feat: add Codex agents/openai.yaml metadata to every skill

Adds an `agents/openai.yaml` beside each `SKILL.md` so the skills work in
Codex as well as Claude Code, without generated copies:

- `interface.display_name` + `interface.short_description` for the Codex
  skill picker, hand-written for all 39 skills.
- `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` on the 22 user-invoked skills —
  the Codex analog of `disable-model-invocation: true`, so Codex excludes
  them from implicit invocation while explicit `$skill` still works.
- Document the dual-harness invocation model in `.agents/invocation.md`,
  `CLAUDE.md`, and the promoted-bucket READMEs.
- Add `AGENTS.md` as a symlink to `CLAUDE.md` so Codex reads the same
  instructions; note Codex as a `link-skills.sh` install target.

Slimmed-down rework of the approach prototyped in #522: keeps the essential
cross-harness metadata, drops the Ruby validator, the runtime-detector test,
per-skill `default_prompt`s, and the unrelated promotion changes.

Co-authored-by: gabimoncha <gabimoncha@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

.agents/invocation.md

@@ -2,10 +2,12 @@
 
 Every `SKILL.md` in this repo is a skill. The one axis that splits them is **invocation** — who can reach it:
 
-- **User-invoked** — reachable **only by the human typing its name**. Set `disable-model-invocation: true` in the frontmatter. The `description` is **human-facing**: a one-line summary read by a person browsing slash-commands. Strip trigger lists ("Use when the user says…").
-- **Model-invoked** — reachable by **model or user**. The default: omit `disable-model-invocation`. The `description` is **model-facing** and keeps rich trigger phrasing ("Use when the user wants…, mentions…, asks for…") so auto-invocation fires. The test for whether a skill should stay model-invoked: _could the model usefully reach for this autonomously?_ (Reuse is the reason to extract a skill, not the test.)
+- **User-invoked** — reachable **only by the human typing its name**. Set `disable-model-invocation: true` in the frontmatter (Claude Code) and `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` in `agents/openai.yaml` (Codex). The `description` is **human-facing**: a one-line summary read by a person browsing slash-commands. Strip trigger lists ("Use when the user says…").
+- **Model-invoked** — reachable by **model or user**. The default: omit `disable-model-invocation` and the `policy` block from `agents/openai.yaml`. The `description` is **model-facing** and keeps rich trigger phrasing ("Use when the user wants…, mentions…, asks for…") so auto-invocation fires. The test for whether a skill should stay model-invoked: _could the model usefully reach for this autonomously?_ (Reuse is the reason to extract a skill, not the test.)
 
-Because a user-invoked skill has no description, nothing but the human can reach it — no other skill can fire it. So a user-invoked skill may invoke model-invoked skills, but it can never reach another user-invoked skill.
+Each harness excludes a user-invoked skill from the model's reach in its own way, so nothing but the human can fire it — no other skill can. A user-invoked skill may invoke model-invoked skills, but it can never reach another user-invoked skill.
+
+Every skill also carries an `agents/openai.yaml` beside its `SKILL.md`. It holds Codex UI metadata — `interface.display_name` and `interface.short_description` for the skill picker — and, for user-invoked skills, the `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` that pairs with `disable-model-invocation`. Keep the two in sync: a skill is user-invoked in both harnesses or neither.
 
 Bucket `README.md`s and the top-level `README.md` group entries into **User-invoked** and **Model-invoked**.
 

.changeset/codex-skill-metadata.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+"mattpocock-skills": minor
+---
+
+Add Codex metadata alongside each skill's Claude Code frontmatter so the set works in both harnesses without generated copies.
+
+- Add an `agents/openai.yaml` beside every `SKILL.md` with Codex UI metadata (`interface.display_name`, `interface.short_description`).
+- Mark every user-invoked skill with `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false`, the Codex analog of `disable-model-invocation: true`, so Codex excludes it from implicit invocation while explicit `$skill` invocation still works.
+- Document the dual-harness invocation model in `.agents/invocation.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, and the promoted-bucket READMEs.
+- Add `AGENTS.md` as a symlink to `CLAUDE.md` so Codex reads the same repo instructions.

