diff --git a/gitnexus/src/cli/analyze.ts b/gitnexus/src/cli/analyze.ts
index da67eda69..d5a7638f9 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/cli/analyze.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/cli/analyze.ts
@@ -155,7 +155,15 @@ export interface AnalyzeOptions {
 }
 
 /**
- * Whether community skill files (`--skills`) should run after indexing.
+ * Whether the post-index skill step should run.
+ *
+ * The gated block does two things in sequence: (1) generates the community
+ * skill files from `--skills`, and (2) re-runs `generateAIContextFiles` so
+ * AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md can reference the freshly written skills. Both are
+ * suppressed together — `--index-only` drops the entire step, not just the
+ * community-skill write. Name retained for the test contract; see call site
+ * in `analyzeCommand` for the AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md re-generation it also gates.
+ *
  * Kept as a pure helper so the `--index-only --skills` contract is unit-tested
  * without booting the full analyze pipeline (#742 review).
  */
@@ -259,6 +267,18 @@ export const analyzeCommand = async (inputPath?: string, options?: AnalyzeOption
 
   console.log('\n  GitNexus Analyzer\n');
 
+  // `--index-only` is the stronger contract — it suppresses every form of file
+  // injection, including community skill writes that `--skills` would normally
+  // produce. Surface the override explicitly so users don't wonder why a
+  // pipeline re-index ran but no skill files appeared. The pipeline still
+  // re-runs (see `force: options?.force || options?.skills` below); the warning
+  // is purely about the dropped post-index write step.
+  if (options?.indexOnly && options?.skills) {
+    console.log(
+      '  Note: --index-only overrides --skills; community skill files will not be written.\n',
+    );
+  }
+
   let repoPath: string;
   if (inputPath) {
     repoPath = path.resolve(inputPath);
diff --git a/gitnexus/src/cli/index.ts b/gitnexus/src/cli/index.ts
index c8f3e9464..d38675f03 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/cli/index.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/cli/index.ts
@@ -33,7 +33,11 @@ program
     'Drop existing embeddings on rebuild. By default, an `analyze` without `--embeddings` ' +
       'preserves any embeddings already present in the index.',
   )
-  .option('--skills', 'Generate repo-specific skill files from detected communities')
+  .option(
+    '--skills',
+    'Generate repo-specific skill files from detected communities ' +
+      '(no-op when --index-only is also set).',
+  )
   .option('--skip-agents-md', 'Skip updating the gitnexus section in AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md')
   .option('--no-stats', 'Omit volatile file/symbol counts from AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md')
   .option(
diff --git a/gitnexus/test/unit/skip-git-cli.test.ts b/gitnexus/test/unit/skip-git-cli.test.ts
index 6bb9e28cc..80c07ed17 100644
--- a/gitnexus/test/unit/skip-git-cli.test.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/test/unit/skip-git-cli.test.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,36 @@ describe('--skip-git CLI flag', () => {
     expect(helpOutput).not.toContain('--no-git');
   });
 
+  it('warns when --index-only overrides --skills (PR 1485)', () => {
+    // `--index-only` suppresses the post-index skill step that `--skills`
+    // would otherwise trigger. Without an explicit warning, the user sees a
+    // pipeline re-index complete and silently no skill files written — the
+    // silent-contradiction case flagged in PR 1485 review.
+    const tmpDir = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'gn-index-only-skills-'));
+    const gitnexusHome = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'gn-index-only-skills-home-'));
+    // Make tmpDir a git repo so analyze accepts it without --skip-git.
+    execSync('git init', { cwd: tmpDir, stdio: 'ignore' });
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(tmpDir, 'a.ts'), 'export const a = 1;\n');
+
+    const env = {
+      ...process.env,
+      HOME: gitnexusHome,
+      GITNEXUS_HOME: gitnexusHome,
+      GITNEXUS_LBUG_EXTENSION_INSTALL: 'never',
+    };
+
+    try {
+      const output = execSync(
+        `node "${cliPath}" analyze "${tmpDir}" --index-only --skills --skip-agents-md`,
+        { encoding: 'utf8', timeout: 60000, env },
+      );
+      expect(output).toContain('--index-only overrides --skills');
+    } finally {
+      fs.rmSync(tmpDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+      fs.rmSync(gitnexusHome, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
   it('rejects non-git folder without --skip-git', () => {
     const tmpDir = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'gn-no-git-'));
     fs.writeFileSync(path.join(tmpDir, 'test.ts'), 'export const x = 1;');