copy the skills, do not link them — a link is what made it hang

the agent called `skill calendar-and-contacts` and sat there. not an error, not a
refusal: a spinner, on three different models.

opencode grants `external_directory` for the paths it discovered — literally
`~/.config/opencode/skills/<name>/*` — and a symlink RESOLVES to the plugin
directory, which is not in that list. so reading the skill body fell through to
`external_directory: "*": "ask"`, and a server session has nobody to ask. the
request waits forever. the permission list the serve reports says it plainly:
every skill path is allowed at its LINK location and nothing allows the target.

copying makes the real path the allowed path. the cost is drift — a skill edited
in its plugin is not live until this sidecar restarts — which is why the copy is
rewritten from scratch on every boot, and it is a good trade against a hang with
no message. copies are marked so a skill somebody wrote there by hand is never
clobbered and ours are replaced rather than merged, so a file deleted upstream
cannot survive in the copy.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Officer-Session: 656f5c85-e49a-4f1f-b9f3-042a04b4d043

src/servers/sidecar/opencode/serve-env.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { existsSync, mkdirSync, readdirSync, readlinkSync, rmSync, symlinkSync, writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { cpSync, existsSync, mkdirSync, readdirSync, rmSync, writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { homedir } from 'node:os';
 import { join } from 'node:path';
 import { getOwnerUser } from 'officerdb';
@@ -30,9 +30,18 @@ import { capabilityRoots } from '../../capability-sources';
  * LISTED to the agent and then failed to load, with `Unable to load skill calendar-and-contacts`. Being
  * offered something you cannot open is worse than not being offered it.
  *
- * So each skill directory is SYMLINKED into `~/.config/opencode/skills/`, which is a documented
+ * So each skill directory is COPIED into `~/.config/opencode/skills/`, which is a documented discovery
- * discovery path. Links rather than copies: one source of truth, and a skill edited in its plugin is
+ * path.
- * live immediately. Only our own links are removed, and only when their target has gone.
+ *
+ * COPIED, NOT LINKED, and that is the whole point of this paragraph. Links were tried first and hung the
+ * agent: OpenCode grants `external_directory` for the paths it discovered — `~/.config/opencode/skills/
+ * <name>/*` — and a symlink RESOLVES to the plugin directory, which is not in that list. Reading the
+ * body then fell through to `external_directory: "*": "ask"`, and a server session has nobody to ask, so
+ * the turn sat on `skill calendar-and-contacts` forever. Not an error, not a refusal: a spinner.
+ *
+ * A copy makes the real path the allowed path. The cost is drift — a skill edited in its plugin is not
+ * live until this sidecar restarts — which is why the copy is rewritten from scratch on every boot, and
+ * why anything else is a bad trade against a hang with no message.
  *
  * Two more things the documentation settles, both of which cost an afternoon:
  *
@@ -97,17 +106,19 @@ import { capabilityRoots } from '../../capability-sources';
 /** Where the composed affordances land. Beside the serve's own state, not in anyone's home. */
 export const affordancesPath = (serveCwd: string) => join(serveCwd, 'officer-affordances.md');
 
+/** Marks a copy as ours, so a hand-made skill in the same directory is never clobbered. */
+const MANAGED = '.officer-managed';
+
 /** A documented discovery path, and the only kind the `skill` tool can actually load from. */
 export const skillLinkDir = () => join(homedir(), '.config', 'opencode', 'skills');
 
 /**
- * Link every skill into OpenCode's own discovery directory.
+ * Copy every skill into OpenCode's own discovery directory. Returns how many.
  *
- * Returns how many are linked. Existing links to the same target are left alone; ours that now point at
+ * Ours are marked, so a skill someone put there by hand is never touched and ours are always replaced
- * nothing are removed. A real directory someone put there by hand is never touched — this owns links,
+ * rather than merged — a file deleted upstream must not survive in the copy.
- * not the folder.
  */
-export function linkSkills(roots: string[]): number {
+export function copySkills(roots: string[]): number {
   const dir = skillLinkDir();
   mkdirSync(dir, { recursive: true });
 
@@ -122,20 +133,23 @@ export function linkSkills(roots: string[]): number {
     }
   }
 
+  // Ours from a previous boot go first, whether or not they are still wanted.
   for (const entry of readdirSync(dir, { withFileTypes: true })) {
-    if (!entry.isSymbolicLink()) continue;
+    const here = join(dir, entry.name);
-    const link = join(dir, entry.name);
+    if (entry.isSymbolicLink() || existsSync(join(here, MANAGED))) rmSync(here, { recursive: true, force: true });
-    if (wanted.get(entry.name) === readlinkSync(link)) continue;
-    rmSync(link, { force: true });
   }
 
-  for (const [name, target] of wanted) {
+  for (const [name, source] of wanted) {
-    const link = join(dir, name);
+    const target = join(dir, name);
-    if (existsSync(link)) continue;
+    if (existsSync(target)) {
+      console.error(`[opencode] not overwriting ${target} — it is not ours`);
+      continue;
+    }
     try {
-      symlinkSync(target, link, 'dir');
+      cpSync(source, target, { recursive: true, dereference: true });
+      writeFileSync(join(target, MANAGED), 'Written by officer-opencode on boot. Edit the original.\n');
     } catch (err) {
-      console.error(`[opencode] could not link skill ${name}`, err);
+      console.error(`[opencode] could not copy skill ${name}`, err);
     }
   }
   return wanted.size;
@@ -260,8 +274,8 @@ export async function buildServeEnv(serveCwd: string): Promise<Record<string, st
     for (const root of await capabilityRoots('skills')) if (existsSync(root)) skillRoots.push(root);
     // The same index a Claude session is given, compiled by the same function.
     skills = await skillsBlock();
-    const linked = linkSkills(skillRoots);
+    const copied = copySkills(skillRoots);
-    console.log(`[opencode] linked ${linked} skill(s) into ${skillLinkDir()}`);
+    console.log(`[opencode] copied ${copied} skill(s) into ${skillLinkDir()}`);
   } catch (err) {
     console.error('[opencode] could not resolve the skill roots', err);
   }