Taxonomy Manager Skill

Instructions

This skill audits and maintains blog taxonomy on Hugo-based sites using the Scan-Analyze-Report-Act workflow. Apply this skill when users ask to audit tags, fix inconsistencies, or consolidate taxonomy terms.

Phase 1: SCAN - Collect Taxonomy Data

Goal: Build a complete index of all taxonomy terms and their usage.

Step 1: Identify all content files

Locate every Markdown file in the Hugo content directory (because Hugo requires explicit file discovery to avoid missing nested structures).

find /path/to/content -name "*.md" -type f | sort

Step 2: Extract front matter from each post

For each file, parse the YAML front matter and extract:

• title (for reference in reports)
• categories (list)
• tags (list)

Step 3: Build taxonomy index

Construct an in-memory mapping of every taxonomy term to its list of posts (because this index is the foundation for all downstream analysis):

CATEGORIES:
  technical-notes: [post1.md, post2.md, post3.md]
  tutorials: [post4.md, post5.md]

TAGS:
  hugo: [post1.md, post2.md, post4.md]
  debugging: [post1.md, post3.md]

Step 4: Check Hugo taxonomy configuration

Read hugo.toml (or config.toml) for any custom taxonomy definitions or overrides (because Hugo may define non-standard taxonomies beyond categories/tags).

Gate: Taxonomy index is complete with all terms mapped to their posts. Proceed only when gate passes.

Phase 2: ANALYZE - Detect Issues

Goal: Identify all taxonomy health problems from the index.

Step 1: Calculate usage statistics

For each taxonomy term compute: post count, percentage of total, and staleness (months since last use).

Step 2: Detect issues

Run these checks against the index:

Step 3: Assess health metrics

Gate: All issues catalogued with severity. Health metrics computed. Proceed only when gate passes.

Phase 3: REPORT - Generate Audit Output

Goal: Present findings in a structured, actionable report.

Generate the visual audit report following the format in references/audit-report-format.md. The report must include:

1. Category usage with bar charts
2. Tag usage with bar charts
3. Health metrics dashboard
4. Issues found (orphans, duplicates, similar terms, empty categories)
5. Prioritized recommendations ordered by impact (High > Medium > Low)

Present the report to the user. If no issues are found, state the taxonomy is healthy.

Gate: Report presented. User has reviewed findings. Proceed to Phase 4 only if user requests changes.

Phase 4: ACT - Apply Changes

Goal: Execute approved taxonomy modifications safely and verify correctness.

Step 1: Preview every change

Before any file modification, show the change in diff format (because previewing prevents accidental mass edits that break navigation):

File: content/posts/example.md
  Current tags: ["Hugo", "debugging", "templates"]
  New tags:     ["hugo", "debugging", "templates"]
  Change: Standardize "Hugo" -> "hugo"

Step 2: Get confirmation

Wait for explicit user approval before proceeding (because taxonomy modifications affect site navigation and SEO).

Step 3: Apply operations

Execute the approved operation (merge, rename, add, or remove). See references/consolidation-rules.md for operation semantics. Apply operations individually, not in batches, to isolate errors:

• Merge: Replace source tag(s) with target in all posts; skip if post already has target
• Rename: Replace old name with new in all posts
• Add: Add tag to matching posts (skip if already present)
• Remove: Remove term from front matter or config (only if unused)

Step 4: Verify build

After each operation, run Hugo to confirm the site still builds (because taxonomy modifications can break Hugo's site generation):

hugo --quiet

If build fails, immediately roll back:

git checkout content/

Step 5: Show diff

git diff content/

Gate: All changes applied, build verified, diff reviewed. Operation complete.

Taxonomy Formatting Standards

Apply these constraints throughout all phases because Hugo is case-sensitive and requires consistent formatting:

• Case Normalization: Standardize all terms to lowercase-with-hyphens (not PascalCase, UPPERCASE, or spaces). Hugo treats Hugo, hugo, and HUGO as three separate tags, each with its own page.
• Non-Destructive Operations: Never delete or rename taxonomy terms without explicit user confirmation (because accidental deletions create orphan link targets in content).
• Complete Output: Show full taxonomy audit with visual charts, never summarize (because partial audits miss subtle issues like orphan tags or synonyms).
• Similarity Detection: Flag potentially duplicate tags including case variations, plurals, and synonyms (because similar tags fragment navigation and SEO value).
• Orphan Detection: Identify tags used only once or categories with no posts (because orphans accumulate into taxonomy debt).
• Confirmation Required: Require explicit confirmation before modifying any content files (because bulk edits without review create unintended side effects).

Examples

Example 1: Routine Taxonomy Audit

User says: "Audit my blog tags" Actions:

1. Scan all content files and build taxonomy index (SCAN)
2. Detect case variations, orphan tags, empty categories (ANALYZE)
3. Generate visual report with health metrics and recommendations (REPORT)
4. User reviews report; no changes requested Result: Clean audit report, user informed of taxonomy health

Example 2: Tag Consolidation

User says: "I have Hugo, hugo, and HUGO as separate tags, fix it" Actions:

1. Scan content to find all posts using each variant (SCAN)
2. Confirm these are case variations of the same term (ANALYZE)
3. Report: 3 variants found across N posts, recommend standardizing to hugo (REPORT)
4. Preview per-file changes, get confirmation, apply, verify build (ACT) Result: All posts use hugo, single tag page shows all related content

Example 3: Post-Publication Cleanup

User says: "I just published 10 new posts, clean up the taxonomy" Actions:

1. Scan all content including new posts (SCAN)
2. Detect new orphan tags, inconsistencies introduced by recent posts (ANALYZE)
3. Report new issues separately from pre-existing ones (REPORT)
4. Apply approved merges and renames, verify build after each batch (ACT) Result: New posts integrated into existing taxonomy structure

Error Handling

Error: "No Content Files Found"

Cause: Content directory missing, empty, or wrong path Solution:

1. Verify the content directory path exists
2. Check for nested content structures (e.g., content/posts/ vs content/)
3. Confirm files use .md extension

Error: "Invalid Front Matter in {file}"

Cause: Malformed YAML in a content file Solution:

1. Check for missing closing --- delimiter
2. Look for tabs (YAML requires spaces)
3. Check for unquoted special characters (colons, brackets)
4. Skip the file with a warning and continue processing remaining files

Error: "Hugo Build Failed After Changes"

Cause: Taxonomy modifications broke the site build Solution:

1. Roll back immediately: git checkout content/
2. Read the Hugo error output to identify the specific failure
3. Re-apply changes one file at a time to isolate the problem
4. Fix the problematic file before retrying the batch

Error: "Tag Not Found: {tag}"

Cause: User requested merge/rename of a tag that does not exist in any post Solution:

1. List all existing tags that are similar (fuzzy match)
2. Suggest closest match: Did you mean "{similar_tag}"?
3. If no close match exists, report that the tag is absent and list available tags

References

Reference Files

• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/taxonomy-guidelines.md: Naming conventions, category/tag best practices, maintenance cadence
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/consolidation-rules.md: When and how to merge, rename, add, or remove terms with priority matrix
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/examples.md: Good vs bad taxonomy examples, before/after comparisons, audit output samples
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/audit-report-format.md: Visual report template and bar chart generation rules