Spine Scan

Spine Scan — Session-Start Vault Scanner

Automatically scan the Spine vault for decay and coverage gaps. Auto-fixes low-risk issues, reports findings as a non-blocking banner.

Tier 3 Gate

Before doing anything, check if Tier 3 is enabled:

1. Read ~/.spine/config.json
2. Check the tier3 field
3. If tier3 is false or missing, skip silently — do not scan, do not print a banner, do nothing.

This skill only runs when the user has opted into Tier 3 autonomous behavior.

Vault Path Resolution

Resolve the vault path using this config chain:

1. $SPINE_VAULT_PATH environment variable
2. ~/.spine/config.json → read the vaultPath field
3. Default: ~/Documents/SpineVault/

If no vault is found, or the vault directory doesn't exist, skip silently — no banner, no output contract, nothing. Not every repo uses Spine. The output contract is only emitted when the scan actually runs.

Detect Current Repo

basename "$(git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null)" .git

Fall back to the current directory name if no git remote. If {vault}/{repo}/ doesn't exist, skip silently — this repo isn't tracked by Spine.

Phase 1: Auto-Fixes

Scan the vault for mechanical issues and fix them silently. Log every action to {vault}/.spine/curator-log.md.

Ensure {vault}/.spine/ directory exists before writing.

Conflict Guard

Before reading each file for auto-fix analysis, record its modification time and file size (size catches same-second edits on filesystems with only second-resolution timestamps). Before writing the fix back:

1. Re-check mtime and size against the recorded values
2. If either changed, skip the fix for that file and log:

**Skipped:** \{file}\ — modified by another process during scan

1. Proceed with the next file

This prevents overwriting concurrent edits from Obsidian, Obsidian Sync, or parallel sessions. The dual check (mtime + size) handles HFS+/ext4 second-resolution timestamps where a sub-second edit would otherwise be invisible.

1a. Broken Wikilinks

For each markdown file in {vault}/{repo}/:

1. Find all [[wikilinks]] in the file content
2. Check if each linked note exists anywhere in the vault (search by filename without extension)
3. If a linked note doesn't exist:

• Search for notes with similar names (typos, renamed docs)
• If a close match is found, update the wikilink to the correct name
• If no match, remove the broken wikilink and log it

1. Log: **Auto-fixed:** Broken wikilink in \{file}\ → \[[{corrected}]]\``

1b. Missing or Wrong Type Tags

For each markdown file in {vault}/{repo}/ (skip spine notes):

1. Read the YAML frontmatter
2. Determine the expected type/* tag from the filename:

• Filename starts with date + Fix - → type/fix
• Filename starts with date + Feature - → type/feature
• Filename starts with Architecture - → type/architecture
• Filename starts with Plan - → type/plan
• Filename starts with Decision - → type/decision

1. Check if the frontmatter tags array contains the expected type/* tag
2. If missing or wrong, add/correct it in the frontmatter
3. Log: **Auto-fixed:** Missing \{tag}\ tag on \{filename}\``

1c. Orphan Docs

For each feature folder in {vault}/{repo}/:

1. Find the spine note ({Feature}.md with type/spine tag)
2. List all other markdown files in the folder
3. For each file, check if it's referenced as a [[wikilink]] in the spine note
4. If not linked, add a wikilink under the appropriate section:

• type/fix → ## Fixes
• type/feature → ## Features
• type/architecture → ## Architecture
• type/plan → ## Plans
• type/decision → ## Decisions

1. Log: **Auto-fixed:** Orphan doc \{filename}\ linked into \{spine-note}\``

1d. Stale and Obsolete Doc Detection

For each doc in {vault}/{repo}/ that has a **Files changed:** section:

1. Extract the file paths listed
2. For each file path, run existence check first:

``bash git ls-files -- {filepath} ``

• If the command returns empty, the file no longer exists in the repo

1. Classify the doc based on results:

• All referenced files missing → the feature was likely removed. Set obsolete: true in frontmatter. Do NOT also set stale.
• Some referenced files missing → partial removal. Set stale: true and add a removed_files list to frontmatter.
• All files exist → run activity check: git log --oneline --since="{doc-date}" -- {filepath}. If 3+ commits, set stale: true.

1. Log accordingly:

• **Flagged obsolete:** \{doc}\ — all referenced files removed from repo (feature likely deleted)
• **Flagged stale:** \{doc}\ — \{filepath}\ removed from repo (partial)
• **Flagged stale:** \{doc}\ — \{filepath}\ has {N} commits since doc date

Important: Never auto-delete or archive obsolete docs — only flag them. The user decides what to do.

Phase 2: Coverage Gap Detection

Find significant commits that have no corresponding Obsidian doc.

