ms — metaskill search/load engine

Core Insight: ms is the skill-search engine over both configured corpora (agentops + jsm). Consume via MCP, write/admin via CLI. One law: after ANY reindex/wipe, every running ms mcp serve MUST be killed (sessions respawn fresh). A surviving server silently reads pre-wipe data and returns recorded:true on writes that land in orphaned files.

Constraints

• Load with full: true or --full when the intent is to execute a skill, because metadata cards and packed overviews omit runnable guidance.
• Keep the consume/write boundary explicit: use MCP for search and load, but use the CLI for feedback and outcomes because only CLI writes are verified to land in the live database.
• When attached mcp__ms__* tools are unavailable, use the skill-local one-shot MCP helper for search. A zero-result ms search CLI response is not evidence that MCP BM25 found no match and must not silently substitute for it.
• Reindex only through scripts/ms-reindex.sh, because it sweeps stale servers and proves source equivalence after rebuilding the index.
• Treat the local index as disposable state, not a source of truth; the non-goal is editing indexed content instead of skills/**.
• Keep ms retrieval-only for production skill work. It returns search and load results; the caller owns authoring, validation, and every subsequent decision.

Quick Start

Find a skill (MCP-primary — BM25, currently strictly better than CLI search), then load the FULL runnable SKILL.md in one call (always full: true when you mean to use it):

mcp__ms__search {query: "handle a rate limit switching accounts"}
mcp__ms__load {skill: "account-rotation", full: true}

No attached MCP tool: start one disposable stdio server, return only the structured search JSON, and reap it on success, error, or timeout:

python3 skills/ms/scripts/mcp-search.py "switch accounts on rate limit"
ms load account-rotation --full -O json | jq -r '.data.content'

State root: ~/Library/Application Support/ms/.

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Consume — MCP-primary (mcp__ms__*)

Prefer the MCP tools whenever a ms mcp serve is attached — they are the fast, verified read path.

Tool	Use
mcp__ms__search {query}	BM25 search. Currently strictly better than CLI search (see Footguns — CLI hybrid is BM25-only; ms never stores doc embeddings).
mcp__ms__load {skill, full: true}	Returns the full runnable SKILL.md in ONE call, zero extraction friction. full: false returns a useless metadata card — always full: true when you intend to use the skill.
mcp__ms__show {skill}	Metadata card for a skill.
mcp__ms__suggest {cwd}	Suggests skills for a directory. Works — but ignore its project-language detection (misdetects Makefile repos as C; cosmetic only).

No attached MCP tool: use the server-backed one-shot helper so retrieval still follows the MCP BM25 path:

python3 skills/ms/scripts/mcp-search.py "<query>"

The helper writes a clean search object (query, count, results) to stdout, reports transport/protocol errors on stderr, applies a 30-second timeout by default, and owns the disposable server process group through termination and reap. Override its executable with MS_BIN and its timeout with MS_MCP_SEARCH_TIMEOUT or --timeout.

The CLI remains the supported full-load fallback after search:

ms load <id> --full -O json | jq -r '.data.content'   # content lives in .data.content

Do not replace the helper with ms search. The CLI path is useful only for diagnostics while its retrieval parity gap remains; in particular, zero CLI results do not prove the corpus has no matching skill.

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Write / Admin — CLI-only (verified landing in the live DB)

The MCP feedback tool exists, but only the CLI write path is verified to land — trust the CLI for writes.

ms feedback add <skill> --positive --comment "..."   # feedback on a skill
ms feedback add <skill> --negative --comment "..."

ms outcome <skill> --success   # record only AFTER downstream factory use + validation
ms outcome <skill> --failure

ms doctor                      # admin: health
scripts/ms-reindex.sh          # (re)index THE way: rebuild + sweep + probe + source-equivalence check
scripts/ms-reindex.sh --check-source  # read-only freshness proof against current skills/** source
# Optional operator policy only; rebuild completeness is derived from live
# discovered/indexed/errors accounting, not a historical absolute count:
MS_REINDEX_MIN_INDEXED=100 scripts/ms-reindex.sh
ms list -O jsonl --limit 1000  # counting / enumeration
ms config                      # resolved config + skill_paths

Output Specification

• Path: search, load, and admin results are returned on stdout; durable index state remains under ~/Library/Application Support/ms/.
• Filename: no result filename is created by this skill; callers capture CLI output explicitly when they need a durable artifact.
• Format: attached MCP returns structured tool data; the one-shot helper unwraps MCP content into clean search JSON; CLI automation uses JSON or JSONL, with full skill text at .data.content for ms load --full -O json.
• Validation command: run skills/ms/scripts/validate.sh for the retrieval boundary and scripts/ms-reindex.sh --check-source for normalized source equivalence.
• Downstream handoff: return the loaded guidance and source identity to the caller. Retrieval never chooses or starts a workflow.

