v0.2.2: Skills now auto-activate — action required for existing users

[mvoutov]

Skills auto-activation is here

Starting with v0.2.2, aspens doc init now generates a complete activation system so your skills load automatically on every Claude Code prompt. No more manually telling Claude to read your skills — it just works.

How it works

When you run aspens doc init, it now generates:

• skill-rules.json — maps keywords, file patterns, and intent patterns to each skill
• Activation hooks — a UserPromptSubmit hook that matches your prompt against skills and injects the right ones into Claude's context
• Session tracking — a PostToolUse hook that watches which files you edit and keeps that domain's skill active for the session
• settings.json — registers everything with Claude Code automatically

What you need to do

If you've already run aspens doc init on a repo (v0.2.0 or v0.2.1), your skills exist but don't auto-activate. You need to install the hooks:

npm update -g aspens
aspens doc init --hooks-only

This takes ~1 second, makes no LLM calls, and doesn't touch your existing skills. It only adds the activation hooks and rules.

Without this step, your skills sit in .claude/skills/ but Claude Code doesn't know they exist.

If you're running aspens doc init for the first time on v0.2.2, hooks are installed automatically — no extra step needed.

New users

Just run npx aspens doc init . as usual. Everything is set up automatically.

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Full release notes: https://github.com/aspenkit/aspens/releases/tag/v0.2.2

Run into issues? Please open an issue: https://github.com/aspenkit/aspens/issues