Why the skills live in their own repository

Overview

The skills are installed from this repository rather than copied into each project that uses them. The optional fifth and sixth skills, ktl-prose and ktl-website, install the same way. There are three routes to the same set:

• the GitHub CLI, version 2.90.0 or later (gh skill install noelmcloughlin/knowledge-trust-ladder --all --agent claude-code --scope user, or a skill’s name in place of --all to install only that one). It defaults to GitHub Copilot, so --agent names the agent. The repository contract keeps every tracked SKILL.md under skills/ktl-*/, so --all installs the ktl- skills only;
• the Open Skills CLI (npx skills add noelmcloughlin/knowledge-trust-ladder --global --skill <skill>), which can fail behind a company proxy or an internal npm registry;
• a Claude Code plugin that bundles all six (/plugin marketplace add noelmcloughlin/knowledge-trust-ladder, then /plugin install knowledge-trust-ladder@knowledge-trust-ladder), declared by .claude-plugin/plugin.json and marketplace.json.

A user install keeps the instructions an agent follows under the user’s control. The scheduled librarian run installs ktl-librarian at the pinned tag before it starts. A team that wants every member on one version installs into the repository instead: it leaves out --global, or passes --scope project, and commits the skills-lock.json that npx skills writes.

All six skills are released together under one vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH tag with one CHANGELOG.md, so a set pinned to one tag agrees with itself. To pin it, append the tag to the skill name (ktl-docent@v0.16.0) or pass --pin. docs/install.md carries the commands, the pinning rule, and what each skill needs on the machine.

The repository also carries its own bundle, kept by its own skills, so a reader can install the docent anywhere and ask about this project. The docent answers from this repository’s .lokf/, saying how far each answer has been checked. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a fourth route for the docent alone. Each release that changes the bundle carries the docent as a zip with a snapshot of the bundle inside, to upload to a declarative agent (The docent in Microsoft 365 Copilot).

The repository was renamed, and GitHub redirects the old clone and npx skills add paths, as CHANGELOG.md records. The skills themselves took the ktl- prefix in 0.22.0. CHANGELOG.md lists their old names, and says that a host upgrading from 0.21.0 removes the old copies.