Datalad Status

Skill: datalad-status

Inspect the current state of a DataLad dataset — what files are modified, untracked, added, or deleted — without making any changes.

Steps

1. Verify DataLad context — check for .datalad/ in the current directory or any

parent: ``bash ls .datalad/ 2>/dev/null || git rev-parse --show-toplevel ``

• Dataset found: continue.
• No dataset found: inform the user and suggest /datalad-init or plain git status.

1. Run datalad status — optionally scoped to paths from $ARGUMENTS:

``bash datalad status [paths...] `` Present the full output to the user. Additional flags to mention if relevant:

• --annex — shows verbose annex content state (number of copies, remote presence)

for each annexed file; useful for understanding data availability

• --untracked=no — suppresses untracked files from output (useful in large repos

with many untracked directories that would otherwise clutter the output)

1. Interpret the status symbols — explain each symbol present in the output:

| Symbol | Meaning | |--------|---------| | modified | Content changed since last save | | untracked | File exists on disk but is not recorded in the dataset | | deleted | File was tracked but is now missing from disk | | added | New file staged but not yet saved | | clean | No changes — working tree matches the last commit |

For annexed files, also explain:

• content present: file pointer exists and content is available locally
• content missing: file pointer exists but content was dropped (pointer only)

1. Suggest next actions — based on what was found:

• Modified or untracked files → suggest /datalad-save
• Missing annex content → suggest datalad get to retrieve it
• Output files that should have been produced by a command → suggest /datalad-run
• Clean working tree → confirm no action needed

Constraints

• Read-only — never run any command that modifies the dataset, stages files, or commits.
• Always explain every status symbol that appears in the output — never show raw output

without interpretation.

• If the user asks about a specific path, scope the status command to that path.
• Do not confuse datalad status (dataset state) with git status — they overlap but

DataLad status correctly handles annexed files that git would misreport.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: neuroanalytics
• Source: neuroanalytics/data-science-harness
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.