test(skills): cover frontmatter edge cases

Signed-off-by: phernandez <paul@basicmachines.co>

Author: phernandez

scripts/validate_skills.py

@@ -11,6 +11,12 @@
 PLAIN_SCALAR_MAPPING_VALUE = re.compile(r":(?:\s|$)")
 
 
+def strip_matching_quotes(value: str) -> str:
+    if len(value) >= 2 and value[0] == value[-1] and value[0] in {'"', "'"}:
+        return value[1:-1]
+    return value
+
+
 def validate_plain_scalar(path: Path, line_number: int, key: str, value: str) -> None:
     """Catch invalid plain-scalar YAML that Codex rejects while loading skills."""
     stripped = value.strip()
@@ -50,7 +56,7 @@ def parse_frontmatter(path: Path) -> dict[str, str]:
         key = key.strip()
         value = value.strip()
         validate_plain_scalar(path, line_number, key, value)
-        frontmatter[key] = value.strip('"')
+        frontmatter[key] = strip_matching_quotes(value)
     else:
         raise SystemExit(f"{path}: unclosed YAML frontmatter")
 

tests/ci/test_validate_skills.py

@@ -25,6 +25,48 @@ def test_parse_frontmatter_rejects_unquoted_mapping_colon(tmp_path: Path) -> Non
         parse_frontmatter(skill)
 
 
+def test_parse_frontmatter_allows_url_colons_in_plain_values(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+    skill = tmp_path / "SKILL.md"
+    skill.write_text(
+        "\n".join(
+            [
+                "---",
+                "name: memory-notes",
+                "description: See https://docs.basicmemory.com for usage.",
+                "---",
+                "# Skill",
+                "",
+            ]
+        ),
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+
+    frontmatter = parse_frontmatter(skill)
+
+    assert frontmatter["description"] == "See https://docs.basicmemory.com for usage."
+
+
+def test_parse_frontmatter_strips_matching_single_quotes(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+    skill = tmp_path / "SKILL.md"
+    skill.write_text(
+        "\n".join(
+            [
+                "---",
+                "name: memory-notes",
+                "description: 'Use when values contain mapping-like text: safely.'",
+                "---",
+                "# Skill",
+                "",
+            ]
+        ),
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+
+    frontmatter = parse_frontmatter(skill)
+
+    assert frontmatter["description"] == "Use when values contain mapping-like text: safely."
+
+
 def test_parse_frontmatter_keeps_nested_fields_nested(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
     schema = tmp_path / "schema.md"
     schema.write_text(
@@ -47,3 +89,4 @@ def test_parse_frontmatter_keeps_nested_fields_nested(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
 
     assert frontmatter["type"] == "schema"
     assert frontmatter["entity"] == "Task"
+    assert frontmatter["schema"] == ""