshes installed sn-* skills from the upstream SenseNova-Skills repository. It is for users maintaining OpenClaw or Hermes skill directories, comparing versions per skill and backing up existing files before updates.

Key features

  1. 01Sync skills from the upstream repository
  2. 02Compare version markers per skill
  3. 03Update selected skills or force reinstall
  4. 04Back up existing skills before updates
  5. 05Retain up to three backup directories

Use cases

  1. 01Refresh installed sn-* skills
  2. 02Update only named skills
  3. 03Force a skill reinstall
  4. 04Roll back from a backup directory

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/opensensenova/sensenova-skills --skill sn-update

After installing, type/sn-updatein Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Details

From the project README

sn-update

Refresh installed sn-* skills from upstream SenseNova-Skills.

Decide the scope

  • No list given → every sn-* skill upstream.
  • Specific skills named → only those. Don't expand.
  • A named skill missing upstream → surface as error and stop.
  • User said "force / 强制" → re-install even when up-to-date.

Decide the target agent

Check which directories exist:

~/.openclaw/skills/~/.hermes/skills/Target
existsabsentopenclaw
absentexistshermes
existsexistsask the user — never silently dual-write
absentabsentno install found, stop

Sync the upstream repo

Persistent cache at ~/.cache/sn-update/repo/. Default URL: https://github.com/OpenSenseNova/SenseNova-Skills.git. User may override with a fork URL.

  • First run: if you want to actually limit blob download, use partial clone with --filter=blob:none --no-checkout, then sparse-checkout only the selected skills/<name> paths before copying them. --filter=blob:none alone does not keep the cache small if the full worktree is checked out; that checkout will still download most or all needed blobs. It still preserves history metadata for SHA queries.
  • Subsequent runs: fetch + hard-reset to the upstream default branch, and re-apply sparse-checkout for only the requested skills/<name> paths before copying. If updating the whole sn-* bundle, expect most/all skill blobs to be downloaded.
  • URL changed: if cache's origin differs from the requested URL, delete and re-clone.

Compare versions per skill (A → B → C)

For each skill, pick the highest-precedence signal present on both sides (installed + upstream); equal → skip, differ → install.

Upstream "version" is the per-subtree commit SHA — using repo HEAD would mark unrelated skills as stale every time:

git -C <cache> log -1 --format=%H -- skills/<skill-name>
  • A — .sn-version marker: one-line file inside the installed skill holding the SHA from its last install.
  • B — .sn-release marker (fallback): one-line file holding the upstream tag name. Compare against git describe --tags --abbrev=0.
  • C — optional version: field in SKILL.md frontmatter: parse from YAML on both sides, but only for forks or skills that explicitly add this field. If either side lacks it, C does not apply.
  • Nothing usable → treat as stale and install.

Always write .sn-version on install so future runs can use A.

Install with backup

For each skill flagged "install":

  1. Move (not copy) any existing <agent-skills>/<skill-name>/ into a single timestamped backup bucket shared by all skills in this run: ~/.<agent>/skills_backup/<UTC-timestamp>/<skill-name>/ (e.g. 2026-04-30T15-29-07Z).
  2. Copy <cache>/skills/<skill-name>/ → <agent-skills>/<skill-name>/. Never symlink (ln -s) from the cache. The cache lives under ~/.cache/ with permissions the agent runtime may not be able to traverse, and some runtimes refuse to load skills resolved through symlinks. Always do a real recursive copy so the installed tree is self-contained and owned by the agent skills dir.
  3. Write .sn-version with the upstream subtree SHA inside the new copy.

If the bucket ends up empty (all targets were fresh installs), remove it.

The backup tree is a sibling of skills/, never a .bak folder inside it — most agent runtimes scan the whole skills/ directory and would pick up stale duplicates.

Enforce backup retention

After every run, prune the per-agent backup root to at most 3 buckets. Timestamps sort lexicographically; keep the newest 3, delete the rest. Run this even when the current run produced no backup of its own.

Report to the user

Group by status, keep it short:

Updated (3): sn-ppt-standard, sn-image-base, sn-deep-research
Already up-to-date (5): sn-ppt-creative, sn-ppt-doctor, ...
Backup: ~/.openclaw/skills_backup/2026-04-30T15-29-07Z/
  • Omit Backup: when nothing was backed up.
  • Show SHA pairs (abc1234 → def5678) only if the user asks for detail.
  • Errors get their own line — never bury them in a success summary.

Edge cases

  • Asks to delete sn- skills* — not this skill's job. Decline; point at ~/.<agent>/skills_backup/ if they want to roll back.
  • User is in the dev repo and asks to "update sn skills" — they mean push to their agent install. Proceed normally; this skill only touches the cache and the agent install dirs, never the dev checkout.
  • sn-update updating itself — fine; the new copy takes effect on the next invocation.

Comments

Markdown supported