A skill declares whether it needs a page, outside its version

Context

A consumer of skills, such as the backend chat of nr_mcp_agent, has to decide whether a conversation with a skill needs a page: whether it asks for one, keeps the one it started on, or ignores the page the editor happens to show. The skill record carries nothing that says so. The chat derives it from the process marker of ADR-214 item 6 — a process works on a page, every other skill may — and from a per-installation suffix in its own extension settings. A skill that works on a page without being a process, or a process that works on no page, cannot say so.

Item 1 of ADR-214 puts into the version digest every frontmatter field that "composition, the catalogue or the tool allow-list reads", and the approval snapshot of item 2 holds exactly those fields. A field that a consumer's catalogue reads would therefore join the digest by that rule. Doing so would give every stored skill a new version: every enabled synced skill would be disabled on its next sync, and every approval on an installed site would stop matching.

Decision

A frontmatter key page declares whether the skill works on one page. Its values are required (the skill works on one page and needs it), optional (it may work on a page) and none (it does not work on a page). The value is read case-insensitively after trimming. An absent key, a non-string value and any other string are "not declared".

Not declared keeps today's behaviour, and that default belongs to the consumer. The documented meaning of an undeclared skill is: a process skill behaves as required, every other skill as optional. nr_llm itself reads the field nowhere. It exposes the declaration as it is, so a consumer can still tell "declared required" from "a process that declares nothing" — nr_mcp_agent needs exactly that distinction for its quick tasks (its ADR-025).

The field is not part of the version. It is user-interface metadata: it decides whether a page is asked for, not what the model reads as instruction, which tools a run gets or whether a version may instruct. It therefore stays out of SkillVersionDigest (format version 1 is unchanged), out of the approval snapshot (SkillApprovalRepository) and out of the version-digest upgrade wizard. A sync that brings only a changed page updates the stored value and leaves the skill enabled and its approvals matching. This is a deliberate exception to the "every field the catalogue reads" rule of item 1: that rule protects the trust decision, and this field takes part in none.

Storage. A column tx_nrllm_skill.page (varchar(16), default '') holds the declared value; '' is "not declared". The sync writes it from the frontmatter on every create and update, as it writes the process marker. FormEngine shows it as a select (not declared / required / optional / none), read-only for the synced source types and editable for a backend-authored skill (item 3), as the process marker is. The field is not exclude: it grants nothing, so a group that may edit a backend skill may set it. Existing rows get '' and therefore keep today's behaviour; the next sync fills the column from the frontmatter. No upgrade wizard is needed.

Exposure. Skill::getPageNeed() (@api) returns the declared value as the new @api enum SkillPageNeed, or null when the skill declares none; Skill::getPage() returns the stored string. The skill record is what nr_mcp_agent reads today — through the configuration's and the Task's skill relations — so the getter is the catalogue it consumes. ProcessSkillCatalogue and its AJAX route are not extended: no consumer reads a page need from them.

What is not done

• No page in the version digest, in an approval snapshot or in the approval form's diff.

• No default resolution in nr_llm: no getter returns an "effective" value derived from the process marker.

• No validation error for an unknown value: it is "not declared", so a typo keeps today's behaviour instead of failing the sync.

Consequences

✓ A skill author states the page need once, in the skill, for every consumer and every installation.

✓ Existing approvals and enabled skills are untouched by the new field, on upgrade and when an author later adds page to a skill.

✕ One new column: run the database analyzer after upgrading.

✕ An edit of page on a synced row through a DataHandler write is not caught by the integrity check, unlike an edit of a version field. The next sync overwrites it; it decides nothing a trust check protects.

✕ A frontmatter key the consumer reads is outside the version, so an approver does not see a change of it in the approval form.

Revisit when

A consumer starts to derive a trust or tool decision from page, or a second user-interface field of this kind is proposed — then the two belong to a named group of unversioned metadata rather than to single columns.