Dev Watch

Support vocabulary: Feature Reference

skillset dev runs a foreground authoring loop over the active Skillset workspace. It debounces changes to skillset.yaml and .skillset/, then reruns source diagnostics and generated-output checks.

Preview by Default

skillset dev

Each refresh reports source diagnostics, generated-output drift, and the active output roots. Preview mode writes nothing. Use a separate confirmed build when the plan is ready:

skillset build --yes

The development-loop guide owns the complete author workflow, and the generated dev reference owns exact syntax.

Opt Into Continuous Writes

skillset dev --write
skillset dev --root examples/first-author

--write uses the same repo-local build path and ownership checks as skillset build --yes on every clean refresh. It can create reversible backups for collisions or edited managed files. Bare dev does not accept --yes; --write is the explicit continuous-write choice.

The watcher ignores generated roots, AGENTS.md, skillset.lock, .skillset/cache/, .skillset/snapshots/, and its own report churn so a build does not retrigger itself.

Errors and Exit Behavior

• Source and render errors are printed without ending the watch process. Fix the file and save to retry.
• A failed write refresh records no completed write. If an earlier refresh created a backup, the report includes the restore command.
• SIGINT or SIGTERM ends the foreground process normally; dev is not a daemon.
• Invalid flags or an invalid workspace fail before the watcher starts.

skillset dev never installs, trusts, activates, symlinks, publishes, executes generated hooks or scripts, or mutates user-level provider configuration. Writing proves only that the repository projection is current; see Build Versus Activation.

Provenance

Write mode updates ordinary generated files and their nearby skillset.lock records. Preview mode creates no provenance. Collision and target-side-edit recovery evidence belongs to the snapshot described by Output Safety.