diff --git a/.claude/skills/manage-channels/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/manage-channels/SKILL.md
index 9d84d3d..0b348d1 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/manage-channels/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/manage-channels/SKILL.md
@@ -11,7 +11,16 @@ Privilege is a **user-level** concept, not a channel-level one (see `src/db/user
 
 ## Assess Current State
 
-Read the central DB (`data/v2.db`) — query `agent_groups`, `messaging_groups`, `messaging_group_agents`, `users`, and `user_roles` tables. Also check `.env` for channel tokens and `src/channels/index.ts` for uncommented imports.
+Read the central DB (`data/v2.db`) using these canonical queries (column names match the schema, not the CLI flags — the `register` command's `--assistant-name` is stored in `agent_groups.name`):
+
+```sql
+SELECT id, name AS assistant_name, folder, agent_provider FROM agent_groups;
+SELECT id, channel_type, platform_id, name, unknown_sender_policy FROM messaging_groups;
+SELECT messaging_group_id, agent_group_id, session_mode, priority FROM messaging_group_agents;
+SELECT user_id, role, agent_group_id FROM user_roles ORDER BY role='owner' DESC;
+```
+
+Also check `.env` for channel tokens and `src/channels/index.ts` for uncommented imports.
 
 Categorize channels as: **wired** (has DB entities + messaging_group_agents row), **configured but unwired** (has credentials + barrel import, no DB entities), or **not configured**.