Skillpack Forge

Skillpack Forge turns one repo manifest into portable agent instructions, skills, and rules for AGENTS.md, Claude, Codex, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot.

AI coding tools now ask for the same project knowledge in different formats: AGENTS.md, Claude Skills, Codex Skills, Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, and MCP-adjacent docs. Skillpack Forge gives maintainers one source of truth:

npx skillpack-forge init .
npx skillpack-forge compile . --dry-run
npx skillpack-forge compile .
npx skillpack-forge doctor .
npx skillpack-forge diff .

It scans the repo, writes skillpack.yaml, then compiles it into:

• AGENTS.md
• .claude/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md
• .codex/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md
• .cursor/rules/<project>.mdc
• .github/copilot-instructions.md

Skillpack Forge is a compiler for repo-specific agent instructions, not a skill registry, skill installer, readiness-score linter, or agent runtime. See the competitive analysis for how it differs from adjacent projects such as MDA, repo2agent, and skillpack.

Why This Can Win Stars

The high-star signal is clear: developers are collecting agent instructions and skills, but the ecosystem is fragmented.

• agentsmd/agents.md: simple repo-level agent guidance format.
• github/awesome-copilot: community instructions, agents, skills, and configurations for GitHub Copilot.
• anthropics/skills: public repository for Agent Skills.
• addyosmani/agent-skills: production-grade engineering skills for coding agents.
• microsoft/playwright-mcp and github/github-mcp-server: MCP is becoming a default automation surface.
• vercel-labs/agent-browser: browser automation for AI agents is already a high-interest category.

Skillpack Forge sits between those trends: it is not another list of prompts, and it is not a full workflow platform. It is the missing compiler that lets any repo ship consistent agent context everywhere.

Quick Start

Install from the repo:

npm install
npm test

Create a skillpack for any project:

node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js init /path/to/project
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js compile /path/to/project --dry-run
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js compile /path/to/project
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js doctor /path/to/project
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js diff /path/to/project

Inspect a repo without writing files:

node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js scan /path/to/project --json

Compile an Agentic Workflow Guard safety skillpack:

node ../agentic-workflow-guard/bin/agentic-workflow-guard.js skillpack > skillpack.yaml
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js compile . --dry-run
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js compile .
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js doctor .
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js diff .

This gives automation security projects a portable context bundle for AGENTS.md, Claude Skills, Codex Skills, Cursor rules, and Copilot instructions. See Agentic Workflow Guard for the scanner side of the workflow.

Example Manifest

See examples/skillpack.yaml and the generated files in examples/AGENTS.md, examples/.claude/skills, examples/.codex/skills, examples/.cursor/rules, and examples/.github/copilot-instructions.md.

name: "my-agent-tool"
summary: "Browser automation CLI for recurring operator workflows"
targets:
  - "agents"
  - "claude"
  - "codex"
  - "cursor"
  - "copilot"
principles:
  - "Preserve user changes and keep edits scoped"
  - "Inspect the current repo state before changing files"
  - "Run verification before claiming success"
commands:
  install: "npm install"
  test: "npm test"
  lint: "npm run lint"
skills:
  - name: "my-agent-tool-developer"
    description: "Use when changing, testing, or automating my-agent-tool."
    workflow:
      - "Inspect the current project context and nearby files"
      - "Run npm test before completion"
      - "Document any command that cannot be run"

CLI

scan

Detects project metadata, package managers, useful commands, docs, and automation capabilities.

skillpack-forge scan .
skillpack-forge scan . --json

init

Creates skillpack.yaml from the scan.

skillpack-forge init .
skillpack-forge init . --force

compile

Compiles skillpack.yaml into the selected targets. Use --dry-run first to list files that would be created or overwritten without changing the repo.

skillpack-forge compile .
skillpack-forge compile . --dry-run

doctor

Checks that generated files exist and do not contain placeholder text.

skillpack-forge doctor .

diff

Checks whether generated files match the current skillpack.yaml. This exits non-zero when generated agent instructions are missing or stale, which makes it useful in CI.

skillpack-forge diff .

JSON Schema

Use skillpack.schema.json to validate manifest shape in editors or CI. The schema covers the current portable targets: AGENTS.md, Claude Skills, Codex Skills, Cursor rules, and Copilot instructions.

Positioning

Skillpack Forge is for:

• open-source maintainers who want every coding agent to understand their repo quickly;
• teams that already maintain separate Copilot, Cursor, Claude, and Codex instructions;
• automation tool builders who want reusable skill packs around browser, ops, data, or workflow tasks;
• agent framework authors who need a clean bridge from repo context to tool-specific instructions.

It is intentionally small: no hosted service, no database, no LLM dependency, no lock-in.

Roadmap

• Importers for existing AGENTS.md, .cursor/rules, and Copilot instructions.
• MCP server target that exposes the compiled skillpack as tools/resources.
• Browser automation recipe target for Playwright and browser-use style tools.
• GitHub Action that runs skillpack-forge doctor on pull requests.
• Public gallery of reusable automation skillpacks.

Development

npm test
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js scan . --json
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js doctor .
node ./bin/skillpack-forge.js diff .

The implementation is dependency-free Node.js so the CLI stays easy to audit and install.