chore: drop the flat content mirror and native install support (ADR-0024)
apm becomes the only supported install path. The flat mirror at each plugin root existed solely so Claude Code's native `claude plugin install` could convention-scan plugin content (ADR-0017). With no native consumers, it cost ~20,000 tracked lines plus ~2,100 lines of sync tooling and ~88s of every push to guard content apm never reads — and its only automated gate, `claude plugin validate --strict`, passes on a plugin with zero content, so it could not detect the defect ADR-0017 was created to fix. Removes the mirror (213 files), the six per-plugin manifest pairs, sync-plugin-content.sh, its 1,289-line test, the orphaned marketplace-plugins.sh, and the check-plugin-content-sync and validate-plugins pre-push hooks. The root `marketplace:` block and .claude-plugin/ catalogue stay: apm's own marketplace consumers read that same file, so `<name>@holocron` short names keep working. tests/run-bats.sh now excludes .claude/skills/. apm installs from .apm/, which carries the tests/ dirs the mirror stripped, so deployed .bats files would otherwise be discovered and double-run. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YR2CjVumUbEGWcMikcoXBD
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# apm is the only supported install path; the flat content mirror is deleted
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**Supersedes ADR-0017** (plugin roots gain a compiled flat-directory mirror of `.apm/` content so
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Claude Code can discover it). ADR-0017's diagnosis was correct and is not in dispute: Claude Code's
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native installer convention-scans flat `skills/`/`agents/`/`hooks/` directories at the plugin root
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and has no model of `.apm/` at all, so without a mirror a natively-installed holocron plugin reports
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`Skills (0) Agents (0) Hooks (0)`. What changes here is not the mechanism but the premise — that the
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native install path is worth supporting. It is not, because nobody uses it.
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**Status: accepted (2026-09-14).** The mirror, its generator, its test suite, its helper library and
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its pre-push gate are removed. `.apm/` remains the sole hand-edited authoring source, unchanged from
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ADR-0015. The root `marketplace:` block in `apm.yml` and the compiled
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`.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` it produces are **kept** — see "Also delete the marketplace
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catalogue" under considered options.
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## Context
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ADR-0018 moved this repo's own consumption of its own plugins onto `apm install`. From that point
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the flat mirror had no consumer inside this repo: it existed entirely for a hypothetical third party
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running `claude plugin install <name>@holocron`. No such consumer has ever been observed. The
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marketplace is on a private Gitea instance, and the repo has no telemetry, no issue traffic and no
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external clone record suggesting otherwise. The honest statement is that the native path has been
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maintained for an audience of zero.
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What that audience costs is measurable:
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| Artifact | Size |
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|---|---|
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| Tracked mirror files under `plugins/*/{skills,agents,hooks}/` | 213 files, ~20,000 lines |
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| `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh` | 813 lines |
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| `tests/test-sync-plugin-content.sh` | 1,291 lines, 92 cases, ~83 seconds |
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| `scripts/lib/marketplace-plugins.sh` | helper, used only by the above |
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| `check-plugin-content-sync` pre-push hook | ~5 seconds per push |
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Roughly 22,000 lines of tracked content and tooling, and about 88 seconds on every push. The test
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alone is close to 30% of `run-tests`' wall time — the single largest item in it.
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**The native path's automated gate does not gate anything.** ADR-0017 cites
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`claude plugin validate --strict` passing on all six plugins as one of two verifications. That
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verification was re-run this session against a plugin directory with **every content directory
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deleted**, and it passed. `validate` reads the manifest; it never inspects content. It therefore
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cannot detect the exact `Skills (0) Agents (0) Hooks (0)` defect ADR-0017 was written to fix. The
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other half of ADR-0017's verification — the live behavioral test
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(`claude --plugin-dir plugins/kyberforge -p "list your skills and agents"`) — is a manual step,
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run by hand once in August 2026 and never since. So native-install correctness has been unguarded
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for a month, and the drift gate that runs on every push guards only that the mirror matches `.apm/`,
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not that the mirror works.
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**Dropping native install does not reduce host coverage.** This is the fact that makes the decision
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cheap rather than a trade. apm's skills convergence deploys skills to `.agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md`,
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the shared path read by Copilot, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode and Windsurf, with Claude Code as
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the special case at `.claude/skills/`. The mirror served two hosts (Claude Code and Copilot, the
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latter only ever partially — see ADR-0017's own `hooks` amendment). apm serves seven. A consumer who
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installs holocron through apm gets strictly more than one who installed it natively.
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**Verified empirically, not reasoned about.** In a scratch clone with the mirror and the six
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per-plugin manifest pairs deleted:
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- `apm marketplace add` still registers all 6 packages. It detects
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`.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` and reads the catalogue from there.
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- `apm install` still deploys 40 `SKILL.md` files across 39 skill directories, 4 agents, and
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kyberforge's `SessionStart` hook — identical to the baseline install from the unmodified tree.
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- `apm pack --check-versions --check-clean --dry-run` exits 0 ("Version alignment OK",
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"Marketplace working tree clean"), because it governs only the **root** `.claude-plugin/` outputs.
