Summary
The agentic-coding-playbook acq-kit successfully fetches the playbook into ~/.agentic-coding-playbook and symlinks skills into ~/.agents/skills, but at least one installed skill (code-review) refers to shared playbook docs using ambiguous docs/... paths. In a quickstart sandbox, that caused the agent to look in the target repository for docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md, fail to find it, and proceed without the code-review skill's required context until the user supplied the absolute playbook path.
This issue belongs here because the observable installation shape is produced by the patterns acq-kit:
integrations/isolation/acq-kits/agentic-coding-playbook/spec.yaml
integrations/isolation/acq-kits/agentic-coding-playbook/files/home/playbook-clone.sh
integrations/isolation/acq-kits/agentic-coding-playbook/scripts/verify
The upstream skill content lives in GSA-TTS/agentic-coding-playbook, but the acq-kit should either make those references resolvable or verify/fail loudly when they are not.
Observed behavior
Installed layout in the sandbox:
~/.agentic-coding-playbook/docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md
~/.agentic-coding-playbook/docs/CODING_STANDARDS_COMPACT.md
~/.agents/skills/code-review -> ~/.agentic-coding-playbook/.agents/skills/code-review
~/.agents/skills/code-review/SKILL.md
code-review/SKILL.md says:
When reviewing code, load the full `docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md`.
That is ambiguous to an agent operating in a target repo. It can read as target-repo-relative docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md; in GSA-TTS/agentic-coding-quickstart, that file is not present because the repo links to the playbook instead of vendoring it.
There is also a path-contract mismatch: the skill loader message says relative paths in a skill are relative to the skill base directory, but docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md is not relative to ~/.agents/skills/code-review; it is relative to the playbook repo root.
A secondary debugging wrinkle: glob-style discovery may not descend through ~/.agents/skills/* symlinked skill directories, even though direct reads of known skill paths work. That made the installed shape less obvious during review.
Expected behavior
A skill that requires shared playbook docs should provide an unambiguous, agent-resolvable path from the installed skill context.
Suggested fixes
- Add skill-local references in the acq-kit install output, for example:
~/.agents/skills/code-review/references/CODING_PRACTICES.md -> ~/.agentic-coding-playbook/docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md
~/.agents/skills/code-review/references/CODING_STANDARDS_COMPACT.md -> ~/.agentic-coding-playbook/docs/CODING_STANDARDS_COMPACT.md
Then update skill wording upstream to say Read references/CODING_PRACTICES.md before reviews.
- Alternatively or additionally, export/document a stable playbook root such as:
AGENTIC_CODING_PLAYBOOK=$HOME/.agentic-coding-playbook
and update skills to reference $AGENTIC_CODING_PLAYBOOK/docs/....
-
Extend integrations/isolation/acq-kits/agentic-coding-playbook/scripts/verify so it checks not only that SKILL.md resolves, but also that required shared docs referenced by skills resolve from the installed skill context.
-
Consider adding a startup/verify check for the code-review skill specifically:
test -f "$HOME/.agentic-coding-playbook/docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md"
test -f "$HOME/.agentic-coding-playbook/docs/CODING_STANDARDS_COMPACT.md"
# and, if reference links are adopted:
test -e "$HOME/.agents/skills/code-review/references/CODING_PRACTICES.md"
Acceptance criteria
- A freshly-created acq sandbox with the playbook kit lets an agent load the code-review skill and then resolve its required coding-practices doc without guessing the target repo path.
- The playbook-kit verification script fails if the code-review skill is installed but its required docs are not reachable through the documented path.
- Skill docs clearly distinguish target-repo-relative paths from playbook-root or skill-local reference paths.
- The fix works for symlinked skill roots (
~/.agents/skills/<skill> -> ~/.agentic-coding-playbook/.agents/skills/<skill>) on both sbx and msb.
Related context
This was found while reviewing GSA-TTS/agentic-coding-quickstart#399. The review initially loaded the code-review skill, searched the target repo for docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md, did not find it, and only later found the intended docs at /home/agent/.agentic-coding-playbook/docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md after the user supplied that path.
Summary
The
agentic-coding-playbookacq-kit successfully fetches the playbook into~/.agentic-coding-playbookand symlinks skills into~/.agents/skills, but at least one installed skill (code-review) refers to shared playbook docs using ambiguousdocs/...paths. In a quickstart sandbox, that caused the agent to look in the target repository fordocs/CODING_PRACTICES.md, fail to find it, and proceed without the code-review skill's required context until the user supplied the absolute playbook path.This issue belongs here because the observable installation shape is produced by the patterns acq-kit:
integrations/isolation/acq-kits/agentic-coding-playbook/spec.yamlintegrations/isolation/acq-kits/agentic-coding-playbook/files/home/playbook-clone.shintegrations/isolation/acq-kits/agentic-coding-playbook/scripts/verifyThe upstream skill content lives in
GSA-TTS/agentic-coding-playbook, but the acq-kit should either make those references resolvable or verify/fail loudly when they are not.Observed behavior
Installed layout in the sandbox:
code-review/SKILL.mdsays:That is ambiguous to an agent operating in a target repo. It can read as target-repo-relative
docs/CODING_PRACTICES.md; inGSA-TTS/agentic-coding-quickstart, that file is not present because the repo links to the playbook instead of vendoring it.There is also a path-contract mismatch: the skill loader message says relative paths in a skill are relative to the skill base directory, but
docs/CODING_PRACTICES.mdis not relative to~/.agents/skills/code-review; it is relative to the playbook repo root.A secondary debugging wrinkle: glob-style discovery may not descend through
~/.agents/skills/*symlinked skill directories, even though direct reads of known skill paths work. That made the installed shape less obvious during review.Expected behavior
A skill that requires shared playbook docs should provide an unambiguous, agent-resolvable path from the installed skill context.
Suggested fixes
Then update skill wording upstream to say
Read references/CODING_PRACTICES.md before reviews.AGENTIC_CODING_PLAYBOOK=$HOME/.agentic-coding-playbookand update skills to reference
$AGENTIC_CODING_PLAYBOOK/docs/....Extend
integrations/isolation/acq-kits/agentic-coding-playbook/scripts/verifyso it checks not only thatSKILL.mdresolves, but also that required shared docs referenced by skills resolve from the installed skill context.Consider adding a startup/verify check for the
code-reviewskill specifically:Acceptance criteria
~/.agents/skills/<skill> -> ~/.agentic-coding-playbook/.agents/skills/<skill>) on both sbx and msb.Related context
This was found while reviewing
GSA-TTS/agentic-coding-quickstart#399. The review initially loaded thecode-reviewskill, searched the target repo fordocs/CODING_PRACTICES.md, did not find it, and only later found the intended docs at/home/agent/.agentic-coding-playbook/docs/CODING_PRACTICES.mdafter the user supplied that path.