setup
This skill is the only framework artefact an adopter
project commits. Every other apache-magpie skill (security,
pr-management, issue) is a gitignored symlink into the gitignored
snapshot at <snapshot-dir> that this skill manages.
The adoption model is snapshot + agentic overrides + drift-
aware updates (not submodule, not marketplace, not vendored
copy):
- The framework is downloaded into
<snapshot-dir> and
gitignored in the adopter repo. The snapshot is a build
artefact, not source.
- Three install methods are supported (see
docs/setup/install-recipes.md
for verbatim copy-pasteable recipes):
- svn-zip — released, signed zip from ASF distribution
(recommended for production once releases ship).
- git-tag — pinned to a specific git tag.
- git-branch — tracks a branch tip (default:
main,
the WIP path).
- Two lock files record the framework version. The
committed one declares what the project pins to; the local
one records what each machine actually fetched. Drift
between them is surfaced and remediated by
/magpie-setup upgrade.
- Symlinks make the framework's skills callable as if they
lived in the adopter repo. Each symlink is named
magpie-<framework-skill> — every framework skill is
installed under a magpie- prefix so it is namespaced and
never collides with the adopter's own skills (e.g. the
snapshot's skills/pr-management-triage/ becomes
magpie-pr-management-triage, invoked as
/magpie-pr-management-triage). .agents/skills/ is the
one canonical home: its magpie-* entries link into
<snapshot-dir>/skills/<framework-skill>/. Every other agent
target (.claude/skills/, .github/skills/, …) gets a thin
per-skill relay symlink that points back at the canonical
entry (.claude/skills/magpie-<n> →
../../.agents/skills/magpie-<n>) — no matter what layout the
adopting project previously used (see
agents.md). The symlinks are
gitignored because their targets disappear on a fresh
clone before /magpie-setup runs.
- Adopter-specific modifications to framework workflows live as
agent-readable instructions under
.apache-magpie-overrides/<skill-name>.md (committed). They
invalidate or change steps the framework's skill would
otherwise run. See
overrides.md for the contract and
docs/setup/agentic-overrides.md
for the design rationale.
Local self-adoption (the framework checkout only). The one
repo that cannot be adopted via the snapshot mechanism is the
Apache Magpie framework checkout itself — a remote snapshot of the
framework into itself would be circular. Instead it self-adopts
with method:local: each canonical magpie-<skill> in
.agents/skills/ is a committed symlink into the in-repo
../../skills/<skill>/ source, and every other active agent
target (agents.md) — .claude/skills/ (Claude
Code), .github/skills/ (GitHub's skill loader), and any present
holdout — gets a committed relay symlink
(magpie-<skill> → ../../.agents/skills/magpie-<skill>) — with
no snapshot, no remote fetch, and no copy. This makes
the framework's own skills callable while developing the framework,
and every contributor gets them active on a fresh clone with no
setup step. adopt detects the framework checkout structurally and
routes there automatically (see
adopt.md → Local self-adoption).
The two lock files
The framework's lock-file model splits what the project pins
to (committed) from what this machine actually fetched
(local). This split is the foundation of drift detection and
the multi-installer support.
<committed-lock> — .apache-magpie.lock
Committed at the adopter repo root. The project's pin.
Edited only by /magpie-setup; do not modify by hand.
# .apache-magpie.lock — committed; the project's pin.
method: <git-branch | git-tag | svn-zip>
url: <see per-method format below>
# For method=git-branch:
ref: main
# For method=git-tag:
ref: v1.0.0 # the tag name
commit: <SHA> # the commit the tag pointed to when committed
# For method=svn-zip:
ref: 1.0.0 # the version number
sha512: <hash> # the released zip's SHA-512 (for re-fetch verification)
The next adopter who runs /magpie-setup adopt reads this
file and re-installs to the same version the project
declared. This is the core of the "adopt once, all subsequent
users get the same thing" promise.
<local-lock> — .apache-magpie.local.lock
Gitignored at the adopter repo root. The local snapshot's
fingerprint. Records what this machine fetched and when.
# .apache-magpie.local.lock — gitignored; per-machine.
source_method: <git-branch | git-tag | svn-zip>
source_url: <URL the snapshot was actually fetched from>
source_ref: <branch / tag / version actually fetched>
fetched_commit: <commit SHA on disk now>
fetched_at: <ISO-8601 timestamp>
The drift check on every framework-skill invocation compares
this against <committed-lock> and surfaces any mismatch as a
proposed /magpie-setup upgrade.
Source locks — the same split, for trusted external sources
Skills pulled from trusted external
sources use their own
pair of locks with the identical committed-pin / local-fingerprint
split, kept separate from the framework locks so a source re-pin
never entangles a framework upgrade:
.apache-magpie.sources.lock (committed) — the project's
per-source pins, one block per source keyed by id
(method/url/ref + commit|sha512)..apache-magpie.sources.local.lock (gitignored) — this
machine's per-source fetch fingerprint.
They are written and reconciled by
skill-sources.md and re-fetched on
upgrade; the format and drift semantics live there.
