/frontmatter-guard

name: frontmatter-guard
version: 1.0.0
description: |
  Validate and auto-repair YAML frontmatter on brain pages. Catches malformed
  pages before they enter the brain (missing closing ---, nested quotes, slug
  mismatches, null bytes, empty frontmatter, YAML parse failures). Wraps the
  `gbrain frontmatter` CLI for agent-driven workflows.
triggers:
  - "validate frontmatter"
  - "check frontmatter"
  - "fix frontmatter"
  - "frontmatter audit"
  - "brain lint"
tools:
  - exec
mutating: true

Frontmatter Guard Skill

> **Convention:** see `skills/conventions/quality.md` for citation rules; this skill is structural validation, not citation auditing.

Contract

This skill guarantees:

• Every brain page is scanned against the eight canonical frontmatter validation classes
• Mechanical errors (nested quotes, missing closing `---`, null bytes, slug mismatch) are auto-repairable on demand with `.bak` backups
• Validation logic is shared with `gbrain doctor`'s `frontmatter_integrity` subcheck — single source of truth
• Reports per source (gbrain is multi-source since v0.18.0); never silently audits the wrong root

Why This Exists

Brain pages pile up over months. Agents write them with malformed frontmatter:

• Missing closing `---` (entity detector bugs)
• Unstructured YAML in meeting pages (ingestion bugs)
• Slug mismatches (path renames not propagated)
• Null bytes (binary corruption from copy-paste accidents)
• Nested double quotes in titles (`title: "Phil "Nick" Last"`)

Without a guard, these accumulate silently until `gbrain sync` chokes or search returns garbage. The guard makes the failure visible at audit time and trivially fixable.

Validation classes

| Code | Meaning | Auto-fixable? | |------|---------|---------------| | `MISSING_OPEN` | File doesn't start with `---` | No (needs human) | | `MISSING_CLOSE` | No closing `---` before first heading | Yes | | `YAML_PARSE` | YAML failed to parse | Sometimes (depends on cause) | | `SLUG_MISMATCH` | Frontmatter `slug:` differs from path-derived slug | Yes (removes the field) | | `NULL_BYTES` | Binary corruption (`\x00`) | Yes | | `NESTED_QUOTES` | `title: "outer "inner" outer"` shape | Yes | | `NON_STRING_FIELD` | `title`/`type`/`slug` is an unquoted non-string scalar (e.g. `title: 123`, `slug: 2024-06-01`) | No (quote the value) | | `EMPTY_FRONTMATTER` | Open + close present but nothing between | No (needs human) |

Phases

Phase 1: Audit

Run a read-only scan across all registered sources (or one with `--source <id>`).

gbrain frontmatter audit --json

Reports:

• Per-source counts grouped by error code
• Sample of up to 20 affected pages per source
• Total count
• Scan timestamp

Output is JSON; agents parse `errors_by_code` and `per_source` to decide next steps.

Phase 2: Validate one path

Validate a single file or directory (does not require source registration):

gbrain frontmatter validate <path> --json

Exit code 0 = clean; 1 = errors found. Use this in CI pipelines or pre-commit hooks.

Phase 3: Fix

When issues are found:

gbrain frontmatter validate <path> --fix

`--fix` writes `<file>.bak` for every modified file before mutating. The backup is the safety contract — works whether the brain is a git repo or a plain directory.

`--dry-run` previews without writing. Use this before applying fixes in batch.

Phase 4: Pre-commit hook (optional)

For brain repos that ARE git repos, install the pre-commit hook to block malformed pages from being committed in the first place:

gbrain frontmatter install-hook [--source <id>]

The hook runs `gbrain frontmatter validate` against staged `.md`/`.mdx` files. Bypass with `git commit --no-verify`.

Trigger words

When the user says any of these, route here:

• "validate frontmatter"
• "check frontmatter"
• "fix frontmatter"
• "frontmatter audit"
• "brain lint"

Output rules

• Always run `gbrain frontmatter audit --json` first; never assume a brain is clean.
• Surface counts to the user in plain language; do not dump raw JSON.
• For `--fix` operations: state how many files will be modified BEFORE running, then confirm.
• `SLUG_MISMATCH` fixes remove the frontmatter `slug:` field — gbrain derives slug from path. Mention this when the user's title is intentionally renamed.
• Never auto-fix `MISSING_OPEN` or `EMPTY_FRONTMATTER` without explicit user input — these usually mean a human author started a page and didn't finish.

Chains with

• `gbrain doctor` — the `frontmatter_integrity` subcheck reports the same counts as `audit`.
• `skills/maintain/SKILL.md` — broader brain health audit; chain after this skill if other classes of issue are suspected.
• `skills/lint/SKILL.md` (via `gbrain lint`) — overlapping rules for skill-file lint; the `frontmatter-*` rule names in lint output come from this skill's validation surface.

Output Format

Audit summary (terse, agent-friendly):

Frontmatter audit — 17 issue(s) across 1 source(s)

[default] /Users/me/brain
  17 issue(s)
    MISSING_CLOSE: 8
    NESTED_QUOTES: 5
    NULL_BYTES: 4
  sample:
    people/jane.md — MISSING_CLOSE
    companies/acme.md — NESTED_QUOTES
    (+ 12 more)

Fix with: gbrain frontmatter validate /Users/me/brain --fix

JSON envelope (when `--json` is passed):

{
  "ok": false,
  "total": 17,
  "errors_by_code": { "MISSING_CLOSE": 8, "NESTED_QUOTES": 5, "NULL_BYTES": 4 },
  "per_source": [
    {
      "source_id": "default",
      "source_path": "/Users/me/brain",
      "total": 17,
      "errors_by_code": { "MISSING_CLOSE": 8, "NESTED_QUOTES": 5, "NULL_BYTES": 4 },
      "sample": [{ "path": "people/jane.md", "codes": ["MISSING_CLOSE"] }]
    }
  ],
  "scanned_at": "2026-04-25T22:30:00.000Z"
}

`gbrain frontmatter validate <path> --json` returns a similar envelope keyed on per-file results instead of per-source.

Prevention — Writing Valid Frontmatter

**This is the most important section.** Fixing broken frontmatter