holocron/docs/adr/0015-apm-replaces-plugin-marketplace-authoring.md

# Microsoft APM replaces the hand-authored plugin/marketplace model as this repo's authoring source of truth

**Status: executed (2026-08-12, issue #90).** All six plugins now carry `apm.yml` + `.apm/` as
their authoring source; `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` and every plugin's `plugin.json` are
`apm pack`-compiled output. **Supersedes ADR-0001** ("Skills are distributed via plugins... each
plugin contains its own `skills/` directory") — in effect.

This repo replaces its hand-maintained Claude Code plugin/marketplace authoring model
(`.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` + per-plugin `plugin.json`) with Microsoft APM (`apm.yml` +
`.apm/`) as the authoring source of truth — an outright replacement of the authoring layer, not an
additive overlay. This ADR records the decision from a `grill-with-docs` session on issue #88.

## Context

Every plugin under `plugins/<name>/` currently ships two hand-maintained manifests
(`.claude-plugin/plugin.json` for Claude Code, root `plugin.json` for Copilot CLI) plus a
hand-maintained root `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` listing all plugins. Adding a provider means
hand-authoring a third manifest shape; keeping the two existing ones in parity is itself a tracked
concern (ADR-0006).

Research on Microsoft APM (`plugins/kyberforge/docs/research/docs/microsoft-apm/`) found that its
documented "monorepo-hybrid" repo shape maps directly onto this repo's existing `plugins/<name>/`
layout: each plugin becomes its own `apm.yml` + `.apm/{skills,agents,hooks,prompts,instructions}/`
package, listed from a root `apm.yml`'s `marketplace:` block. `apm compile`/`apm pack` generate
per-target output — including a `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` — from that vendor-neutral
`.apm/` tree, so provider manifests become compiled artifacts instead of hand-authored files, and
new providers (Copilot, Gemini, Codex — all supported by `apm runtime setup`) no longer require a
new hand-maintained manifest format.

## Decision

- **The `plugins/<name>/` monorepo-hybrid directory layout survives.** `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`
  and per-provider `plugin.json` files become **compiled output** via `apm compile`/`apm pack`,
  generated from `apm.yml` + `.apm/` per plugin, extensible to other `apm runtime`-supported
  providers without hand-maintaining a separate manifest per provider.
- **This supersedes ADR-0001** ("Skills are distributed via plugins... each plugin
  contains its own `skills/` directory"). Executed in issue #90: skills and agents physically moved
  to `plugins/<name>/.apm/skills/` and `plugins/<name>/.apm/agents/*.agent.md`.
- New operational tooling — `apm-install` (skill), `apm-workflow` (skill), `apm-orchestrate`
  (agent) — lands in `kyberforge`, tracked in issue #88
  (https://git.dev.rkdr.net/Defame1297/holocron/issues/88).
- Adapting `skill-author`/`agent-author`'s routing to author `.apm/`-native content (retargeting to
  `.apm/skills/`, `.apm/agents/` paths — the content these two skills author is still meaningful
  post-conversion) is deferred to issue #89
  (https://git.dev.rkdr.net/Defame1297/holocron/issues/89). `forge` is out of scope for #89 — it
  stays untouched by this whole conversion effort and keeps routing to whatever the live author
  skills are at the time.
- **`plugin-author`/`marketplace-author` are not adapted — they are superseded and deleted.**
  Unlike `skill-author`/`agent-author`, nothing in these two skills carries forward as authoring
  routing: `apm compile`/`apm pack` will generate `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` and
  per-provider `plugin.json` directly from `apm.yml` + `.apm/`, so `apm-install`/`apm-workflow`/
  `apm-orchestrate` (issue #88, already landed on this branch) fully replace what these two skills
  did. `plugin-author`/`marketplace-author` were deleted in issue #90's execution.
- Translating the existing plugins into `apm.yml` + `.apm/` and running the real conversion was
  executed under issue #90 (https://git.dev.rkdr.net/Defame1297/holocron/issues/90), which tracks
  that work through to merge.
- `CONTEXT.md`'s "Plugin"/"Plugin marketplace" glossary entries were rewritten in issue #90 to
  describe the compiled-output model directly, rather than carrying a forward-pointer to this ADR.

## Considered options

**Additive/compile-layer only, no `apm.yml` (rejected).** Keep `plugin.json`/`marketplace.json`
hand-authored and bolt APM on top as an optional extra. Rejected: doesn't achieve the multi-provider
compile-reuse goal APM's package model provides, and leaves the existing dual-manifest hand
maintenance in place unchanged.

**New standalone `plugins/apm/` plugin (rejected).** `plugins/lint/` was split out of `kyberforge`
specifically because Vale tooling is generic and repo-agnostic, not holocron-marketplace-specific
(see `CONTEXT.md`'s "lint plugin" entry) — the same argument applies to a generic `apm` CLI
wrapper. The shipped `apm-install`/`apm-workflow` skills are, in fact, generic, repo-agnostic APM
CLI documentation with no holocron-specific content, so a standalone `plugins/apm/` would have
been a defensible split on artifact content alone. Rejected anyway, in favor of `kyberforge`,
because holocron is currently the only repo that needs this tooling — standing up a separate
plugin for a single consumer isn't worth it yet. Accepted as an explicit tradeoff (same pattern
as ADR-0011's `gitea-workflow` naming tradeoff) — worth revisiting if this tooling is ever reused
outside holocron's own conversion.

