Bug Description

The skill_manage tool (action='create') reports successful creation even when the SKILL.md file was never actually written to disk. The skill appears in the in-memory index during the session, but after a restart or cache reload, it vanishes silently.

Reproduction

1. Create multiple skills in rapid succession via skill_manage(action='create')
2. Observe: all report success in the tool response
3. Restart the gateway or start a new session
4. Try to load the skills — they're gone

Impact

• Silent data loss: 6 of 11 skills created during a session disappeared
• No error surfaced: User and agent only discover the loss later
• Trust erosion: The agent builds workflows assuming skills exist that don't

Evidence

In our session on 2026-05-23, the error log showed: Skill 'strategy-selector' not found. Skill 'rules-auditor' not found. Skill 'sdd-architect' not found. Skill 'workspace-manager' not found. Skill 'skill-curator' not found. Skill 'receiving-code-review' not found.

code

All six had been "successfully" created earlier in the same session.

Root Cause Hypothesis

skill_manage writes to an in-memory index immediately but either: (a) defers disk writes and they're lost on certain code paths, or (b) the file write fails silently (permissions, path issues) and the error is swallowed

Proposed Solution: Post-Write Verification

After every skill_manage(action='create') or (action='patch'):

1. stat/read back the SKILL.md file that was supposedly written
2. If missing: retry the write, log a warning, and surface the error to the agent
3. If present: confirm persistence before reporting success

Pseudocode:

def create_skill(name, content):
    write_file(skill_path, content)
    if not os.path.exists(skill_path):
        logging.error(f"Skill {name} was not persisted to {skill_path}")
        # Retry once, then surface error to agent
        write_file(skill_path, content)
        if not os.path.exists(skill_path):
            raise SkillPersistenceError(...)
    # Only now report success
    return {"status": "created", "verified": True}
Benefits
Safety: No more silent data loss
Stability: Agent can trust that created skills will survive restarts
Debuggability: Writes that fail get surfaced immediately, not discovered days later
Low cost: One os.path.exists() call per write operation