v2.7.0 — The Namespace Rename Release

The meow: namespace is renamed to mk:. Folders move from .claude/skills/meow:<x>/ to .claude/skills/<x>/. Skill identity moves from meow:<x> to mk:<x>. Slash commands move from /meow:<x> to /mk:<x>. The meow: form keeps working during a one-release deprecation window via a stderr-warning alias resolver — hard-cuts in v2.8.0.

The motivation is cross-platform safety: the colon in meow:<x> is reserved on Windows NTFS (alternate data stream marker), making the skills folder un-checkoutable on Windows + WSL host filesystems. Bare-name folders work everywhere.

Highlights

• 77 skill folders renamed. .claude/skills/meow:<x>/ → .claude/skills/<x>/ for all 77 skills, preserving git history (rename detection, R100). Cross-platform safe; Windows/WSL users no longer hit the reserved-character checkout error.
• Skill identity is now frontmatter-driven, not folder-name-driven. The loader (skills-discovery.ts) reads name: from SKILL.md frontmatter to derive the canonical id. Folder name is reduced to a path token. New helper skill-id-utils.ts validates ids, normalizes legacy prefixes, and emits a one-time stderr deprecation warning per meow:<x> reference encountered.
• Slash commands moved. .claude/commands/meow/*.md → .claude/commands/mk/*.md. Type /mk:cook instead of /meow:cook. The 21 existing slash commands all work; the 56 phantom skill-only aliases were deliberately not generated.
• CI gate added. .github/workflows/ci.yml rejects any new ^name: meow: SKILL.md frontmatter and any /meow: slash reference in .claude/commands/, .claude/rules/, CLAUDE.md. Schema regex widened to ^(mk|meow):[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$ for the deprecation window — narrows back to ^mk: in v2.8.0.
• One million+ legacy reference points cleaned. ~1,690 lines in .claude/, ~2,600 in website//docs/, two manifest files, agent files, rule files, hook scripts, schema, tests — all swept in lockstep with the folder rename. CI cross-ref script (check-skill-cross-refs.sh) and frontmatter validator (validate-skill-frontmatter.py) rewritten to scan bare-name folders and now fail-closed on zero matches (no more phantom-pass).

Breaking Changes

Surface	Before	After
Skill folder	.claude/skills/meow:cook/	.claude/skills/cook/
SKILL.md name:	name: meow:cook	name: mk:cook
Slash command path	.claude/commands/meow/cook.md	.claude/commands/mk/cook.md
User invocation	/meow:cook	/mk:cook
In-prompt skill ref	meow:scout	mk:scout
Schema regex	^meow:[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$	^(mk|meow):[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$ (v2.7.x); ^mk:[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$ (v2.8.0+)

Backward-compat (v2.7.x only — removed in v2.8.0):

• meow:<x> text references in agent prompts → resolveLegacy() returns mk:<x> and emits one-time stderr warning per id.
• SKILL.md frontmatter accepts both meow: and mk: (CI lint rejects new meow: additions).
• /meow:<x> slash commands NO LONGER WORK in v2.7.0 — slash command folder was renamed, not aliased. Retype as /mk:<x>.

What the rename touches

New Files

File	Purpose
packages/mewkit/src/migrate/discovery/skill-id-utils.ts	Single helper for skill-id parsing, validation, legacy-alias resolution. Exports parseSkillId, resolveLegacy, _resetWarnState, regex constants. Path-traversal guard: rejects basenames not matching ^[a-z][a-z0-9-]{0,62}$.
packages/mewkit/src/migrate/__tests__/skill-id-utils.test.ts	13 unit tests covering valid prefixes, fallback synthesis, malformed frontmatter, path traversal, dedup behavior, JSON-stdout cleanliness.
website/guide/whats-new/v2.7.0.md	This page.

Loader changes

• SkillInfo.id is now a required field, derived from frontmatter name: field, normalized through resolveLegacy. Previously the canonical key was the sanitized folder name (sanitizeSkillName(":") → "-"); that produced meow-cook as the working id. Post-rename the working id is mk:cook.
• setup.ts:54 collectSkillDeclaredDeps() filter changed from d.name.startsWith("meow:") (name-based) to existsSync(skillDir/SKILL.md) (content-based). Any folder containing a SKILL.md is a skill, regardless of prefix.
• discoverSkills() itself was already content-based (no prefix filter); only the setup-wizard helper needed the change.

CI improvements

Check	What it does
Reject residual meow: namespace	New step in .github/workflows/ci.yml. Greps .claude/skills/*/SKILL.md for ^name: meow: and .claude/commands/, .claude/rules/, CLAUDE.md for /meow:[a-z]. Fails the build if either is non-empty.
Validate skill frontmatter	validate-skill-frontmatter.py glob fixed from meow:*/SKILL.md to */SKILL.md. Adds zero-match guard: returns exit 2 if scan finds zero SKILL.md files (prevents phantom-pass when the glob silently matches nothing).
Validate skill cross-refs	check-skill-cross-refs.sh rewritten — inventory built from bare-name folders, scans for mk:[a-z][a-z0-9-]* references, fails on empty inventory.

Migration Notes

For users with an existing MeowKit install:

npx mewkit upgrade

The upgrade pipeline detects .claude/skills/meow:*/ folders, prompts for confirmation, then renames them and rewrites SKILL.md frontmatter to mk:. The migrator:

• Aborts on a dirty git tree (asks the user to commit/stash first).
• Validates each folder basename against ^[a-z][a-z0-9-]{0,62}$ — refuses path-traversal names.
• Reconciles ~/.mewkit/portable-registry.json keys (strips meow- prefix from item field).
• Logs a summary of renamed folders, rewritten frontmatter, and updated registry entries.

If you have custom scripts or aliases that invoke /meow:cook, retype them as /mk:cook. The slash-command folder was renamed (not aliased) in v2.7.0; in-prompt text references like meow:scout continue to work via the resolver during the v2.7.x deprecation window.

Files changed

Surface	Files	Notes
Skill folders	77	git mv rename preserves history (R100 in git log)
SKILL.md frontmatter	77	name: field rewritten to mk:<x>
Skill bodies (cross-refs)	many	All meow:<x> mentions inside .claude/skills/*/ rewritten to mk:<x>
Agent files	14	/meow: invocations and .claude/skills/meow:*/scripts/... paths updated
Rule files	18	All cross-references to skills updated
Hooks	6	gate-enforcement.sh, privacy-block.sh, post-session.sh, project-context-loader.sh, pre-completion-check.sh, memory-topic-file-migrator.cjs
Schema	1	Regex widened to accept both prefixes during transition
CI workflows	1	New lint step + fixed validator glob + rewritten cross-ref script
Slash commands	21	Folder commands/meow/ → commands/mk/
VitePress site	~130	Sidebar labels + reference pages + guide pages
docs/	~11	Architecture, rules, project-context all updated
Memory	6	consumer: keys in JSON; preamble lines in .md
Manifests	2	.meowkit.manifest.json and release-manifest.json regenerated
Tests	1	New skill-id-utils.test.ts (13 cases); existing tests preserve meow: literals to verify alias path

Compatibility timeline

Version	Status
v2.7.0 (this release)	mk: canonical. meow: text refs accepted via resolveLegacy() with stderr warning. SKILL.md schema accepts both. CI lint rejects new meow: additions.