.changeset/wayfinder-research-subagents.md

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+"mattpocock-skills": minor
+---
+
+Wayfinder now burns research tickets down with subagents instead of leaving them parked for a separately-launched session.
+
+Research stays a real ticket type — it's a genuine shared blocker that downstream decisions hang on, and that dependency is exactly what the frontier's blocking edges exist to render. What changes is how it's resolved: because research is AFK, charting doesn't stop and read it. After creating the tickets, the charting session fires a `/research` subagent for each research ticket to burn it down in parallel, capturing the findings on a throwaway `research/<name>` branch with a context pointer. Research tickets are the one exception to *one ticket per session*.

.changeset/yagni-scope-improve-architecture.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"mattpocock-skills": minor
+---
+
+Add a YAGNI scoping filter to the **`improve-codebase-architecture`** skill's Explore step. Instead of scanning the whole repo evenly, it now scopes to where change is actually landing: if you name a direction it takes it, otherwise it reads the last ~20 commit messages to bias exploration toward actively-developed paths. A deepening opportunity in code nobody touches is a refactor you'll never cash in — the leverage only pays off where you keep editing — so the report stops tidying dormant corners of the repo.

AGENTS.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+CLAUDE.md

CLAUDE.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Each bucket folder has a `README.md` that lists every skill in the bucket with a
 
 Skills in `engineering/` and `productivity/` also have a human-facing docs page at `docs/<bucket>/<skill-name>.md` (the docs tree mirrors those two bucket folders under `skills/`). The published URL is `https://aihero.dev/skills-<skill-name>` regardless of bucket — the docs path is repo organisation only. When you add, rename, or change the behaviour of a skill in `engineering/` or `productivity/`, create or re-sync its docs page following [.agents/writing-docs.md](./.agents/writing-docs.md). Skills in the non-promoted buckets (`misc/`, `personal/`, `in-progress/`, `deprecated/`) get **no** docs page.
 
-Every `SKILL.md` is either user-invoked (`disable-model-invocation: true`, reachable only by the human) or model-invoked (model- or user-reachable). See [.agents/invocation.md](./.agents/invocation.md).
+Every `SKILL.md` is either user-invoked (`disable-model-invocation: true` plus `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` in `agents/openai.yaml`, reachable only by the human) or model-invoked (model- or user-reachable). See [.agents/invocation.md](./.agents/invocation.md).
 
 [`ask-matt`](./skills/engineering/ask-matt/SKILL.md) is the router that maps every user-reachable skill and how they relate. The same trigger that re-syncs a docs page applies to it: whenever you add, rename, remove, or change how a user-reachable skill fits the flows, re-read `ask-matt`'s `SKILL.md` and update it so the map stays accurate — a new skill it never mentions, or a stale one it still routes to, is a router that lies.
 

docs/engineering/improve-codebase-architecture.md

@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ npx skills update improve-codebase-architecture
 
 It does **not** hand you a flat list of refactors. Every candidate has to pass the **deletion test** — would removing this module *concentrate* complexity behind a smaller interface, or just move it around? Only the "concentrates" cases earn a card. That filter is what stops the report from becoming generic cleanup advice.
 
+Unless you point it at a specific area, it also scopes itself to where development is actually landing — reading the recent commits to bias toward the code you're still changing. Deepening a module pays off by making future changes to it easier, so it puts extra weight on the parts of the repo that have recently changed.
+
 ## When to reach for it
 
 You invoke this by typing `/improve-codebase-architecture` — the agent won't reach for it on its own.

docs/engineering/wayfinder.md

@@ -30,13 +30,13 @@ The **map** is a single `wayfinder:map` issue whose tickets are its child issues
 
 Beyond the live tickets lies the **fog of war** — decisions you can tell are coming but can't yet pin down. The test for whether something is a ticket or still fog is whether you can *state the question precisely now*, not whether you can answer it. Resolving a ticket clears the fog ahead of it, **graduating** whatever's now specifiable into fresh tickets. The **frontier** is the open, unblocked, unclaimed tickets — the edge of the known — and it's what the tracker's native blocking renders visually, so you see what's takeable without opening the map. Fog only gathers *toward* the **destination**; work past it is ruled **out of scope**, closed, never graduating.
 
