Why APM?

A real package manager for agent skills — discovery, installation, dependency resolution, integrity verification, and cross-agent compatibility

The problem

AI agent skills are scattered across GitHub repos, gists, blog posts, and Discord messages. There's no standard way to discover, install, update, or depend on them. Teams copy-paste SKILL.md files between projects, lose track of versions, and have no idea when upstream changes.

This is where JavaScript was before npm, where Python was before pip, where Rust was before Cargo.

APM fixes this

APM is a package manager and public registry for agent skills. It works like npm — but for the SKILL.md files that power AI coding agents like Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, and 30+ more.

One-command install

apm install @anthropics/code-review

Skills are fetched from the registry and written to .skills/ in your project. No manual downloading, no copy-pasting, no broken links.

Lockfile with integrity verification

Every install is tracked in apm-lock.json — pinned to a specific commit SHA with a sha256 integrity hash.

{
  "@anthropics/code-review": {
    "commitSha": "c4768797c0ed...",
    "integrity": "sha256-7651b8aa7e84..."
  }
}

Run apm install on a fresh clone and get the exact same skills, verified byte-for-byte. If upstream content has changed since your lockfile was created, APM blocks the install and shows a diff link.

Dependency resolution

Composite skills can declare dependencies on other skills. APM resolves the full dependency tree and installs everything in one command:

$ apm install @apm/init
apm Fetching @apm/init...
  ✓ @apm/init
apm Fetching @apm/search...
  ✓ @apm/search
apm Fetching @apm/install...
  ✓ @apm/install

No manual tracking of which skills need which other skills. Circular dependencies are rejected. Duplicates are deduplicated.

Update with change detection

apm update

APM fetches the latest version of every installed skill, compares integrity hashes, and shows you exactly what changed — with a GitHub diff link. You approve each change before it's applied.

Cross-agent compatibility

APM skills work with every agent that supports the agentskills.io open standard — over 34 products. Install once, use everywhere:

Agent	Config file	APM support
Claude Code	`CLAUDE.md`	Full — `apm init` auto-wires
Cursor	`.cursorrules`	Full — `apm init` auto-wires
GitHub Copilot	`.github/copilot-instructions.md`	Full — `apm init` auto-wires
Gemini CLI	`GEMINI.md`	Full — `apm init` auto-wires
Windsurf	`.windsurfrules`	Full — `apm init` auto-wires
30+ others	`AGENTS.md`	Native — reads AGENTS.md directly

apm init detects your agent config files and wires them to your installed skills automatically. No manual setup.

Public registry with search

Browse and search skills at apm.orthg.nl, or use the CLI:

apm search "code review"

Every skill shows its description, star count, license, download count, and source repository. Filter by category, language, and compatibility.

Automatic indexing

APM indexes public GitHub repositories containing SKILL.md files automatically. If you've published agent skills on GitHub, they're already in the registry — no account needed, no publish step.

Skill authors can claim their namespace to take full control: manage listings, publish updates via GitHub sync, enable auto-sync webhooks, invite team members, and get the verified badge.

Validated skills

Every skill is validated against the SKILL.md specification:

apm validate ./my-skill
✓ SKILL.md is valid
  name: my-skill
  description: A description of what this skill does

The CLI validates locally. The registry validates on ingest. Invalid skills are rejected before they reach users.

GitHub Action for CI

Add apm validate to your CI pipeline to catch invalid skills before they're merged:

- uses: orthogonalhq/apm/action@main
  with:
    path: ./skills

Every push validates all SKILL.md files in your repo. Available on the GitHub Actions Marketplace.

Badges for your README

Show that your skills are on APM:

![APM](https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https://apm.orthg.nl/api/badge/@scope/name)

Badges show install status, star count, or download count — powered by the APM badge API.

How it compares

Capability	APM	Manual (copy-paste)	Git submodules
One-command install	Yes	No	Sort of
Lockfile + integrity	Yes	No	No
Dependency resolution	Yes	No	No
Update with diff review	Yes	No	No
Cross-agent wiring	Yes	No	No
Public search & discovery	Yes	No	No
CI validation	Yes	No	No
Auto-sync from GitHub	Yes	No	Yes
Works offline	Yes (cached)	Yes	Yes

Get started

# Install the CLI
npm install -g @apm-cli/apm

# Search for skills
apm search "code review"

# Install a skill
apm install @anthropics/code-review

# Wire up your agent
apm init

Or browse the registry at apm.orthg.nl.

Learn more

Getting Started — install the CLI and quick start guide
CLI Reference — all commands and options
SKILL.md Specification — the skill file format
Composite Skills — dependency resolution and progressive loading
Claim Your Namespace — take ownership of your skills
REST API — integrate programmatically

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