Production Skill Handoff

Production-intent handoff: When the query concerns creating or editing a skill, ms retrieves relevant guidance and stops. The caller may separately invoke skill-builder (create, heal, or audit mode) or another authoring tool.

Authority boundary: skills/** is canonical source; the generator owns the ms Codex twin and other projections. Never edit the index, loaded copies, or generated projections as source.

ms never validates or interprets downstream work. A failed search, load, write, or reindex is returned as evidence and ends this invocation.

Outcome timing: Record ms outcome only after the caller has independent evidence about downstream usefulness, never after retrieval alone. That observation does not change core state.

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Footguns (measured through 2026-07-15)

Footgun	Truth
MCP server survives a DB wipe/reindex	An ms mcp serve NEVER reopens handles — it follows renamed inodes into the backup, giving stale reads AND silent misdirected writes (recorded:true into orphaned files). Reindex via scripts/ms-reindex.sh — THE way to reindex (rebuilds, proves every live-discovered skill was indexed or reported as an allowed error, TERMs every server, probes a fresh server, then compares normalized local loads with current skills/** source); never run bare ms index and leave servers up. Sessions respawn fresh.
ms load --pack N	Trap: caps at the gutted overview tier for ANY N (800 == 20000) — drops the executable steps and returns LESS than the no-flag default. Use --full (CLI) or full: true (MCP).
-O plain	Prints name-only on load; truncates list output ([N more lines]). The content lives in -O json → .data.content.
CLI ms search "hybrid"	Effectively BM25-only — ms never stores doc embeddings (upsert_embedding is called only from a unit test), so hybrid ≡ BM25 under ANY backend; no config/backend change fixes it (upstream gap, feature-noted; measured 2026-07-02, age-s3jf). It can return zero while MCP BM25 returns ranked matches. Without attached tools, use scripts/mcp-search.py; never treat zero CLI results as a successful MCP fallback.
Stale ms.lock	ms doctor prints "Lock held" for a DEAD pid yet still says all-pass. A dead-pid lock is safe to delete.
Symlinks	ms does NOT follow directory symlinks — skill_paths must list BOTH roots explicitly: the ~/.codex skills dir AND the ~/dev/agentops/skills repo dir.
Binary	Source build only (~/dev/meta_skill, branch local/frontmatter-id); the 0.1.2 release binary corrupts IDs on Anthropic-frontmatter skills. Update: git fetch && git rebase origin/main && cargo install --path . --locked.

Concurrency

Parallel CLI + MCP load measured clean — no lock errors. The lock hazard is the survive-a-wipe case above (kill the serve), not concurrent reads.

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Scenarios

Scenario: Load a skill's full runnable guidance
  Given an ms mcp serve is attached
  When I call mcp__ms__load {skill: "account-rotation", full: true}
  Then the full runnable SKILL.md content is returned in one call

Scenario: Search without an attached MCP tool
  Given mcp__ms__search is unavailable
  When I run python3 skills/ms/scripts/mcp-search.py with the query
  Then it returns only structured MCP search JSON
  And its disposable ms mcp serve process is reaped on success, error, or timeout

Scenario: Reindex invalidates every running server
  Given one or more ms mcp serve processes are running
  When I run ms index (or wipe/rebuild the DB)
  Then I kill every ms mcp serve so sessions respawn against fresh data
  And a surviving server would silently read pre-wipe data and mis-land writes

Scenario: A stale local projection fails closed
  Given AgentOps skills are authoritative and ms is a disposable local index
  When a full ms load has a different normalized name or description from source
  Then scripts/ms-reindex.sh exits nonzero and names the stale skill

Quality Checklist

• Full loads preserve the complete runnable guidance rather than a metadata card or packed overview.
• Search reads use attached MCP tools or the one-shot MCP helper, never a silent zero-result CLI substitution; full loads use MCP or the verified CLI shape.
• Any rebuild accounts for every live-discovered skill, rejects an empty searchable index, then finishes with stale servers swept and source equivalence reported.
• Production skill intent leaves ms after retrieval; generated twins and loaded/indexed copies are never hand-edited as source.
• Search and load results remain advisory inputs, never proof that downstream work is correct.
• ms outcome records observed usefulness only after independent downstream evidence.

References

• Upstream: Jeffrey Emanuel's meta_skill (source at ~/dev/meta_skill, branch local/frontmatter-id).
• Related consume-tool skill in this repo: cass (session archaeology). The jsm cass-memory (cm) procedural-memory tool is the write-side complement (installed separately, not in this repo).
• Lifecycle contract validator: scripts/validate.sh.