2a. Determine Time Window

1. Read {vault}/.spine/last-scan-timestamp

• If the file doesn't exist, default to 2 weeks ago

1. Also read {vault}/.spine/pending-commits.json for any leftover commits from abrupt session ends

2b. Find Undocumented Commits

1. Run git log --oneline --since="{last-scan-timestamp}" in the current repo
2. Filter out trivial commits:

• Skip commit messages matching ^(style|lint|chore|docs|merge)
• Skip commits with < 20 total line changes AND <= 1 file

1. Group remaining commits by feature area:

• Match changed file paths against existing feature folders in the vault
• Group commits touching the same feature together

1. For each group, check if a corresponding doc exists in that feature folder with a date on or after the commit date
2. Collect any groups with no matching doc as coverage gaps

Phase 3: Banner

Print a single non-blocking summary. Do NOT ask for input or wait for a response.

Format:

🦴 Spine: {N} commits since last session — {fixes summary} (auto). {gaps summary}.

Include obsolete/stale flags in the summary if any were found:

• Obsolete docs (all files removed): mention by name — user should review these
• Stale docs (high activity or partial removal): count only, don't list names

Examples:

• 🦴 Spine: 5 commits since last session — 2 wikilinks fixed, 1 tag corrected (auto). 2 coverage gaps (auth, payments). Run /spine-capture when ready.
• 🦴 Spine: No new commits. 1 orphan doc linked (auto). Vault is healthy.
• 🦴 Spine: 3 commits since last session. No issues found. Vault is clean.
• 🦴 Spine: 4 commits — 1 doc flagged obsolete (TradeIn feature removed?): \2026-03-12 Feature - TradeIn Flow.md\. Review with /spine-health.
• 🦴 Spine: 2 commits — 2 docs flagged stale. Vault mostly healthy.

If there are zero commits and zero issues, either print 🦴 Spine: Vault is clean. or skip the banner entirely.

Health Check Reminder

Check {vault}/.spine/last-health-timestamp. If the file doesn't exist or the timestamp is older than 14 days, append a reminder to the banner:

   Last full health check: {N} days ago — consider running /spine-health.

Examples with the reminder:

• 🦴 Spine: Vault is clean. Last full health check: 18 days ago — consider running /spine-health.
• 🦴 Spine: 2 wikilinks fixed (auto). 1 coverage gap (auth). Last full health check: 21 days ago — consider running /spine-health.

If the last health check was within 14 days, do not mention it.

Phase 4: Structured Output

After the human-readable banner, emit a structured observation block. This is the contract that downstream skills (especially /spine-capture --batch) rely on.

spine_scan_result:
  status: success | warning | error
  summary: "5 commits since last session — 2 wikilinks fixed, 1 coverage gap"
  auto_fixes:
    - { type: "wikilink", file: "Auth/Login.md", detail: "[[Logn]] → [[Login]]" }
    - { type: "tag", file: "2026-04-10 Fix - Cache Bug.md", detail: "added type/fix" }
    - { type: "orphan", file: "Architecture - API Layer.md", linked_to: "API.md" }
  stale_docs:
    - { file: "2026-03-18 Fix - Session Bug.md", reason: "session.hook.ts has 5 commits since" }
  obsolete_docs:
    - { file: "2026-03-12 Feature - TradeIn Flow.md", reason: "all referenced files removed" }
  coverage_gaps:
    - { feature: "auth", commits: 3, files: ["src/auth/login.ts", "src/auth/session.ts"] }
  next_actions:
    - { action: "/spine-capture", reason: "1 undocumented feature group" }
    - { action: "review obsolete", file: "2026-03-12 Feature - TradeIn Flow.md" }
  recovery_hint: null

Status values:

• success — scan completed, no issues found
• warning — scan completed, issues found (gaps, stale, obsolete)
• error — scan failed (vault missing, git error, etc.) — include recovery_hint

Cross-skill handoff: Write coverage gaps to {vault}/.spine/scan-gaps.json so /spine-capture --batch can pre-populate drafts without re-scanning. Delete this file after capture consumes it.

Phase 5: Update Timestamp

Write the current ISO timestamp to {vault}/.spine/last-scan-timestamp:

2026-04-19T14:30:00Z

Curator Log Format

Append a dated section to {vault}/.spine/curator-log.md (create the file from templates/curator-log.md if it doesn't exist). Newest entries at the top of the file (prepend, don't append).

## {YYYY-MM-DD} — Session Scan
- **Auto-fixed:** {description of each fix}
- **Flagged obsolete:** `{doc}` — all referenced files removed from repo (feature likely deleted)
- **Flagged stale:** {description of each stale doc}
- **Coverage gap:** {description of each gap}

If no actions were taken, do not add an entry.

Source & license

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

• Author: Nodewarrior
• Source: Nodewarrior/spine
• License: MIT

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