update

Refresh installed templates from the local global template cache. Without selectors, slopctl update refreshes the whole workspace: every installed language and detected agent is resolved, missing or deleted tracked files are restored, unmodified files are brought up to the cached template state, and locally modified or untracked files are skipped with a report (use --force to overwrite them). With --file/--skill selectors it refreshes only the selected targets.

Run slopctl templates --update first to refresh the global catalog. update never fetches from GitHub or other remote sources — it copies only the selected targets from that cache into the workspace.

Files and skills are routed to the same workspace locations as init. The scope defaults to the installed languages (from the file tracker) and the agents detected in the workspace; override with --lang/--agent. Explicitly selected targets are overwritten directly, but a customized or untracked selected target is an error unless --force is given; in full-workspace mode such files are skipped with a report instead.

In full-workspace mode, a missing agent instruction or prompt file is only recreated for an agent that owns at least one tracker entry — never for an agent known solely from its marker directory. Files it refuses to create for that reason are reported per agent with a slopctl init --agent <name> hint, and --force does not override this.

When a skill is refreshed, slopctl-managed files removed upstream are also deleted from the workspace and pruned from the tracker. User-added files inside the skill directory that slopctl doesn’t track are preserved.

This differs from templates --update (which downloads/updates the global catalog) and from init (which installs something new: a language or an agent). AGENTS.md and changelog-marker files (e.g. UPDATES.md) are never refreshed by update, under any flag; use merge.

Usage

slopctl templates --update                            # Refresh global cache first
slopctl update                                      # Refresh the whole workspace
slopctl update --dry-run                            # Preview the full refresh
slopctl update --force                              # Also overwrite customized files
slopctl update --skill rust-coding-conventions      # Refresh a single skill
slopctl update --file .rustfmt.toml                 # Refresh a single file
slopctl update --skill git-workflow --file .editorconfig   # Refresh several at once
slopctl update --file .editorconfig --lang rust     # Override the language scope
slopctl update --skill init-session --agent cursor  # Override the agent scope
slopctl update --file .rustfmt.toml --force         # Overwrite a customized file
slopctl update --skill git-workflow --dry-run       # Preview without writing

Options

• --file <path> — workspace file path to refresh (repeatable)
• --skill / -s <name> — skill name to refresh (repeatable)
• --lang / -l — language scope override (defaults to the installed languages)
• --agent / -a — AI coding agent scope override (defaults to detected agents)
• --force / -f — overwrite locally customized or untracked files
• --dry-run / -n — preview changes without applying them

A --file path that lives inside a skill directory is rejected with a hint to use --skill <name> instead — skills refresh as whole units so upstream-removed files get pruned. Without --file/--skill the whole workspace is refreshed. AGENTS.md and changelog-marker files are excluded from both modes, under --force too; --file UPDATES.md is a hard error; merge is the only command that refreshes the template half above the marker.