skill-packager

name	skill-packager
description	Build distributable bundles, manifests, and checksums for publishing or sharing one or more skills. Use when packaging skills for release, building a distribution bundle, creating CI/CD skill artifacts, or releasing a new library version. Do not use for packaging a single skill in isolation (just create its manifest directly) or when skills aren't ready for release.
license	Apache-2.0
compatibility	{"clients":["openai-codex","gemini-cli","opencode","github-copilot"]}

Skill Packager

Orchestrates the full packaging workflow: validate, generate overlays, create manifests, produce release-ready bundles.

Procedure

1. Scan for skills

# Find all skill directories
find . -name "SKILL.md" -not -path "*/ARCHIVE/*" | sort

Filter by maturity if specified (e.g., only stable skills).

2. Validate each skill

For each skill:

• Parse YAML frontmatter — required fields: name, description
• Verify referenced files exist
• Check for placeholder text ([...], TODO)
• Flag invalid skills, continue with valid ones

3. Determine target clients

From each skill's compatibility.clients field, or from a global config parameter. Default: all compatible clients per frontmatter.

4. Generate overlays

For each valid skill × compatible client, generate client-specific overlay files using overlay-generator patterns.

5. Create per-skill manifests

name: <skill-name>
version: <semver from git tags or config>
checksum: <sha256 of SKILL.md>
files:
  - SKILL.md
  - metadata.json  # if generated

6. Build bundles

Per skill: skill-name-version.tar.gz containing SKILL.md + overlays + manifest.

Combined (optional): skills-bundle-version.tar.gz with all skills + index.

7. Generate release notes

# Release Notes: v[version]

## Skills Included
| Name | Version | Status |
|------|---------|--------|
| [name] | [ver] | [new | updated | unchanged] |

## Changes
- Added: [new skills]
- Updated: [modified skills]
- Deprecated: [retired skills]

Output contract

dist/
├── index.yaml              # Combined manifest
├── skills-bundle-X.Y.Z.tar.gz  # Combined bundle
├── skill-a-X.Y.Z.tar.gz   # Per-skill bundles
└── RELEASE-NOTES.md

Failure handling

• Some skills invalid: Package valid ones, report invalid with specific errors
• Version conflict: Use highest version or flag for manual resolution
• Missing git tags: Fall back to 0.0.0-dev
• Overlay generation fails: Package base without overlay, note limitation in manifest

References

• Semver: https://semver.org/
• Anthropic Skills format: https://github.com/anthropics/skills