## Content migration out of `plugin-author`/`marketplace-author`

A content audit of `plugin-author`/`marketplace-author` (same `grill-with-docs` session as this
correction) sorted what they document into three buckets:

- **Claude Code platform constraints — carried forward.** Facts that stay true regardless of
  authoring model (reserved plugin-name prefixes; the `agents/`-directory stray-`.md`-file
  validator gotcha, ADR-0010; `claude plugin validate` as a required terminal check) have been
  added into `apm-workflow`'s reference docs, since compiled output still has to satisfy these
  constraints post-conversion.
- **Dual-manifest artifacts — obsolete, not carried forward.** Conventions that existed only
  because of hand-authored dual manifests (ADR-0006's version-parity/patch-bump rule, the
  CC-vs-Copilot field-placement split, dual-file mirroring) are obsolete under `apm.yml`'s
  single-manifest model and were deliberately dropped.
- **Holocron policy choice — resolved in #90.** `marketplace-author`'s catalog-version convention
  (minor bump for package add/remove, patch bump for field-only updates) isn't an APM mechanic —
  `apm` doesn't enforce it, and has no native version-bump automation at all — so rather than
  building a new script, the convention is now documented as guidance inside `apm-workflow`'s
  reference docs (`references/marketplace.md` for the root catalog version rule,
  `references/configure.md` for the per-package version-bump-on-content-edit rule), applied
  manually by whoever edits `apm.yml`.

## Consequences

- ADR-0001 is superseded (issue #90).
- ADR-0006 (plugin-version-parity) is moot (issue #90): `plugin.json`/`marketplace.json` are now
  compiled output of a single `apm.yml`, so there's no second hand-authored file left to keep in
  parity, and `plugin-author` — the skill that enforced ADR-0006 — was deleted rather than adapted
  (see "Content migration" above).
- ADR-0010 (agent sources relocated outside agents dir) was updated (issue #90) for agents now
  living at `plugins/<name>/.apm/agents/*.agent.md` — the directory path changed; the pre-existing
  `.agent.md` extension convention (ADR-0005/ADR-0010) and project/user scope are unaffected, per
  ADR-0016.
- ADR-0014 (Vale prefilter ships from the plugin) had its hardcoded `plugins/<name>/skills/...`
  paths (the Vale prefilter is skill-scoped only; ADR-0014 never referenced a
  `plugins/<name>/agents/...` path) updated for the `.apm/` nesting as part of issue #90's
  execution.
- `kyberforge` gained three new artifacts (issue #88) before any conversion of existing content
  happened, then lost two (`plugin-author`/`marketplace-author`, deleted once issue #90 verified
  parity) — net version bump 1.3.1 → 1.4.0. The root marketplace catalog bumped 0.3.1 → 0.3.2 to
  match.
- ADR-0016 (a narrower decision discovered while designing issue #89) turned out to gate how
  issue #90 had to re-author plugin-scope agents: `.apm/agents/*.agent.md` compiles verbatim to
  both Claude and Copilot, so those files carry only `name`/`description`/`model`/`source_keys` —
  existing dual-file `<name>.md`+`<name>.agent.md` pairs could not be raw-moved, only re-authored.
- Two follow-up issues tracked the remaining work: #89 (`skill-author`/`agent-author` routing
  adaptation — closed, merged in #93) and #90 (the actual repo conversion, which also deleted
  `plugin-author`/`marketplace-author` — tracked through to merge; treat #90's own state as the
  authority on whether it has landed, not this line).
- **`displayName` is gone from all six compiled `plugin.json` files, and `owner.email` from the
  marketplace manifest — accepted, not overlooked.** `apm.yml` has no key that compiles to either,
  so the conversion dropped both: every `plugins/<name>/.claude-plugin/plugin.json` now carries
  `author`/`description`/`homepage`/`keywords`/`license`/`name`/`repository`/`version` (plus
  `mcpServers` for `bin`) and no `displayName`, and `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`'s `owner`
  block is `{name, url}` only. Both fields are optional —
  `plugins/kyberforge/docs/research/docs/claude-code-plugins/api-reference.md:14` lists
  `displayName` as `Required: No`, "Human-readable name shown in plugin manager" — which is why
  `claude plugin validate --strict` still passes on all six. The visible cost is that the plugin
  manager falls back to the bare `name` as each plugin's label. Accepted as the price of `apm.yml`
  being the single authoring source: re-injecting `displayName` post-compile would mean a second
  `reinject_*` workaround of the kind ADR-0017's amendment reserves for fields apm strips on a
  factually wrong premise, and apm's premise here is simply that the key does not exist in its
  schema.
- **`mattpocock-skills` is now version-pinned, and the pin is maintained by hand.** Pre-conversion
  the entry was `{"repo": "mattpocock/skills", "source": "github"}` — an unpinned reference that
  tracked the upstream default branch, so consumers got whatever was on it at install time. Root
  `apm.yml` now declares `version: "^1.2.0"` for it, which `apm pack` resolves and freezes into
  `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` as `ref: v1.2.3` + an explicit `sha`. Consumers get a
  reproducible version instead of a moving target, which is the improvement; the cost is that
  nothing advances it. apm has no version-bump automation (established under "Versioning" in issue
  #90's plan), so picking up a new upstream release means a human editing the `version:` range in
  root `apm.yml` and re-running `apm pack`. Left un-bumped, the marketplace pins an ageing release
  indefinitely and silently.
- **Caveat on "Status: executed" above:** issue #90's own execution comment flagged, before merge,
  that Claude Code's ability to actually load content out of `.apm/` was unverified — that caveat
  turned out to be a real defect, not a formality: the native installer has zero awareness of
  `.apm/` and reported `Skills (0) Agents (0) Hooks (0)` on every plugin installed from this
  marketplace. The manifest-compilation deliverable this ADR describes was genuinely complete;
  runtime discoverability was not. Fixed in ADR-0017 (a second, compiled flat-directory content
  mirror at each plugin root, generated by `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh`) — see that ADR for
  the root cause and the fix.