check

Check for available updates to tracked repositories and installed skills without applying changes.

skillshare check                      # Check all repos and skills
skillshare check my-skill             # Check a single skill
skillshare check a b c                # Check multiple skills
skillshare check --group frontend     # Check all skills in frontend/
skillshare check x -G backend         # Mix names and groups
skillshare check --json               # Machine-readable output

When to Use

Before Updating

Preview what would change before running update:

skillshare check         # See what has updates
skillshare update --all  # Apply updates
skillshare sync          # Distribute changes

CI/CD Pipeline

Check for stale skills in CI:

result=$(skillshare check --json)
# Parse JSON to detect outdated skills

What It Does

check inspects your source directory and reports update status for:

1. Tracked repositories — Fetches from origin, shows how many commits you're behind
2. Installed skills (with metadata) — Compares installed version against the remote HEAD
3. Local skills — Marks as "local source" (no remote to compare)
4. Skill-level targets validation — Warns about unknown target names in SKILL.md targets frontmatter fields

Unlike update, check never modifies any files.

Example Output

skillshare check

  Tracked Repos
  ─────────────────────────────────────────
  ✓ _team-skills       up to date
  ⬇ _shared-rules      3 commits behind
  ! _design-system     has uncommitted changes

  Installed Skills (remote)
  ─────────────────────────────────────────
  ✓ pdf                up to date          anthropics/skills
  ⬇ commit             update available    anthropics/skills
  • local-skill        local source

  Summary: 1 repo + 1 skill have updates available
  Run 'skillshare update <name>' or 'skillshare update --all'

Check Specific Skills

You can check one or more skills by name instead of scanning everything:

skillshare check my-skill                # Single skill
skillshare check skill-a skill-b         # Multiple skills

Use --group / -G to check all updatable skills in a group directory:

skillshare check --group frontend        # All skills under frontend/
skillshare check -G frontend -G backend  # Multiple groups
skillshare check my-skill -G frontend    # Mix names and groups

If a positional name matches a group directory (not a repo or skill itself), it is automatically expanded:

skillshare check frontend               # Auto-detected as group

Skills without metadata (local-only) are skipped when expanding groups.

Options

Flag	Description
--group, -G <name>	Check all updatable skills in a group (repeatable)
--project, -p	Check project-level skills (.skillshare/)
--global, -g	Check global skills (~/.config/skillshare)
--json	Output as JSON (for scripting/CI)
--help, -h	Show help

Auto-detection

If neither --project nor --global is specified, skillshare auto-detects: if .skillshare/config.yaml exists in the current directory, it defaults to project mode; otherwise global mode.

JSON Output

skillshare check --json

{
  "tracked_repos": [
    {"name": "_team-skills", "status": "up_to_date", "behind": 0},
    {"name": "_shared-rules", "status": "behind", "behind": 3}
  ],
  "skills": [
    {"name": "pdf", "source": "anthropics/skills", "version": "a1b2c3d",
     "status": "up_to_date", "installed_at": "2024-06-01T10:00:00Z"},
    {"name": "commit", "source": "anthropics/skills", "version": "x9y8z7w",
     "status": "update_available", "installed_at": "2024-05-15T08:30:00Z"},
    {"name": "local-skill", "source": "", "version": "",
     "status": "local", "installed_at": "2024-04-20T12:00:00Z"}
  ]
}

How It Checks

Tracked Repos

1. Run git fetch to get latest refs from origin
2. Compare local HEAD with origin/<branch> using git rev-list --count
3. Report number of commits behind

Regular Skills (with metadata)

1. Read .skillshare-meta.json for stored version and repo URL
2. Run git ls-remote <repo_url> HEAD to get remote HEAD hash
3. Compare with stored version hash

Local Skills

Skills without metadata or with a local source are shown as "local source" — no remote check is possible.

Project Mode

skillshare check -p                    # Check all project skills
skillshare check -p my-skill           # Check specific project skill
skillshare check -p --group frontend   # Check project group
skillshare check -p --json             # JSON output for project

See Also

• update — Apply updates
• list — View installed skills
• status — Show sync status