-Every ticket is **HITL** (human in the loop — grilling, prototype) or **AFK** (agent alone — research); a HITL ticket only resolves through a live exchange, so the agent never answers its own questions.
+Every ticket is **HITL** (human in the loop — grilling, prototype) or **AFK** (agent alone — research); a HITL ticket only resolves through a live exchange, so the agent never answers its own questions. Research stays a real ticket — a shared blocker downstream decisions hang on — but because it's AFK, a session doesn't stop and read: it fires a `/research` **subagent** to burn the ticket down in parallel, keeping the frontier fast, and captures the findings on a throwaway `research/<name>` branch.
 
 ## It's working if
 
 - Naming the **destination** is the first act — before any ticket exists — because it fixes the scope every ticket is measured against.
 - One map is one `wayfinder:map` issue; tickets are its child issues, referred to by **name**, never a bare `#42`.
-- A session resolves **at most one ticket**, records the answer as a resolution comment, closes the ticket, and appends a one-line pointer to *Decisions so far*.
+- A session resolves **at most one ticket** (research tickets excepted), records the answer as a resolution comment, closes the ticket, and appends a one-line pointer to *Decisions so far*.
 - If the opening grill surfaces **no fog**, it stops and tells you the journey is small enough to skip the map.
 
 ## Where it fits

scripts/link-skills.sh

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ set -euo pipefail
 # Links all skills in the repository into the local skill directories used by
 # each agent harness:
 #   - ~/.claude/skills  — Claude Code
-#   - ~/.agents/skills  — pi and other Agent-Skills-standard harnesses
+#   - ~/.agents/skills  — Codex and other Agent Skills-compatible harnesses
 # Each entry is a symlink into this repo, so a `git pull` is all that's needed
 # to keep installed skills up to date.
 

skills/deprecated/design-an-interface/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Design an Interface"
+  short_description: "Explore alternative module interfaces"

skills/deprecated/qa/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "QA"
+  short_description: "Conversational QA that files issues"

skills/deprecated/request-refactor-plan/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Request Refactor Plan"
+  short_description: "Plan a safe incremental refactor"

skills/deprecated/ubiquitous-language/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Ubiquitous Language"
+  short_description: "Build a shared domain glossary"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/engineering/README.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Skills I use daily for code work.
 
 ## User-invoked
 
-Reachable only when you type them (`disable-model-invocation: true`).
+Reachable only when you type them (Claude Code: `disable-model-invocation: true`; Codex: `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` in `agents/openai.yaml`).
 
 - **[ask-matt](./ask-matt/SKILL.md)** — Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the user-invoked skills in this repo.
 - **[grill-with-docs](./grill-with-docs/SKILL.md)** — Grilling session that also builds your project's domain model, sharpening terminology and updating `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs inline.

skills/engineering/ask-matt/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Ask Matt"
+  short_description: "Find the right skill or workflow"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/engineering/code-review/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Code Review"
+  short_description: "Review a diff on standards and spec"

skills/engineering/codebase-design/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Codebase Design"
+  short_description: "Vocabulary for deep-module design"

skills/engineering/diagnosing-bugs/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Diagnosing Bugs"
+  short_description: "Diagnose hard bugs and regressions"

skills/engineering/domain-modeling/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Domain Modeling"
+  short_description: "Build and sharpen a domain model"

skills/engineering/grill-with-docs/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Grill with Docs"
+  short_description: "Grill a design and write its docs"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/engineering/implement/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Implement"
+  short_description: "Build work from a spec or tickets"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/engineering/improve-codebase-architecture/SKILL.md

