Choco#

Chocolatey operations integration skill. Pre- and post-processing for choco upgrade, nssm service compatibility management, and metadata update failure recovery.

Core Problems#

AreaProblemResolution TopicPackage pathAfter choco upgrade, the nssm Application path becomes stale due to version-specific foldersupdate-path.mdService compatibilityAfter major upgrade (e.g., syncthing v1→v2), NSSM fails with service-specific errorshawl-migration.mdMetadataRuntime install succeeds + chocolatey .nuspec is stale (UniGetUI shows repeated upgrades)metadata-fix.mdDiagnosisIdentify which service has issues / which package is stalediagnose.mdBulk post-processingAutomatically check affected services after choco upgradepost-upgrade.md

Path Strategy (HARD STOP — required decision before nssm set Application)#

StrategyExample PathProsConsStable shim path (recommended)%ChocolateyInstall%\bin\syncthing.exePath remains unchanged after choco upgradeWithout --shimgen-waitforexit, nssm may misinterpret shim exit as a crashVersion-specific actual path%ChocolateyInstall%\lib\syncthing\tools\...-v2.1.0\syncthing.exeNo shim issuesPath breaks on every upgrade — this is why this skill exists

Default choice: stable shim path. Use version-specific path + post-upgrade hook combination only for services where shim issues occur. When NSSM compatibility itself breaks (like syncthing v2), apply shawl-migration.

Using environment variable paths in nssm#

nssm supports REG_EXPAND_SZ but nssm set defaults to REG_SZ. Set registry directly via PowerShell:

powershell

$regPath = "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<service>\Parameters"
Set-ItemProperty -Path $regPath -Name "Application" -Value '%ChocolateyInstall%\bin\<exe>' -Type ExpandString

Or use an expanded literal path:

bash

gsudo nssm set <service> Application "C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\<exe>"

Topics#

TopicFileDescriptiondiagnosediagnose.mdnssm service diagnosis proceduremetadata-fixmetadata-fix.mdRecovery for UniGetUI/choco metadata (.nuspec) update failurespost-upgradepost-upgrade.mdPost-processing after choco upgradeshawl-migrationshawl-migration.mdNSSM → shawl migration (major upgrades like syncthing v2)update-pathupdate-path.mdnssm path refresh

Scripts#

ModeCommandDescriptiondiagnosenode <skill-dir>/scripts/nssm-manager.js diagnoseCheck all nssm servicesupdate-pathnode <skill-dir>/scripts/nssm-manager.js update-path <service>Output path refresh command for a specific servicepost-upgradenode <skill-dir>/scripts/nssm-manager.js post-upgradeFull post-processing check

<skill-dir> = ~/.claude/skills/choco

Note: node may not be on PATH in bash. In an fnm environment, use the full path:

bash

"$APPDATA/fnm/node-versions/v20.20.0/installation/node.exe" <skill-dir>/scripts/nssm-manager.js <mode>

Administrator Privileges#

nssm set/stop/start and choco upgrade commands require administrator privileges. Per the Windows rule, using gsudo is the default:

bash

gsudo choco upgrade <pkg> -y
gsudo nssm set <service> Application "<path>"

Or invoke via the PowerShell tool:

powershell

gsudo powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "<script.ps1>"

Topic Dependencies#

text

choco (main workflow)
  ├─→ diagnose (step 1 diagnosis)
  ├─→ metadata-fix (recover stale choco/UniGetUI metadata)
  ├─→ post-upgrade (bulk check after choco upgrade)
  ├─→ update-path (nssm path refresh)
  └─→ shawl-migration (NSSM → shawl migration)
        └─→ shawl binary (~/.local/bin/shawl.exe, downloaded from GitHub releases)

• Simple path refresh → update-path
• Major upgrade requiring nssm deprecation → shawl-migration
• Runtime OK + only chocolatey metadata stale → metadata-fix
• Multiple services in bulk → diagnose + post-upgrade

Self-heal#

This skill is subject to self-improvement after execution. If malfunction is detected, improve it via /skill-kit upgrade choco.

Checklist:

1. Are the trigger keywords in description sufficient?
2. Was the topic selection accurate? (e.g., misrouting metadata stale to update-path)
3. Was the procedure complete? (Was no manual correction needed?)
4. Were there no omissions in the deliverables?

References#

• Previous skill: choco-nssm (absorbed into this skill, moved to ~/.claude/.bak/)
• Chocolatey docs
• UniGetUI repo
• shawl repo