Watch Log
DevOps & Securitywatch-logWatch Log is an Agent Skill for devops & security published in the Nexus-Mods/Vortex repository on GitHub: a SKILL.md instruction file an AI agent can load to do this task.
Watch or investigate a Vortex log file (rotation- and session-aware). A router over six modes loaded on demand — live tail, session/crash/error investigation, persistence (duckdb/level_pivot) integrity, log-line-to-code correlation, single download/install/collection/deploy trace, and a collection-install audit (also serves as the LAZ-483 regression check). Defaults to the dev log; can target prod or a specific file.
How to use this skill
Bring this guide into your coding agent with a prompt tailored to the tool you use.
- Open your project in Codex.
- Copy and paste the prompt below.
- Review files and risks before approving any action.
Inspect the Agent Skill at https://github.com/Nexus-Mods/Vortex/blob/HEAD/.claude/skills/watch-log/SKILL.md and all supporting files. Report provenance, permissions, scripts, dependencies, and security risks. Propose an exact installation into .agents/skills/watch-log, but wait for my approval before writing files or running scripts.
Copying this prompt does not install or run the skill. Review third-party files before use.
/watch-log (router)
Watch or investigate a Vortex log file. The log is rotation-aware and session-aware:
it rolls at ~11 MB into vortex1.log, vortex2.log, … so one run can span several
files and one file can hold several runs. This skill is a thin router: it picks
the mode(s) and loads only the files needed, keeping context small.
How to run
- Always read
reference.md(the core) first — the universal log facts, the dev/prod/rotation log-set resolver, and an index of the on-demandshared/chunks (sessions, lifecycle, persistence, multi-file, edge-cases) that modes load as needed. - Pick the mode(s) from
$ARGUMENTSusing the table below. More than one mode may be requested in a single invocation (e.g. "investigate + persistence", or "trace and correlate "). - For each selected mode, read its file under
modes/plus theshared/chunks named in that mode's Prereq line, and follow it. Readreference.mdand each chunk at most once, even when running several modes. - Running several modes: if they're independent (the common case), you may run
them concurrently — e.g. dispatch each mode to its own subagent (pass it
reference.md+ the mode file + the resolved log target), then combine the results into one report with a section per mode. If a mode depends on another's output (rare), run them in order. Resolve the log set once (perreference.md) and share the target across all selected modes.
Mode picker
| Mode | Trigger ($ARGUMENTS) | File |
|---|---|---|
| Live | default, or watch / live / follow / tail / monitor | modes/live.md (§A) |
| Investigate | investigate / analyze / report / crashes / errors / warnings / session / "what happened", or a date/session ref | modes/investigate.md (§B) |
| Persistence | persist / persistence / duckdb / level_pivot / slow write / did it save | modes/persistence.md (§C) |
| Correlate | a pasted/quoted specific log line, or correlate / why did this happen | modes/correlate.md (§D) |
| Trace | trace / track / follow this install / download / collection / deployment, or a mod id / archive name / nxm url / downloadId / collection name | modes/trace.md (§E) |
| Collection install audit | collection install audit / member stuck / requeue loop / did the collection finish / install completion / settled / interrupted install / resume / data loss on restart / 483 | modes/collection-install.md (§F) |
Trace vs Collection install audit: §E follows one entity and reports where it stalled; §F audits a whole collection install against the install-completion invariants (every member terminal, no requeue loop, phases advance, error paths settle) and names which invariant broke. Use §F to audit a whole install's health (this doubles as the LAZ-483 regression check), §E to chase one thread.
If no mode is implied, default to Live. If a request clearly spans several (e.g. "give me the full picture of this session and its persistence"), select and run all that apply.