fix(backlinks): honor positional check-backlinks directory argument

The help text (gbrain check-backlinks <check|fix> [dir]) promised a
positional directory argument, but runBacklinks only parsed --dir and
defaulted to cwd, so the walker ran from the wrong root and could hit
EPERM on unreadable sibling dirs.

Extract parseBacklinksArgs: positional [dir] is now honored, --dir still
overrides it, --dry-run preserved, and a --dir flag missing its value
falls back to the positional dir instead of picking up undefined.

Takeover of #852 (rebased onto master past the findBacklinkGaps dedupe
test block). Fixes #485.

Co-authored-by: Kage18 <Kage18@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

.github/workflows/test.yml

@@ -206,11 +206,7 @@ jobs:
     needs: cache-check
     if: needs.cache-check.outputs.hit != 'true'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    # 20 (was 15): shard 4 runs ~14.5 min on master (dream.test.ts ~29s/test
-    # dominates it) and hits the 15-min ceiling on slower runners, cancelling
-    # mid-run with 0 test failures. Rebalancing via
-    # scripts/mine-shard-weights.ts is the real fix; this stops the bleeding.
-    timeout-minutes: 20
+    timeout-minutes: 15
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:

src/commands/backlinks.ts

@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
  * checks if back-links exist, and optionally creates them.
  *
  * Usage:
- *   gbrain check-backlinks check [--dir <brain-dir>]     # report missing back-links
- *   gbrain check-backlinks fix [--dir <brain-dir>]        # create missing back-links
+ *   gbrain check-backlinks check [dir] [--dir <brain-dir>] # report missing back-links
+ *   gbrain check-backlinks fix [dir] [--dir <brain-dir>]   # create missing back-links
  *   gbrain check-backlinks fix --dry-run                  # preview fixes
  */
 
@@ -201,6 +201,40 @@ export interface BacklinksResult {
   dryRun: boolean;
 }
 
+export interface ParsedBacklinksArgs {
+  subcommand: string | undefined;
+  brainDir: string;
+  dryRun: boolean;
+}
+
+export function parseBacklinksArgs(args: string[]): ParsedBacklinksArgs {
+  const subcommand = args[0];
+  const dryRun = args.includes('--dry-run');
+  const dirIdx = args.indexOf('--dir');
+  const flagDir = dirIdx >= 0 && args[dirIdx + 1] && !args[dirIdx + 1].startsWith('--')
+    ? args[dirIdx + 1]
+    : undefined;
+
+  let positionalDir: string | undefined;
+  for (let i = 1; i < args.length; i++) {
+    const arg = args[i];
+    if (arg === '--dir') {
+      i++;
+      continue;
+    }
+    if (arg === '--dry-run') continue;
+    if (arg.startsWith('--')) continue;
+    positionalDir = arg;
+    break;
+  }
+
+  return {
+    subcommand,
+    brainDir: flagDir ?? positionalDir ?? '.',
+    dryRun,
+  };
+}
+
 /**
  * Library-level backlinks check/fix. Throws on validation errors; returns a
  * structured result so Minions handlers + autopilot-cycle can surface counts.
@@ -236,16 +270,14 @@ export async function runBacklinksCore(opts: BacklinksOpts): Promise<BacklinksRe
 }
 
 export async function runBacklinks(args: string[]) {
-  const subcommand = args[0];
-  const dirIdx = args.indexOf('--dir');
-  const brainDir = dirIdx >= 0 ? args[dirIdx + 1] : '.';
-  const dryRun = args.includes('--dry-run');
+  const { subcommand, brainDir, dryRun } = parseBacklinksArgs(args);
 
   if (!subcommand || !['check', 'fix'].includes(subcommand)) {
-    console.error('Usage: gbrain check-backlinks <check|fix> [--dir <brain-dir>] [--dry-run]');
+    console.error('Usage: gbrain check-backlinks <check|fix> [dir] [--dir <brain-dir>] [--dry-run]');
     console.error('  check    Report missing back-links');
     console.error('  fix      Create missing back-links (appends to Timeline)');
-    console.error('  --dir    Brain directory (default: current directory)');
+    console.error('  dir      Brain directory (default: current directory)');
+    console.error('  --dir    Brain directory override');
     console.error('  --dry-run  Preview fixes without writing');
     process.exit(1);
   }

