Keep skills in a GitHub repo and sync them to your Bots nigh

How this helps you

You improve a skill once, in one place, and every Bot uses the new version the next day.

✦ Try it

Make a skill called sync agent skills: pull [repo] and install every skill in [skills folder] where my Bots read skills, remove any that are in [retired folder], and pull [docs folder] too. Then add a routine that runs it every night and tells me what changed.

Fill in: [repo] is your GitHub repo; the folders are paths inside it. Leave out [docs folder] if you don't keep policy docs.

What they did

Brian Casel runs half the work across his products through Bots he rarely chats with. Every routine description is one line, for example: log this run in our bot run log, then run the growth run experiment skill end to end. All instructions live in the skills, so they never conflict with routine text. The skills live in an agent skills folder of a private GitHub repo he edits day to day. His chief Bot has a nightly agent skills sync routine that pulls the repo, installs skills where the Bots read them, removes ones he moved to a retired folder, adds new ones, and pulls his policy docs as a company handbook. The run log lets the chief check who did what.

Who it's for: People with many skills who already work in a code editor or with GitHub.

Before you start

GitHub connected to your chief or main Bot.
A repo with a skills folder (one folder per skill).
Some skills you already trust.

How to try it

Put your skills in a repo folder, with a retired folder beside it.
Ask your main Bot to build a sync skill: pull the repo, install active skills, remove retired ones.
Make a nightly routine that runs that skill.
Rewrite routines as one line that names a skill, plus a run log line.
Edit skills in the repo, not in chat.

What to expect

A short nightly note: skills added, updated or retired. Routines stay one line long.

Common mistakes

Putting instructions in both the routine and the skill. Brian keeps the skill as the single source of truth.
Digging into where the Bot stores files. He found it better to let the Bot manage that.

Related tips

Keep routines one line long: The schedule says when. The skill says how.
Do it by hand, save a skill, then schedule: Most automations break because they're scheduled before they've worked once.
Back up your whole Bot setup: Have each Bot document its job, rules, skills and routines into a recovery doc, kept current monthly.
Move an old AI agent folder into Grok Bot: Tom moved 59 local agents into about two dozen Bots by going through them one role at a time: keep, merge, instructions or shared skill.