Extend --json coverage + list metadata for product integrations (Vibe Remote Skills UI)

[cyhhao]

Context

We're building a Skills management UI inside Vibe Remote that wraps the askill CLI in --json mode, exactly as described in docs/integrating-askill-cli.md. The UI manages global + project skills across agent backends (Claude Code / OpenCode / Codex), searches/browses the registry, and imports skills from GitHub.

While building against the current JSON contracts we hit three gaps. Filing them together since they share one theme: let the CLI fully drive a dashboard without extra round-trips.

1. --json for check (and info, ideally update)

Today --json is only on add / find / list / remove. The dashboard also needs:

• check --json → render an "update available" badge per installed skill + a global "N updates" count.
• info <slug> --json → populate a skill detail panel (full description, version, owner/repo, aiScore/aiBreakdown, commands) for an installed skill without scraping human-formatted stdout.
• (nice to have) update --json → report per-skill update results in the UI.

Same { ok, ... } / { ok:false, error:{code,message} } envelope as the existing commands would be ideal.

2. list --json should carry per-skill metadata

ListSkillItem is currently { name, scope, path, agents[] }. To render a useful list row the UI additionally needs, per skill:

• description
• version
• source / installSource (e.g. gh:owner/repo@name) and updatedAt

Without these, every row needs a second info call (N+1). Reading them from the canonical .agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md frontmatter at list time would avoid that.

3. find --tag and --limit (already marked "Planned")

The registry "Browse" view wants tag filtering + pagination. Just confirming these Planned flags are on the roadmap — they unblock the browse UI's filters and infinite scroll.

Not needed

Per-backend enable/disable — we map "available to backend X" onto add -a / remove -a, which already exist. No new surface required there.

Happy to validate any schema changes against our wrapper. Thanks!

[cyhhao]

Implemented in #13.

What changed:

• Added dashboard-ready --json output for info, check, and update.
• Extended find --json with --tag, --page, and --limit, including filters, sort, and pagination fields.
• Enriched list --json with local dashboard metadata from canonical SKILL.md frontmatter and scoped lock files: description, version, tags, source/install source, and installed/updated timestamps.
• Updated JSON schemas and integration docs, including command-specific schemas for info, check, and update.
• Added mock-registry Docker E2E coverage for the complete dashboard contract flow.

Validation:

• npm test: 27 passed
• npm run build: passed
• npm run test:e2e: 201 passed, 0 failed, 1 skipped

The skipped E2E remains the existing external production fixture (col:cyhhao/test unavailable), unrelated to this change.

[cyhhao]

Thanks — #13 looks solid and unblocks the Vibe Remote Skills dashboard. I validated the merged contract from the integration side. A few follow-ups so the next version is the final contract I can wire the UI to in one shot:

Should-fix

1. find pagination against the real registry. The flags + pagination/filters/sort shape are great, but E2E only exercises the mock registry. Please confirm askill.sh honors page/limit/tag server-side and returns a real pagination.total / totalPages. Today the fallback is total = <results on this page>, totalPages = results ? 1 : 0, so if the registry paginates but omits the meta, a dashboard under-counts and --page 2 silently no-ops.
2. check / update coverage for non-GitHub installs. Reporting uncheckable when there's no GitHub folder hash means the dashboard's "update available" indicator can't work for registry/published installs. Could check also compare the installed version (frontmatter) against the registry's latest published version for registry-sourced skills, so updates resolve there too?

Please confirm — the dashboard relies on these two flows

3. Re-link an already-installed skill to an additional backend/agent. The skill detail panel toggles "available to Claude / OpenCode / Codex" by running askill add <canonical .agents/skills path> -a <agent> -y to add that agent's symlink, and askill remove <name> -a <agent> to drop one. Please confirm adding an agent to an already-installed skill from its local canonical path is supported and idempotent — or expose a cleaner verb (e.g. askill link <name> -a <agent> / askill add <name> -a <agent>).
4. Non-interactive subset install from a multi-skill source. The import dialog installs a selected subset via askill add <source>@<name> -a <agents> -y --json per skill (and --all when every discovered skill is selected). Please confirm <source>@<name> selection works non-interactively for both gh: sources and local directories (an unpacked .zip), or add a --skill <name> selector for the local/dir case.

Nit

5. list --json returns description: "" when missing but version: null — minor inconsistency in the empty representation. Either is fine; just flagging.

Once these land I'll wire the Vibe Remote UI straight to the final contract — drop the temporary SKILL.md frontmatter enrichment, turn on the "update available" badge from check, and render the source repo on each row. Thanks!

[cyhhao]

Follow-up PR is open: #14

Covers:

• registry-sourced check/update --json using SKILL.md frontmatter versions
• canonical .agents/skills/<name> re-link preserving existing lock metadata
• local multi-skill non-interactive selection via askill add --skill <name>

Validation:

• npm run build
• npm test
• targeted Docker E2E
• full Docker E2E: 207 passed, 0 failed, 1 skipped existing production collection fixture

[cyhhao]

Follow-up work has been merged via PR #14: #14

What landed:

• Dashboard JSON contract follow-ups for find/info/list/check/update --json.
• E2E coverage for the PR13/PR14 dashboard flows.
• Registry-backed check/update fixes for localVersion / remoteVersion, semver ranges, copy-mode installs, renamed registry frontmatter, and non-JSON parity.
• askill add <source> --skill <name> selector handling for local, Git/GitHub, and collection-backed sources, including structured no-match/missing-value failures.
• Canonical .agents/skills/<name> relink behavior for adding an already installed canonical skill to another agent.

Validation before merge:

• npm run build: passed
• npm test: 27 passed
• schema parse: passed
• targeted Docker E2E: 24 passed, 0 failed
• full Docker E2E: 237 passed, 0 failed, 1 skipped
• Final Codex review: no major issues

Merge commit: 8b9ff81