skill-audit loaded roughly 4,268 words of rubric on every run, most of it criteria for findings a clean skill never triggers. The auditing guidance moves into finding-criteria.md, read only when a finding is actually raised, cutting a clean audit to about 999 words. The named-skill exemption is replaced with properties, so the rubric stops carrying a list that ages the moment a skill is renamed. apm-workflow's `type:` trap sat in one flow while biting several, so it is promoted to a common gate reachable from all of them; its claim to be self-contained was untrue once it started routing to apm-install. skill-author's contract had drifted from body-discipline.md and is realigned, and agent-audit's field inventory is brought in line with the same split.
4.6 KiB
topic, source_keys
| topic | source_keys | |
|---|---|---|
| compile |
|
Compile
apm compile # fails on skill/agent-only packages — see Gotchas
apm compile --clean # zero-write sanity check; use for skill/agent-only packages
apm compile --clean --dry-run # pure preview, no writes
Compiles .apm/instructions/ + .apm/agents/*.agent.md primitives into consumer-side context files (AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md CONTEXT files) for the deployment target, per the compilation: block in apm.yml. This is the consumer/deployment side — it is NOT the producer of plugin.json/marketplace.json; that's apm pack's job (below). Run apm compile after any change to .apm/instructions//.apm/agents/ content or to compilation:/targets: in apm.yml.
Pack
apm pack --dry-run # resolve and print; do not write
apm pack --offline # cached refs only
apm pack --include-prerelease # allow pre-release tags
apm pack -v # per-entry resolution detail
apm pack --marketplace=claude --json # JSON output for CI pipelines
Bundles a producer package into a distributable artifact. Default to --dry-run -v first when packing something for the first time or after a dependency change — resolution errors surface before anything is written.
.mcp.json merge mechanics
apm pack reads a package's root-level .mcp.json directly — no dependencies.mcp entry in apm.yml is needed for simple passthrough. Behavior is content-aware:
- An empty
.mcp.json({"mcpServers": {}}) is NOT included in the packed output at all. - A populated one gets its
mcpServerscontent merged directly into the compiledplugin.json, but only for theclaudetarget. - The
copilottarget's compiledplugin.jsonOMITSmcpServersentirely — it isn't part of Copilot's plugin manifest schema.
dependencies.mcp in apm.yml is for a different purpose — declaring a remote MCP-server package as an APM dependency — not local .mcp.json passthrough.
includes: auto and the packed bundle
includes: auto does NOT sweep generic root-level passthrough files (README.md, docs/, sources.md, config files, etc.) into the apm pack distribution bundle (build/<name>-<version>) — only .apm/ primitives, the compiled plugin.json, and the content-aware .mcp.json handling above make it into that bundle. This does not affect Claude Code's own plugin loading, which reads a plugin's working directory directly via its source: path in marketplace.json, not the apm pack bundle — but it matters for anyone relying on the packed bundle for distribution via apm install.
Run apm audit after compile/pack, not before — audit scans deployed/compiled output, not the source apm.yml manifest. Plain apm audit is not the CI-equivalent pass (that is apm audit --ci, which checks strictly more); see references/audit.md.
Publish
apm publish --package acme/my-skill --dry-run -v
apm publish --package acme/my-skill
Publishes a producer package (root containing apm.yml, .apm/, and optionally a registries: block) to a registry. Always dry-run with -v first — publishing is not trivially reversible once a version tag is claimed on a registry.
Publishing to a named registry requires apm experimental enable registries to have already run — see SKILL.md's Gotchas for the precondition and its silent-no-op failure mode.
Run
apm run <script> [--param key=value]
Executes a named script defined under scripts: in apm.yml, with --param substituting values into the script's parameters.
Gotchas
- Plain
apm compileHARD-FAILS with exit 1 andNo instruction files found in .apm/ directoryon any package that has skills/agents but no.apm/instructions/content — the common case for a skill-only or skill+agent package. Useapm compile --cleanas the zero-write sanity-check substitute: it setsallow_empty=Trueinternally and exits 0 cleanly with zero writes; add--dry-runfor a pure preview.compile≠pack— see above. claude plugin validate --strictauto-scans every.mdfile directly under a compiled plugin'sagents/directory and treats it as an agent definition requiring frontmatter, independent of any manifest declaration (an empirically observed Claude Code platform behavior, not anapmmechanic). A non-agent.mdfile (notes, provenance record, README) that ends up under.apm/agents/in the source tree will still fail validation once compiled to theclaudetarget. Keep such files outside.apm/agents/(e.g. at the package root), regardless of whatapm.ymldeclares.