@@ -17,6 +17,11 @@ This command is _informed_ by the project's domain model and built on a shared d
 
 ### 1. Explore
 
+**Scope before you scan — YAGNI.** Deepening a module pays off by making future changes to it easier, so put extra weight on the parts of the codebase that have recently changed. Decide *where* to look before you look:
+
+- If the user named a direction — a module, a subsystem, a pain point — take it, and skip the inference below.
+- Otherwise, walk back a good stretch of the commit history (`git log --oneline`) to find the codebase's hot spots — the files and areas that keep coming up — and let those paths pull your attention first. If the changes are scattered with no clear hot spot, widen the net.
+
 Read the project's domain glossary (`CONTEXT.md`) and any ADRs in the area you're touching first.
 
 Then use the Agent tool with `subagent_type=Explore` to walk the codebase. Don't follow rigid heuristics — explore organically and note where you experience friction:

skills/engineering/improve-codebase-architecture/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Improve Codebase Architecture"
+  short_description: "Find and grill architecture improvements"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/engineering/prototype/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Prototype"
+  short_description: "Prototype to answer a design question"

skills/engineering/research/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Research"
+  short_description: "Research from high-trust sources"

skills/engineering/resolving-merge-conflicts/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Resolving Merge Conflicts"
+  short_description: "Resolve merge and rebase conflicts"

skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Setup Matt Pocock Skills"
+  short_description: "Configure a repo for the skills"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/engineering/tdd/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "TDD"
+  short_description: "Test-driven red-green-refactor"

skills/engineering/to-spec/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "To Spec"
+  short_description: "Turn a conversation into a spec"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/engineering/to-tickets/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "To Tickets"
+  short_description: "Split a plan into tracer-bullet tickets"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/engineering/triage/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Triage"
+  short_description: "Move issues through triage roles"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/engineering/wayfinder/SKILL.md

@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ The answer isn't part of the body — it's recorded on resolution (see [Work thr
 
 Every ticket is either **HITL** — human in the loop, worked *with* a human who speaks for themselves — or **AFK**, driven by the agent alone. A HITL ticket only resolves through that live exchange; the agent never stands in for the human's side of it (a grilling agent that answers its own questions has broken this).
 
-- **Research** (AFK): Reading documentation, third-party APIs, or local resources like knowledge bases. Creates a markdown summary as a linked asset. Use when knowledge outside the current working directory is required.
+- **Research** (AFK): Reading documentation, third-party APIs, or local resources like knowledge bases to surface a fact a decision waits on. Resolved by a `/research` **subagent**. Use when knowledge outside the current working directory is required.
 - **Prototype** (HITL): Raise the fidelity of the discussion by making a cheap, rough, concrete artifact to react to — an outline, a rough take, a stub, or UI/logic code via the /prototype skill. Links the prototype as an asset. Use when "how should it look" or "how should it behave" is the key question.
 - **Grilling** (HITL): Conversation via the /grilling and /domain-modeling skills, one question at a time. The default case.
 - **Task** (HITL or AFK): Manual work that must happen before a *decision* can be made — nothing to decide, prototype, or research, but the discussion is blocked until it's done. Signing up for a service so its API can be judged, provisioning access, moving data so its shape can be seen. This is the one type that *does* rather than decides — and it earns its place by unblocking a decision, not by delivering the destination. The agent drives it alone where it can (AFK); otherwise it hands the human a precise checklist (HITL). Resolved when the work is done; the answer records what was done and any resulting facts (credentials location, new URLs, row counts) later tickets depend on.
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ Ruling something out of scope is a scoping act, not a step on the route. When a
 
 ## Invocation
 
-Two modes. Either way, **never resolve more than one ticket per session.**
+Two modes. Either way, **never resolve more than one ticket per session** — with the exception of research tickets.
 
