fix(cli): install skill content from a pinned release, not a branch - #93
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MajorLift wants to merge 2 commits into
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fix(cli): install skill content from a pinned release, not a branch#93MajorLift wants to merge 2 commits into
MajorLift wants to merge 2 commits into
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Skills are auto-loaded instructions distributed to engineers' agents across the org, alongside executable payloads written into agent-trusted paths. The repo's security posture does not describe that channel anywhere. Describes three channels — instruction, execution, delivery — with the state of each verified against the tree: `copy_bundle_dirs` ships `scripts` and `adapters` (7 payloads today), `tools/sync` pulls from a tracked branch rather than a reviewed ref, and `tools/bootstrap` is documented as `curl | bash` from `main` with no checksum. The package is lockfile-pinned; the content it installs is not, and that distinction is the crux. States the existing controls with equal care, since the risk is easy to overstate: auto-update is opt-in behind `SKILLS_AUTO_UPDATE`, this package declares no `postinstall` of its own, `--ff-only` breaks rather than silently applying a rewritten history, and CLI distribution is already review-gated. Descriptive, not a proposal — the five open decisions are listed for the security team to rule on rather than settled here. Also flags that SECURITY.md describes the repo as prompt templates with no runtime code, which does not account for the published CLI or the shipped executables. Raised during ADR 0057 review (MetaMask/decisions#162).
A lockfile entry pins the `@metamask/skills` CLI. It never pinned the skill revision that reaches disk: the cache cloned and reset to `main`, so an install pinned in a lockfile still picked up whatever had merged since, and the documented `curl … | bash` bootstrap did the same for cloud agents. The CLI now derives the content ref from its own package version, so one lockfile entry pins both halves. `tools/bootstrap` resolves the newest release tag over `git ls-remote` instead of defaulting to `main`. Both fail closed. A missing tag means this package version has no published content, and widening to a branch at that point would reinstate the channel being removed — so the CLI warns and declines, and bootstrap exits non-zero naming the override. `SKILLS_REF` still overrides, for development against `main` and for holding a consumer on a specific release. It is now a deliberate opt-in to a mutable ref rather than the default, and taking it warns. Engineer-owned checkouts reached through `METAMASK_SKILLS_DIR` are untouched; that is their working copy, not a delivery channel.
MajorLift
marked this pull request as draft
July 30, 2026 19:21
MajorLift
changed the title
MajorLift
marked this pull request as ready for review
August 20, 2026 13:21
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Overview
A lockfile entry pinned the
@metamask/skillsCLI, never the skill content:ensurePublicSkillsCachecloned--branch main,tools/bootstrapdefaultedSKILLS_REFtomain— no pin, no checksum. That content is instructions a coding agent loads, plus executablescripts/andadapters/.Both now pin to a release tag and fail closed when it is missing — the CLI from its package version (
0.2.0→v0.2.0), bootstrap viagit ls-remote --tags.SKILLS_REFstill overrides, now a warned opt-in rather than the default.Engineer checkouts via
METAMASK_SKILLS_DIRare untouched — a working copy, not a delivery channel;tools/syncstill pulls--ff-onlythere.The trade: a skill merged today ships on the next tagged release, not immediately.
Showcase
Security review is the gate. Open for it, untouched here: whether
scripts/andadapters/should ship at all, and under what review.Every check exercises the tag-exists path; fail-closed behavior and the
SKILLS_REFwarning are stated, not demonstrated. Branch protection onmainis unasserted — the endpoint 404s to a non-admin token, which does not distinguish "no rule" from "no permission".