Telos and Migrate skills still write to the legacy per-topic TELOS files, so the #2117 fix leaves the main write paths re-splitting TELOS #2291

Version

LifeOS 7.40.4 (latest release, 2026-08-14). The files below are byte-identical on main as of 2026-10-07.

What is broken

TELOS.md is the single source of truth (README, GenerateTelosSummary.ts:41), and #2117 fixed the onboarding interview to say so. The two other skills that write TELOS content were not touched, and both still route real content into the legacy per-topic files:

• Telos skill. SKILL.md and Workflows/Update.md present the per-topic files as the write targets and give TELOS.md as one option among 18. UpdateTelos.ts appends to whichever file it is given and auto-creates any allowlisted file that does not exist. It has no path that maps a legacy name to a TELOS.md section.
• Migrate skill. MigrateScan.ts classifies imported material into TELOS/GOALS.md, TELOS/WISDOM.md, TELOS/BELIEFS.md and the rest, and MigrateApprove.ts appends there. TELOS.md is not a possible target.

On a fresh install, the installer scaffolds 9 legacy sample stubs next to TELOS.md, so every /Telos or /Migrate write lands in a stub while TELOS.md stays template. From there the readers disagree, which is the family of issues #1477, #1960 and #2117. A user who migrates their content into TELOS.md gets split again by the next Telos or Migrate write.

Two smaller inconsistencies on the same surface:

• skills/Telos/SKILL.md:194 lists LEARNED.md as a valid file, but UpdateTelos.ts allows LESSONS.md and rejects LEARNED.md.
• Pulse's telosSectionOrFile (LIFEOS/PULSE/Observability/observability.ts:2435 and the other callers) takes the TELOS.md section whenever it is non-empty. Sample text is non-empty, so on a split install Pulse can prefer the template over the real legacy content. That is the opposite of GenerateTelosSummary's hasRealContent rule. Not verified at runtime.

Where (file:line)

Writers that target legacy files:

• skills/Telos/Tools/UpdateTelos.ts:62-67 (allowlist), :173 (writes TELOS_DIR/<filename>)
• skills/Telos/Workflows/Update.md:116 ("Which file should it go in? (BOOKS.md, LESSONS.md, BELIEFS.md, etc.)"), :143 (example writes BOOKS.md)
• skills/Telos/SKILL.md:174-175 (read .../TELOS/GOALS.md, .../BELIEFS.md)
• LIFEOS/TOOLS/MigrateScan.ts:47-64 (target union), :103-124 (routing rules), with LIFEOS/TOOLS/MigrateApprove.ts appending to the target
• skills/Migrate/SKILL.md:97-99, 123-124

Readers that say TELOS.md is canonical: USER/TELOS/README.md, LIFEOS/TOOLS/GenerateTelosSummary.ts:41, 123-129, skills/Interview/Workflows/ContextCheckin.md.

Repro on a clean tree

# Fresh scaffold of the shipped TELOS tree into a throwaway HOME
S=$(mktemp -d); mkdir -p $S/.claude/LIFEOS/USER
cp -R ~/.claude/skills/LifeOS/install/USER/TELOS $S/.claude/LIFEOS/USER/TELOS
T=$S/.claude/LIFEOS/USER/TELOS
md5 -q $T/TELOS.md > $S/before

# Add a goal the way skills/Telos/Workflows/Update.md instructs
HOME=$S bun ~/.claude/skills/LifeOS/install/skills/Telos/Tools/UpdateTelos.ts \
  "GOALS.md" "- **G9:** Ship the thing by 2026-12-31" "Added goal G9"

# Any allowlisted name that is not scaffolded is created as a new legacy file
HOME=$S bun ~/.claude/skills/LifeOS/install/skills/Telos/Tools/UpdateTelos.ts \
  "FRAMES.md" "- A frame" "Added frame"

rg -n 'G9' $T/GOALS.md          # the goal is here
rg -c 'G9' $T/TELOS.md          # and not here
[ "$(md5 -q $T/TELOS.md)" = "$(cat $S/before)" ] && echo "TELOS.md unchanged"
cat $T/FRAMES.md

Negative control

On unpatched 7.40.4 (shipped install copy, byte-identical to the live copy), the run above prints:

GOALS.md:25:- **G9:** Ship the thing by 2026-12-31
(no match for G9 in TELOS.md)
TELOS.md unchanged
# FRAMES
- A frame

The goal is written to the legacy GOALS.md, TELOS.md is byte-identical to before, and FRAMES.md, which the scaffold does not ship, now exists as a new legacy file.

How I hit it in practice: content written during setup on a 7.28.x install landed in MISSION.md, GOALS.md and the rest, while TELOS.md stayed template. That is the #2117 scenario. Checking why it would recur after migrating to TELOS.md led here.

Suggested fix

Untested, shape only:

1. UpdateTelos.ts: map each legacy name to its TELOS.md H2 section (the LEGACY_FILE_TO_SECTION map in GenerateTelosSummary.ts already exists) and write there with --section. Keep the legacy filename as an accepted alias, so old instructions still land in the right place. Stop auto-creating legacy files.
2. Telos/SKILL.md and Workflows/Update.md: name sections of TELOS.md as the targets, not files.
3. MigrateScan.ts / MigrateApprove.ts: route TELOS/* targets to TELOS.md sections through the same map.
4. Optionally, the shared resolver proposed in Where should TELOS content live? The docs and the tools disagree #1960, so the next reader or writer cannot pick its own precedence.