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The six per-plugin `plugin.json` pairs were never apm-pack-governed: they were generated by
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`apm pack --format plugin` invoked from inside `sync-plugin-content.sh`, so deleting the script
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deletes their producer and nothing is left asserting they should exist.
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**Source-level proof the per-plugin manifests are droppable.**
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`apm_cli/deps/github_downloader_validation.py` probes package markers in a fixed order —
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`apm.yml`, then `SKILL.md`, then `plugin.json`, then `.github/plugin/plugin.json`, then
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`.claude-plugin/plugin.json` — and returns on the first hit. Every plugin here keeps its `apm.yml`,
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which is the first probe, so no `plugin.json` path is ever reached. The per-plugin manifests are not
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load-bearing for apm resolution; they were load-bearing only for the native installer.
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## Decision
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**apm is the only supported install path.** Concretely:
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- Delete the flat mirror at every plugin root (`plugins/<name>/skills/`, `agents/`, `hooks/`) and
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the six per-plugin manifest pairs (`.claude-plugin/plugin.json`, `.github/plugin/plugin.json`).
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- Delete `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh`, `tests/test-sync-plugin-content.sh`,
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`scripts/lib/marketplace-plugins.sh`, and the `check-plugin-content-sync` pre-push hook.
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- **Keep** the root `marketplace:` block in `apm.yml` and the compiled
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`.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`. apm's own marketplace consumers read that same file; removing
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it would stop holocron being an apm marketplace at all.
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The asymmetry between those last two bullets is the whole subtlety of this ADR, and it exists
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because apm deliberately reuses Claude Code's catalogue format rather than inventing one. The
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catalogue is shared between the two ecosystems; the per-plugin content contract is not. Deleting the
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content is what ends native support; keeping the catalogue is what preserves apm support.
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## Considered options
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**Status quo — keep mirroring on every branch (rejected).** Pays ~22,000 tracked lines and ~88
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seconds per push for a path with no users and no working gate. It is not free in author attention
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either: ADR-0017 accrued four amendments in two days, every one of them about a detail of the
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mirroring mechanism rather than about the content being mirrored.
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**Generate the mirror only at release, from a tag or a release branch (rejected).** Technically
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supported, and it is worth recording *why* it was rejected rather than leaving it to look like an
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oversight. Claude Code marketplace entries accept ref-pinned git sources, and apm already emits that
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exact shape: the `mattpocock-skills` entry removed from root `apm.yml` on 2026-09-13 compiled to
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`{"source": "github", "repo": ..., "ref": "v1.2.3", "sha": ..., "tag_pattern": "v{version}"}` — a
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`git-subdir` source pinned to a ref. So a release-only mirror would install correctly.
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Rejected on three grounds, stacking:
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1. It keeps the 813-line script and the 1,291-line test alive in full. It reduces how often they
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run, not how much there is to maintain — and the maintenance, not the runtime, is what ADR-0017's
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amendment history shows to be the real cost.
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2. It requires per-package tagging discipline this repo does not practise. `git tag` lists
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repo-level tags (`v1.0.0`, `v2.0.0`, `v2.0.1`) matching no package version under the
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`per_package` versioning mode the six plugins use. The tagging convention that would make
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ref-pinning meaningful would have to be invented first.
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3. **There is no CI in this repo at all.** Every gate here is a git hook on a developer's machine.
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A release-time regeneration step would therefore depend on a human remembering to run it, and its
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failure mode is silent: a release tag whose tree contains a stale or absent mirror installs
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natively and reports zero skills, which is precisely the ADR-0017 defect, reintroduced on the
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release path where it is hardest to notice.
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**Also delete the marketplace catalogue (proposed, then rejected on evidence).** The initial shape
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of this decision deleted `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` along with everything else, on the
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reasoning that it is a Claude Code artifact. That is wrong. `apm marketplace add` reads
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`.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` — falling back to `.github/plugin/marketplace.json`, which this
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repo already deleted — and that read is what makes holocron an apm marketplace and what gives
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consumers the `<name>@holocron` short-name form. Deleting it would have broken apm consumers in
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order to remove a file whose format Claude Code merely happens to share.
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**Declare holocron an apm marketplace as a new step (moot).** Considered as a follow-on to the
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above, and found to be already done: the `marketplace:` block in root `apm.yml` *is* the
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declaration, and `apm marketplace init` produces exactly that block. There is nothing to add.
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## Consequences
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**1. Native `claude plugin install` no longer works, and the failure is silent.** This is accepted,
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not overlooked. Because apm reuses Claude Code's catalogue format by design — an APM-based
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marketplace stays consumable by Claude Code's existing marketplace mechanism — a Claude Code user
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can still register holocron natively, and will then install six plugins containing zero skills,
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zero agents and zero hooks. No error is raised at any point; the manifests are valid and the
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directories are simply empty. There is no schema change available that would prevent this, because
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the catalogue format cannot express "this marketplace is not for you" — the compatibility is
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structural, and it is the same compatibility that makes keeping the catalogue correct for apm. A
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README note is the only available mitigation, and a note is not a gate.
