Fix skill drift between Claude Code and Codex

Before you start

• Pairbar installed, and some skills in ~/.claude/skills, ~/.agents/skills or your repos' .claude/skills and .agents/skills.
• A minute to read the plan before approving it: nothing changes until you do.

Steps

1. Open the Skills tab
   Open Skills in the sidebar. A skill in only one app is fine and isn't flagged: the row's faint app mark says so. Only two things ever get a line: N skills changed in both apps · Review and N skills have problems · Review.
2. Turn on Keep skills the same in Claude and Codex
   The switch at the top of the tab. Pairbar mirrors your personal skills between the apps in the background: a link (or a translated copy) for a skill one app lacks, and copies that drifted brought to the version that changed since they last agreed, or the clearly newest. Each copy it replaces is backed up first, and the first run shows what it did, with Undo.
3. Review a skill that changed in both apps
   When more than one copy changed (or "newest" is only a guess), Pairbar writes nothing and the line says 1 skill changed in both apps · Review. Review shows each version (which app, where, when). View version opens its SKILL.md so you can read it before choosing. Then: Keep this one gives the others its files, backed up first; Leave them different keeps both until one changes again. For an edited translated copy, Update from original replaces the translation after backing up your edit, while Keep my edit preserves both files. The original stays unchanged.
4. Fix a name clash
   If Codex lists a name twice, so $name won't resolve, it's under N skills have problems · Review. Remove duplicate… opens a plan that keeps one copy (the managed one, else yours, else the newest) and moves the others to the Trash; nothing changes until you Approve.
5. Undo if you need to
   The result says what was done, with Undo: it removes the links and copies Pairbar made (unless you've edited them since), puts replaced files back from their backup, and brings trashed copies back from the Trash.
6. Or look over everything first
   With the switch off, ⋯ → Sync all skills… builds one plan of every step (duplicates first), each with a checkbox. Untick what you don't want, then approve.

What Pairbar does about each

A folder both apps load, for example ~/.agents/skills/deploy linking to ~/.claude/skills/deploy, is one skill with two copies in the same place: nothing to fix.

What a plan looks like

• "Link ~/.agents/skills/review-method → ~/.claude/skills/review-method"
• "Back up ~/.claude/skills/paseo (1 file) to ~/.pairbar/backups/skills/paseo-…"
• "Replace it with the copy from ~/.agents/skills/paseo (version d309031a, 2 days ago)"
• "Move ~/.codex/skills/paseo to the Trash"
• "Codex: can't see review-method → $review-method, linked to ~/.claude/skills/review-method"

What fixes write

• Only what the plan lists: links and generated copies in ~/.agents/skills or ~/.claude/skills. For a project's skill, in its repo's .agents/skills or .claude/skills, as a relative link you can commit.
• Backups in ~/.pairbar/backups/skills/<name>-<date>/, readable only by you.
• Copies moved to the Trash, never deleted.
• A record of what Pairbar made in ~/.pairbar/skills-manifest.json (readable only by you), so Undo removes only that.

Pin versions for scheduled workflows

Drift matters most for unattended runs. In a workflow step's Skill chip, Pin these versions saves the skills as they are now in ~/.config/pairbar/skill-snapshots/<sha256>/. If a pinned skill changes later, the step keeps using the saved version and the chip turns orange; unpin and pin again to take the new one. When copies drift, Keep the pinned copy is recommended first. A missing workflow snapshot is shown as A pinned skill is unavailable: review the current installed version before updating its pin, or use Edit workflow to remove or replace a skill that is no longer installed. Review changes shows a changed-line count and a separately scrollable comparison. It does not stop after 200 changes. If either version has more than 4,000 lines, a warning explains the comparison limit and Full saved version and Full installed version remain readable below. See Skills in a step.

Troubleshooting

`$name` does nothing in Codex

Codex sees the same name in two folders, so the name won't resolve. It's on the problems page: Remove duplicate… keeps one copy Codex sees and moves the others to the Trash, with Undo.

A skill keeps saying it changed in both apps

A tool such as Paseo manages one of the copies, and Pairbar never edits it. Keep the managed copy's version, or Leave them different: the line stays away until a copy changes again.

Undo didn't remove a link or copy

Undo leaves anything you've edited since Pairbar made it. Check the skill's page under Where it's installed and remove it yourself if you want.

A risky fix isn't in Fix the safe ones

That's on purpose: fixes that replace your files or touch a tool's managed copy are reviewed one by one.