fix: read skill files as UTF-8 - #26

Best possible solution:

Merge the narrow UTF-8 read fix after ordinary maintainer review, keeping the validator behavior unchanged except for explicit file encoding.

Do we have a high-confidence way to reproduce the issue?

Yes for source-level reproduction: current main reads skill files with Ruby's default external encoding, and the PR body shows the C-locale validator path succeeding after the fix. I did not execute the validator because this review is read-only and must not create checkout artifacts.

Is this the best way to solve the issue?

Yes. Passing encoding: "UTF-8" at the single file-read boundary is the narrowest maintainable fix for UTF-8 SKILL.md parsing under non-UTF-8 locale settings.

AGENTS.md: not found in the target repository.

Codex review notes: model internal, reasoning high; reviewed against 2fe30c0dbef7.

Label changes:

• add rating: 🦞 diamond lobster: Overall readiness is 🦞 diamond lobster; proof is 🦞 diamond lobster and patch quality is 🦞 diamond lobster.
• remove rating: 🐚 platinum hermit: Current PR rating is rating: 🦞 diamond lobster, so this older rating label is no longer current.

Label justifications:

• P3: This is a low-risk validation-tool robustness fix with a one-line change and limited maintainer urgency.
• rating: 🦞 diamond lobster: Overall readiness is 🦞 diamond lobster; proof is 🦞 diamond lobster and patch quality is 🦞 diamond lobster.
• status: 👀 ready for maintainer look: ClawSweeper has no concrete contributor-facing blocker left for this PR. Sufficient (terminal): The PR body includes after-fix terminal output from the C-locale validator command that directly demonstrates the changed behavior; contributors should still redact private details when posting future logs.
• proof: sufficient: Contributor real behavior proof is sufficient. The PR body includes after-fix terminal output from the C-locale validator command that directly demonstrates the changed behavior; contributors should still redact private details when posting future logs.

What I checked:

• AGENTS.md policy check: No target repository AGENTS.md was present in the checked-out repository, so no repository-specific review policy changed the assessment.
• Current main behavior: Current main still uses File.read(path) in scripts/validate-skills, so Ruby can use the process default external encoding rather than forcing UTF-8 for skill files. (scripts/validate-skills:40, 2fe30c0dbef7)
• PR diff: The proposed patch changes only the skill-file read call to File.read(path, encoding: "UTF-8"), leaving the validator's parsing and checks unchanged. (scripts/validate-skills:40, e4f62cfcbcfd)
• Real behavior proof: The PR body includes after-fix terminal output for env LC_ALL=C LANG=C scripts/validate-skills showing Validated 49 skill(s)., which directly exercises the reported C-locale path. (e4f62cfcbcfd)
• Feature history: The validator was introduced in commit 0b44e2f7ab49aa8420793a403da6792e6927d83e, which added scripts/validate-skills with locale-dependent File.read(path). (scripts/validate-skills:40, 0b44e2f7ab49)
• Recent maintenance: Commit 2fe30c0 most recently touched this repository area by adding structured PR review guidance to codex.md, while leaving the skill validator behavior unchanged. (codex.md, 2fe30c0dbef7)

Likely related people:

• steipete: Commit history shows Peter Steinberger introduced scripts/validate-skills and also authored the current main tip touching repository automation guidance. (role: introduced behavior and recent area contributor; confidence: high; commits: 0b44e2f7ab49, 2fe30c0dbef7; files: scripts/validate-skills, codex.md)

• 🦀 challenger crab: rare, exceptional readiness with strong proof, clean implementation, and convincing validation.
• 🦞 diamond lobster: very strong readiness with only minor maintainer review expected.
• 🐚 platinum hermit: good normal PR, likely mergeable with ordinary maintainer review.
• 🦐 gold shrimp: useful signal, but proof or patch confidence is still limited.
• 🦪 silver shellfish: thin signal; proof, validation, or implementation needs work.
• 🧂 unranked krab: not merge-ready because proof is missing/unusable or there are serious correctness or safety concerns.
• 🌊 off-meta tidepool: rating does not apply to this item.

Shiny media proof means a screenshot, video, or linked artifact directly shows the changed behavior. Runtime, network, CSP, and security claims still need visible diagnostics.

• ClawSweeper keeps one durable marker-backed review comment per issue or PR.
• Re-runs edit this comment so the latest verdict, findings, and automation markers stay together instead of adding duplicate bot comments.
• A fresh review can be triggered by eligible @clawsweeper re-review comments, exact-item GitHub events, scheduled/background review runs, or manual workflow dispatch.
• PR/issue authors and users with repository write access can comment @clawsweeper re-review or @clawsweeper re-run on an open PR or issue to request a fresh review only.
• Maintainers can also comment @clawsweeper review to request a fresh review only.
• Fresh-review commands do not start repair, autofix, rebase, CI repair, or automerge.
• Maintainer-only repair and merge flows require explicit commands such as @clawsweeper autofix, @clawsweeper automerge, @clawsweeper fix ci, or @clawsweeper address review.
• Maintainers can comment @clawsweeper explain to ask for more context, or @clawsweeper stop to stop active automation.