 ### Chart the map
 
@@ -112,7 +112,8 @@ User invokes with a loose idea.
 2. **Map the frontier.** Grill again, **breadth-first** this time: fan out across the whole space rather than deep on any one thread, surfacing the open decisions and the first steps takeable now. **If this surfaces no fog** — the way to the destination is already clear, the whole journey small enough for one session — you don't need a map. Stop and ask the user how they'd like to proceed.
 3. **Create the map** (label `wayfinder:map`): Destination and Notes filled in, Decisions-so-far empty, the fog sketched into **Not yet specified**.
 4. **Create the tickets you can specify now** as child issues of the map — then wire blocking edges in a **second pass** (issues need ids before they can reference each other). Wiring sorts them into the frontier and the blocked; everything you can't yet specify stays in the fog — the **Not yet specified** section.
-5. Stop — charting the map is one session's work; do not also resolve tickets.
+5. **Fire the research subagents.** For each `research` ticket you just created, spin up a `/research` subagent to resolve it in parallel, capturing its findings on a throwaway `research/<name>` branch with a context pointer from the ticket.
+6. Stop — charting is one session's work; it hand-resolves nothing.
 
 ### Work through the map
 

skills/engineering/wayfinder/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Wayfinder"
+  short_description: "Map a large effort as decision tickets"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/in-progress/claude-handoff/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Claude Handoff"
+  short_description: "Hand off to a background agent"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/in-progress/loop-me/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Loop Me"
+  short_description: "Spec the workflows you want to build"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/in-progress/setup-ts-deep-modules/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Setup TS Deep Modules"
+  short_description: "Enforce deep TypeScript modules"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/in-progress/wizard/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Wizard"
+  short_description: "Generate an interactive setup wizard"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/in-progress/writing-beats/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Writing Beats"
+  short_description: "Assemble raw material into beats"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/in-progress/writing-fragments/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Writing Fragments"
+  short_description: "Mine raw writing fragments"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/in-progress/writing-shape/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Writing Shape"
+  short_description: "Shape raw material into an article"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/misc/git-guardrails-claude-code/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Git Guardrails for Claude Code"
+  short_description: "Block dangerous git commands"

skills/misc/migrate-to-shoehorn/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Migrate to Shoehorn"
+  short_description: "Replace test assertions with shoehorn"

skills/misc/scaffold-exercises/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Scaffold Exercises"
+  short_description: "Scaffold lint-ready course exercises"

skills/misc/setup-pre-commit/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Setup Pre-Commit"
+  short_description: "Add pre-commit quality checks"

skills/personal/edit-article/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Edit Article"
+  short_description: "Restructure and tighten a draft"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/personal/obsidian-vault/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Obsidian Vault"
+  short_description: "Manage linked notes in Obsidian"

skills/productivity/README.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ General workflow tools, not code-specific.
 
 ## User-invoked
 
-Reachable only when you type them (`disable-model-invocation: true`).
+Reachable only when you type them (Claude Code: `disable-model-invocation: true`; Codex: `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` in `agents/openai.yaml`).
 
 - **[grill-me](./grill-me/SKILL.md)** — Get relentlessly interviewed about a plan or design until every branch of the decision tree is resolved.
 - **[handoff](./handoff/SKILL.md)** — Compact the current conversation into a handoff document so another agent can continue the work.

skills/productivity/grill-me/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Grill Me"
+  short_description: "Sharpen a plan through interview"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/productivity/grilling/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Grilling"
+  short_description: "Stress-test thinking one question at a time"

skills/productivity/handoff/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Handoff"
+  short_description: "Compact a conversation into a handoff"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/productivity/teach/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Teach"
+  short_description: "Learn a concept in a guided workspace"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false

skills/productivity/writing-great-skills/agents/openai.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "Writing Great Skills"
+  short_description: "Principles for predictable skills"
+policy:
+  allow_implicit_invocation: false