diff --git a/plugins/install-tend/skills/install-tend/SKILL.md b/plugins/install-tend/skills/install-tend/SKILL.md
index f4d3ae77..a325f4f4 100644
--- a/plugins/install-tend/skills/install-tend/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugins/install-tend/skills/install-tend/SKILL.md
@@ -1,15 +1,16 @@
 ---
 name: install-tend
-description: Sets up tend — an autonomous junior maintainer for a GitHub repo, powered by Claude or OpenAI Codex — that reviews PRs, triages issues, and fixes CI. Creates config, generates workflows, configures secrets and branch protection via API, creates the bot account, and provisions the harness auth token (Claude OAuth or OpenAI API key). Use when setting up tend on a new repo or when asked to install/configure tend.
+description: Sets up tend — an autonomous junior maintainer for a GitHub repo, powered by Claude or OpenAI Codex — that reviews PRs, triages issues, and fixes CI. Creates config, generates workflows, configures secrets and branch protection via API, creates the bot account, and provisions the harness auth token (Claude OAuth or OpenAI API key). Use when installing tend, when clearing a failing `tend check`, and when changing an installed repo's tend config, generated workflows, secrets, environments, branch protection, or bot access.
 ---
 
 # Install Tend
 
-Set up tend on the current repo. If the user hasn't supplied a bot name,
-get one via `AskUserQuestion` before step 1 using the candidate-generation
-pattern from step 6 (`<repo>-bot`, `<repo>-tend`, `tend-<repo>`, parallel
-availability check, present available ones). The user can pick "Other"
-to supply a custom name.
+Set up tend on the current repo, or change an installation it already has.
+When installing and the user hasn't supplied a bot name, get one via
+`AskUserQuestion` before step 1 using the candidate-generation pattern from
+step 6 (`<repo>-bot`, `<repo>-tend`, `tend-<repo>`, parallel availability
+check, present available ones). The user can pick "Other" to supply a custom
+name.
 
 When asking the user questions during these steps, use the `AskUserQuestion`
 tool — present concrete options when there are clear choices (e.g. bio
@@ -23,7 +24,16 @@ not have to ask "where do I do that?".
 
 ## Kickoff
 
-Before running step 1, choose the harness and lay out the plan:
+Read `.config/tend.yaml` first. Its presence says whether this is an install or
+a change to one, and where it exists it settles the harness: the `harness` key,
+or Claude when the key is absent, which is how a Claude install is normally
+written.
+
+With a config in place, take the harness from it, lay out only the steps the
+task touches, and start. The summary checklist at the end describes a finished
+install, so skip it.
+
+With no config yet, choose the harness and lay out the whole install:
 
 - Ask via `AskUserQuestion` which harness to use:
   - **Claude (Anthropic)** — uses a Claude Code OAuth token (recommended