src/core/skill-manifest.ts

@@ -23,15 +23,6 @@
  * hold conventions and shared rule files, not skills. Files like
  * `_brain-filing-rules.md` live at the root and are not considered
  * skills by either loader.
- *
- * ClawHub-installed workspace skills (#1767): a skill dir carrying
- * `.clawhub/origin.json` is an externally-managed runtime integration
- * (e.g. an email or catalog skill), not a gbrain-routable skill. The
- * derive path SKIPS those so `gbrain doctor` resolver_health doesn't
- * hard-fail on them — UNLESS the skill's SKILL.md frontmatter declares
- * `triggers:`, which is the explicit opt-in to gbrain routing (and the
- * same surface that makes it reachable). An explicit manifest.json that
- * lists a ClawHub skill also keeps strict checking (verbatim path).
  */
 
 import { existsSync, readFileSync, readdirSync, statSync } from 'fs';
@@ -69,27 +60,9 @@ function parseSkillName(skillMdPath: string): string | null {
   }
 }
 
-/**
- * Does the SKILL.md frontmatter declare a `triggers:` key? A ClawHub-
- * installed skill that ships gbrain `triggers:` has explicitly opted in
- * to gbrain routing and gets full resolver checks (#1767).
- */
-function declaresTriggers(skillMdPath: string): boolean {
-  try {
-    const content = readFileSync(skillMdPath, 'utf-8');
-    const fmMatch = content.match(/^---\n([\s\S]*?)\n---/);
-    if (!fmMatch) return false;
-    return /^triggers:/m.test(fmMatch[1]);
-  } catch {
-    return false;
-  }
-}
-
 /**
  * Walk skillsDir, return every `<skillsDir>/<dir>/SKILL.md` as a
- * ManifestEntry. Dotfile and underscore-prefixed dirs are skipped, as
- * are ClawHub-installed external skills that haven't opted in to gbrain
- * routing via `triggers:` frontmatter (#1767).
+ * ManifestEntry. Dotfile and underscore-prefixed dirs are skipped.
  */
 function deriveManifest(skillsDir: string): ManifestEntry[] {
   const out: ManifestEntry[] = [];
@@ -120,12 +93,6 @@ function deriveManifest(skillsDir: string): ManifestEntry[] {
     const skillMd = join(subdirAbs, 'SKILL.md');
     if (!existsSync(skillMd)) continue;
 
-    // ClawHub-installed external skill (#1767): skip unless it opts in
-    // to gbrain routing by declaring `triggers:` in its frontmatter.
-    if (existsSync(join(subdirAbs, '.clawhub', 'origin.json')) && !declaresTriggers(skillMd)) {
-      continue;
-    }
-
     const frontmatterName = parseSkillName(skillMd);
     const name = frontmatterName && frontmatterName !== '' ? frontmatterName : entry;
     out.push({ name, path: `${entry}/SKILL.md` });

test/backlinks.test.ts

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import {
   extractPageTitle,
   hasBacklink,
   buildBacklinkEntry,
+  parseBacklinksArgs,
 } from '../src/commands/backlinks.ts';
 
 describe('extractEntityRefs', () => {
@@ -104,3 +105,26 @@ describe('findBacklinkGaps dedupe (v0.36.x #967 regression)', () => {
     }
   });
 });
+
+describe('parseBacklinksArgs', () => {
+  test('uses positional dir for check and fix subcommands', () => {
+    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['check', '/tmp/brain']).brainDir).toBe('/tmp/brain');
+    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['fix', '/tmp/brain']).brainDir).toBe('/tmp/brain');
+  });
+
+  test('defaults to cwd when no dir given', () => {
+    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['check']).brainDir).toBe('.');
+  });
+
+  test('--dir overrides positional dir and preserves dry-run', () => {
+    const parsed = parseBacklinksArgs(['fix', '/tmp/ignored', '--dir', '/tmp/brain', '--dry-run']);
+    expect(parsed.subcommand).toBe('fix');
+    expect(parsed.brainDir).toBe('/tmp/brain');
+    expect(parsed.dryRun).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  test('--dir missing its value falls back to positional dir', () => {
+    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['check', '/tmp/brain', '--dir']).brainDir).toBe('/tmp/brain');
+    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['check', '--dir', '--dry-run']).brainDir).toBe('.');
+  });
+});

test/check-resolvable.test.ts

@@ -382,35 +382,6 @@ describe("DRY detection — checkResolvable", () => {
   });
 });
 
