Glossary Management

Self-Evolving Skill: This skill improves through use. If instructions are wrong, parameters drifted, or a workaround was needed — fix this file immediately, don't defer. Only update for real, reproducible issues.

Overview

Manage the global terminology glossary (~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md) and its Vale integration. The glossary is the Single Source of Truth (SSoT) for terminology across all projects.

When to Use This Skill

Use when:

• Manually syncing glossary to Vale vocabulary files
• Validating glossary format and structure
• Checking for duplicate or conflicting terms across projects
• Adding new terms programmatically
• Troubleshooting Vale terminology warnings

Quick Commands

# Manual sync to Vale
bun ~/.claude/tools/bin/glossary-sync.ts

# Check for duplicates/conflicts across projects (invokes terminology-sync hook)
bun ~/eon/cc-skills/plugins/itp-hooks/hooks/posttooluse-terminology-sync.ts <<< '{"tool_name":"Edit","tool_input":{"file_path":"/tmp/test-CLAUDE.md"}}'

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    GLOSSARY.md (SSoT)                           │
│                ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md                       │
└─────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┘
                          │
          ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
          │               │               │
          ▼               ▼               ▼
┌─────────────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌────────────────────┐
│ accept.txt      │ │ Term.yml  │ │ Project CLAUDE.md  │
│ (Vale vocab)    │ │ (subs)    │ │ (bidirectional)    │
└─────────────────┘ └───────────┘ └────────────────────┘

SCAN_PATHS Configuration

The terminology sync hook uses SCAN_PATHS to discover project CLAUDE.md files. This is configured via an HTML comment in GLOSSARY.md:

<!-- SCAN_PATHS:
- ~/eon/*/CLAUDE.md
- ~/eon/*/*/CLAUDE.md
- ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md
-->

Format rules:

• Must be an HTML comment starting with <!-- SCAN_PATHS:
• Each path on its own line with - prefix
• Supports glob patterns (*, **)
• Paths are relative to home directory (~)

Default paths (if not specified):

• ~/eon/*/CLAUDE.md - Top-level project CLAUDE.md files
• ~/eon///CLAUDE.md - Package-level CLAUDE.md files

Table Schema (5 Columns)

Every term in GLOSSARY.md follows this 5-column format:

Example row:

| **Time-Weighted Sharpe** | TWSR | Sharpe ratio for variable-duration bars using time weights | annualized ratio | alpha-forge |

Automatic Sync (Hooks)

Two PostToolUse hooks handle automatic sync:

Manual Operations

Sync Glossary to Vale

When automatic sync fails or you need to force a refresh:

bun ~/.claude/tools/bin/glossary-sync.ts

Output:

=== Glossary Bidirectional Sync ===
  Source: /Users/you/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md
  Found 25 acronyms, 24 substitutions
  Updated: .vale/styles/config/vocabularies/TradingFitness/accept.txt
  Total terms: 27
  Updated: .vale/styles/TradingFitness/Terminology.yml
  Substitution rules: 24
  Updated timestamp: 2026-01-22T00:00:00Z
=== Sync Complete ===

Validate Glossary Format

Check that GLOSSARY.md follows the correct table format:

# Check required columns
grep -E '^\| \*\*[^|]+\*\* \|' ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md | head -5

# Verify table structure (should have | Term | Acronym | Definition | Unit/Range | Projects |)
head -25 ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md

Expected format:

| Term                     | Acronym | Definition                  | Unit/Range | Projects    |
| ------------------------ | ------- | --------------------------- | ---------- | ----------- |
| **Time-Weighted Sharpe** | TWSR    | Sharpe ratio for range bars | ratio      | alpha-forge |

Check for Duplicates

Scan all project CLAUDE.md files for terminology conflicts:

# Full duplicate check (scans ~/eon/*/CLAUDE.md)
bun ~/eon/cc-skills/plugins/itp-hooks/hooks/posttooluse-terminology-sync.ts <<< '{"tool_name":"Edit","tool_input":{"file_path":"/tmp/test-CLAUDE.md"}}'

Conflict types detected:

• Definition conflict: Same term, different definitions
• Acronym conflict: Same term, different acronyms
• Acronym collision: Same acronym used for different terms

Add New Term

To add a new term to the glossary:

1. Edit GLOSSARY.md directly:

``markdown | New Term | NT | Definition of the new term | - | project-name | ``

1. Sync will auto-trigger via posttooluse-glossary-sync hook

1. Verify Vale recognizes it:

``bash echo "The NT is important" | vale --config=~/.claude/.vale.ini ``

Vale Integration

Files Generated

Running Vale

# Check a single file (run from file's directory for glob patterns to match)
cd ~/eon/trading-fitness && vale --config=~/.claude/.vale.ini CLAUDE.md

# Check all CLAUDE.md files
find ~/eon -name "CLAUDE.md" -exec sh -c 'cd "$(dirname "$1")" && vale --config=~/.claude/.vale.ini "$(basename "$1")"' _ {} \;

Important: Vale glob patterns in .vale.ini (like [CLAUDE.md]) are relative to cwd. Always run Vale from the file's directory or use absolute paths with matching glob patterns.

Troubleshooting

Terms Not Being Recognized

1. Check sync timestamp:

``bash grep "Last Sync" ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md ``

1. Force manual sync:

``bash bun ~/.claude/tools/bin/glossary-sync.ts ``

1. Verify Vale config path:

``bash cat ~/.claude/.vale.ini | grep StylesPath ``

Hook Not Triggering

1. Check hook is registered:

``bash grep "glossary-sync" ~/.claude/settings.json ``

1. Verify hook file exists:

``bash ls -la ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/cc-skills/plugins/itp-hooks/hooks/posttooluse-glossary-sync.ts ``

Vale Output Shows "0 files" But File Exists

This happens when Vale's glob patterns don't match the file path. The posttooluse-vale-claude-md.ts hook handles this by:

1. Walking up from the file's directory to find .vale.ini
2. Changing to the file's directory before running Vale
3. Stripping ANSI escape codes for reliable output parsing

If running Vale manually, ensure you're in the file's directory:

# Wrong - may show "0 files"
vale --config=/path/to/.vale.ini /absolute/path/to/CLAUDE.md

# Correct - cd first
cd /absolute/path/to && vale --config=/path/to/.vale.ini CLAUDE.md

Duplicate Vocabulary Directories

If you see Vale inconsistencies:

# Check for duplicate vocab dirs (should only have config/vocabularies/)
ls -la ~/.claude/.vale/styles/

# Remove any stale Vocab/ directory
rm -rf ~/.claude/.vale/styles/Vocab/

References

• Vale Documentation
• GLOSSARY.md: ~/.claude/docs/GLOSSARY.md (local file)
• [itp-hooks CLAUDE.md](/plugins/itp-hooks/CLAUDE.md)

Post-Execution Reflection

After this skill completes, check before closing:

1. Did the command succeed? — If not, fix the instruction or error table that caused the failure.
2. Did parameters or output change? — If the underlying tool's interface drifted, update Usage examples and Parameters table to match.
3. Was a workaround needed? — If you had to improvise (different flags, extra steps), update this SKILL.md so the next invocation doesn't need the same workaround.

Only update if the issue is real and reproducible — not speculative.