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**2. Consumers now receive dev-fixture files.** apm installs from `.apm/`, and `.apm/` contains the
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per-skill `tests/` directories the mirror explicitly stripped (ADR-0017's depth-scoped
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`<category>/<name>/tests` exclusion). 17 `.bats` files across 6 skills therefore now deploy into
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every consumer's skill directories. Suppressing them would mean switching all six `apm.yml` files
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from `includes: auto` to explicit include lists — and an explicit list that is wrong silently drops
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content, which is the same failure class ADR-0017 was written to fix. Trading a cosmetic problem for
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a correctness problem is a bad trade, so this is deferred deliberately rather than fixed in passing.
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**3. `tests/run-bats.sh` must exclude `.claude/skills/`** from both its `find` walk and the
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`git ls-files` set-equality check that derives the expected test list. Deployed `.bats` files are
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now discoverable in the install output and would otherwise be found and double-run against a root
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they do not belong to — exactly the `apm_modules/` problem ADR-0018 recorded, arriving by a second
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route. Any future script that walks this repo's tree needs both exclusions.
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**4. No version bumps.** ADR-0006 patch-bumps a plugin when its shipped content changes. Nothing
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under `.apm/` is touched here; only compiled artifacts are removed. The shipped content is
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byte-identical, so no bump is owed. This also avoids triggering the `executables.allow`
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`kyberforge#<version>` pin cascade ADR-0019 describes, which would otherwise turn a cleanup into a
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multi-file coordinated edit for no functional gain.
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**5. Reintroduction recipe.** This is the insurance that made the decision acceptable, so it is
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stated concretely rather than left as "it's in git". To restore native install support: recover
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`scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh` from git history (`git log --diff-filter=D -- scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh`
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finds the deleting commit; `git show <sha>^:scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh` recovers it) and re-run
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it with `--all`; it regenerates both the mirror and the per-plugin manifest pairs, because
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`apm pack --format plugin` produces them together. Separately, apm resolves a marketplace at a git
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ref — default `main`, with `--ref` pinning — so a consumer who pins an older ref still gets a tree
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containing the mirror and is unaffected until they move forward.
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**6. A negative result, pinned so it is not re-litigated: this does not relax the self-containment
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constraint.** The natural next thought is that with the native installer gone, the no-cross-skill-
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file-sharing rule (the rule that forced ADR-0014's Vale config duplication) could be relaxed,
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because that rule was read as a property of Claude Code's plugin cache-install. It is not.
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`plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-author/references/deployment-modes.md`, sourced from the
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agentskills.io spec, states the constraint independently for **APM package mode**: file references
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inside `.apm/skills/<name>/` must not reach outside that skill's own directory, and the spec defines
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no cross-skill sharing mechanism. So cross-skill file sharing remains impossible under the only
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install path that survives, and ADR-0014's duplication rationale stands unchanged.
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**7. Three of ADR-0017's four amendments become moot, and one loses its enforcement.** Recorded
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because each was a decision someone spent real effort on:
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- The `mcpServers` re-injection amendment (2026-08-14) is moot. Its target was
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`.github/plugin/plugin.json`, which no longer exists; `reinject_mcp_servers()` dies with the
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script that called it. Its reasoning — a path string, never an inlined object, because inlining
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bypasses apm's credential sanitizer — is worth carrying forward as a general rule if per-plugin
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Copilot manifests ever return.
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- The `hooks`-pointer amendment (2026-08-14) is moot in the same way, and its outcome was to change
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nothing, so nothing is lost.
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- The `hooks/hooks.json` path-correction amendment (2026-08-14) is moot: there is no mirrored hooks
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file to place.
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- The symlink amendment (2026-08-14) is **not** moot, and this is the one real regression.
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`check_apm_symlinks()` read the `.apm/` source tree directly to report symlinks, because apm's
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bundle exporter filters them out silently and the resulting content loss is invisible to any
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mirror-versus-mirror diff. That check dies with the script. Whether `apm install`'s own copy path
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drops symlinks the same way the bundle exporter does was **not verified this session** — the
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exporter's `is_file() and not is_symlink()` test is in `apm_cli/bundle/plugin_exporter.py`, a
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different code path from dependency installation. If it does, symlinked content under `.apm/` is
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now silently lost with nothing reporting it. No symlink exists under any `.apm/` today, so this is
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a latent gap rather than an active one, but it should be re-checked before anyone adds one.
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**8. ADR-0017's own exit condition was different from this one, and that is worth noting.** Its
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final consequence anticipated deletion, but conditioned it on an upstream fix: "a future apm release
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that ships a native `.apm/`-aware plugin.json compiler ... would let `sync-plugin-content.sh` and
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its drift gate be deleted outright." That release has not happened. The mirror is being deleted
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because the path it bridges has no users, not because apm closed the gap — the gap is still open,
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and a consumer who installs natively still hits it. ADR-0017's anticipated exit remains available
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and unclaimed; this ADR takes a different one.
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