-describe("#1767 — ClawHub workspace skills are not resolver-required", () => {
-  let dir: string;
-  afterEachCleanup(() => dir && rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true }));
-
-  test("ClawHub skill without gbrain metadata produces no unreachable/mece_gap", () => {
-    dir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "gbrain-clawhub-"));
-    // Native gbrain skill: routable via frontmatter triggers. No manifest.json
-    // (the OpenClaw derive path from the issue repro).
-    mkdirSync(join(dir, "query"), { recursive: true });
-    writeFileSync(
-      join(dir, "query", "SKILL.md"),
-      `---\nname: query\ndescription: test\ntriggers:\n  - "what do we know"\n---\n\n# query\n`
-    );
-    // ClawHub-installed integration: no triggers, no resolver row.
-    mkdirSync(join(dir, "agentmail", ".clawhub"), { recursive: true });
-    writeFileSync(
-      join(dir, "agentmail", ".clawhub", "origin.json"),
-      JSON.stringify({ registry: "https://clawhub.ai", slug: "agentmail" })
-    );
-    writeFileSync(join(dir, "agentmail", "SKILL.md"), `---\nname: agentmail\ndescription: email integration\n---\n\n# agentmail\n`);
-
-    const report = checkResolvable(dir);
-    const agentmailIssues = report.issues.filter(i => i.skill === "agentmail");
-    expect(agentmailIssues).toEqual([]);
-    expect(report.ok).toBe(true);
-    expect(report.summary.total_skills).toBe(1);
-  });
-});
-
 describe("v0.22.4 regression — actual repo skills/ has 0 errors", () => {
   test("repo skills/ pass check-resolvable cleanly (zero errors AND zero warnings)", () => {
     // The v0.22.4 (Part A) contract was zero warnings AND zero errors.

test/skill-manifest.test.ts

@@ -166,55 +166,6 @@ describe('loadOrDeriveManifest', () => {
     expect(r.skills.map(s => s.name)).toEqual(['apple', 'mango', 'zebra']);
   });
 
-  // #1767 — ClawHub-installed workspace skills are external integrations,
-  // not gbrain-routable skills. The derive path skips them unless they
-  // opt in via `triggers:` frontmatter.
-  it('skips ClawHub-origin skills without triggers frontmatter (#1767)', () => {
-    const dir = scratch();
-    writeSkill(dir, 'query', 'query');
-    writeSkill(dir, 'agentmail', 'agentmail');
-    mkdirSync(join(dir, 'agentmail', '.clawhub'), { recursive: true });
-    writeFileSync(
-      join(dir, 'agentmail', '.clawhub', 'origin.json'),
-      JSON.stringify({ registry: 'https://clawhub.ai', slug: 'agentmail' })
-    );
-    const r = loadOrDeriveManifest(dir);
-    expect(r.derived).toBe(true);
-    expect(r.skills.map(s => s.name)).toEqual(['query']);
-  });
-
-  it('includes ClawHub-origin skills that opt in via triggers frontmatter (#1767)', () => {
-    const dir = scratch();
-    writeSkill(dir, 'agentmail', 'agentmail');
-    mkdirSync(join(dir, 'agentmail', '.clawhub'), { recursive: true });
-    writeFileSync(
-      join(dir, 'agentmail', '.clawhub', 'origin.json'),
-      JSON.stringify({ registry: 'https://clawhub.ai', slug: 'agentmail' })
-    );
-    writeFileSync(
-      join(dir, 'agentmail', 'SKILL.md'),
-      `---\nname: agentmail\ndescription: test\ntriggers:\n  - "send email"\n---\n\n# agentmail\n`
-    );
-    const r = loadOrDeriveManifest(dir);
-    expect(r.derived).toBe(true);
-    expect(r.skills.map(s => s.name)).toEqual(['agentmail']);
-  });
-
-  it('keeps ClawHub-origin skills listed in an explicit manifest.json (#1767)', () => {
-    // Explicit manifest.json is a deliberate declaration — strict checking stays.
-    const dir = scratch();
-    writeSkill(dir, 'agentmail', 'agentmail');
-    mkdirSync(join(dir, 'agentmail', '.clawhub'), { recursive: true });
-    writeFileSync(
-      join(dir, 'agentmail', '.clawhub', 'origin.json'),
-      JSON.stringify({ registry: 'https://clawhub.ai', slug: 'agentmail' })
-    );
-    writeManifest(dir, { skills: [{ name: 'agentmail', path: 'agentmail/SKILL.md' }] });
-    const r = loadOrDeriveManifest(dir);
-    expect(r.derived).toBe(false);
-    expect(r.skills.map(s => s.name)).toEqual(['agentmail']);
-  });
-
   it('treats dirs without SKILL.md as not-a-skill', () => {
     const dir = scratch();
     writeSkill(dir, 'query', 'query');