Detail files in this directory
| File | Purpose |
|---|
adopt.md | First-time adoption walk-through — recognise existing-snapshot vs needs-bootstrap, write the two lock files, ask the user which skill families to wire up, create the gitignored symlinks, scaffold .apache-magpie-overrides/, install the post-checkout hook, update project docs. The default sub-action. |
upgrade.md | Refresh the gitignored snapshot per the committed lock, reconcile any agentic overrides + symlinks against the new framework structure, surface conflicts. Drives the on-drift remediation flow. |
verify.md | Read-only health check — snapshot present + intact, both lock files in sync, symlinks point at live targets, .gitignore correct, .apache-magpie-overrides/ exists, drift status (committed vs local), the setup skill itself is current. |
skill-sources.md | Fetch/verify skills from trusted external sources listed in <project-config>/skill-sources.md, pin them in the committed .apache-magpie.sources.lock, and symlink the provided skills in exactly like framework skills. The runnable half of trusted external skill sources; the install gate is the adopter trust list. |
agents.md | The agent-target registry — which directories framework-skill symlinks land in across vendors, and the canonical-plus-relay model: .agents/skills/ is the one canonical home (links into the snapshot/source); every other target (claude-code, github, holdout natives like Windsurf / Goose) gets a per-skill relay symlink into .agents/skills/. Defines active-target selection, SKILL.md format portability, and the Claude-Code-only layer (sandbox/hooks). The source of truth every sub-action consults for the target set. |
overrides.md | Agentic-override file management — open / scaffold an override for a framework skill, list existing overrides, help reconcile when the framework changes the underlying skill's structure on upgrade. |
unadopt.md |
Golden rules
Golden rule 1 — never modify the snapshot. The
<snapshot-dir> is a build artefact, gitignored, and read-
only from an adopter's perspective. Every modification an
adopter wants must go into .apache-magpie-overrides/ (where
it is committed and survives the next upgrade). The skill,
and any other framework skill consulting overrides at run-time,
never writes to <snapshot-dir>.
Golden rule 2 — <committed-lock> is the project's pin;
<local-lock> is per-machine truth. They serve different
purposes and live in different places:
<committed-lock> declares what version the project uses.
Edited by the adopter who runs /magpie-setup adopt first
(or who later runs /magpie-setup upgrade and accepts the
new pin). Bumping it is a deliberate project-level action;
the bump shows up in the git diff of the PR that proposed
it.<local-lock> records what this machine installed. Updated
silently by /magpie-setup adopt and /magpie-setup upgrade. Per-developer, per-checkout, per-worktree.
Golden rule 3 — drift surfaces, drift gets remediated.
Every framework skill (and /magpie-setup verify) checks
<committed-lock> vs <local-lock> at the top of its run.
On mismatch the skill surfaces the gap and proposes
/magpie-setup upgrade. The user accepts or defers; if they
accept, upgrade:
- Deletes
<snapshot-dir> outright.
- Re-installs per the committed lock (the new version the
project chose).
- Refreshes the gitignored framework-skill symlinks — adds
any new framework skills the user's family pick covers,
removes any framework skills that were renamed away or
removed.
- Reconciles agentic overrides against the new framework
structure (surfaces conflicts; never auto-rewrites).
- Updates
<local-lock> to the new fetch.
Golden rule 4 — .gitignore keeps the adopter repo clean.
Gitignored in the adopter repo:
<snapshot-dir> (the entire framework snapshot — gigabytes
potentially).<local-lock> (per-machine state).- The
magpie-* symlinks setup adopt creates in every active
target dir — the canonical ones in .agents/skills/ (they
target the gitignored snapshot) and the relays in
.claude/skills/ / .github/skills/ / holdouts (they target
the canonical entries) — both would dangle in a fresh clone.
The one exception un-ignored in each dir is magpie-setup.
.apache-magpie-sources/ (the gitignored fetch of every
trusted external skill source) and
.apache-magpie.sources.local.lock (per-machine source-fetch
fingerprint), when the adopter trusts any source. See
skill-sources.md.
Committed: this skill (setup, as the canonical
.agents/skills/magpie-setup/ plus its relays), the
<committed-lock>, the .apache-magpie.sources.lock
per-source pins (the project's committed vouch for each trusted
source), the .apache-magpie-overrides/ directory, the
.gitignore entries themselves, any project-doc updates the
adopt sub-action makes.
Golden rule 5 — .agents/skills/ is canonical; everything
else just relays into it. Regardless of how an adopting
project previously organised its .claude/skills/ or
.github/skills/, adopt always wires the framework the same
way: the canonical magpie-* links live in .agents/skills/,
and every other active target (.claude, .github, holdouts)
gets per-skill relay symlinks pointing back at the canonical
entries (.claude/skills/magpie-<n> →
../../.agents/skills/magpie-<n>). The adopter's own native
(non-magpie-) skills in those dirs are left untouched. See
agents.md.
Golden rule 6 — copy this skill, symlink the rest; all under
the magpie- prefix. This skill (source skills/setup/) is
the only framework skill that gets copied into an
adopter repo — committed as the canonical
.agents/skills/magpie-setup/, with committed relay symlinks to
it from .claude/skills/magpie-setup and
.github/skills/magpie-setup. All other framework skills are
symlinked (canonical link into the gitignored snapshot, plus
relays), each named magpie-<framework-skill>
(e.g. magpie-security-issue-import → <snapshot-dir>/skills/security-issue-import/).
The magpie- prefix namespaces every framework skill so it
never collides with an adopter's own skills. Mixing copy and
symlink — copying a security skill, for instance — creates a
maintenance hazard: copies drift from the framework's source-
of-truth, and the drift-detection mechanism (which assumes
the framework version is the one in <snapshot-dir>)
silently mis-applies.
Golden rule 7 — agentic overrides are read at run-time.
Every framework skill that supports overrides starts its run
by checking .apache-magpie-overrides/<this-skill>.md for
adopter-specific instructions and applying them before
executing the default behaviour. The override file is plain
markdown the agent interprets — no templating engine, no
patch tool. See
docs/setup/agentic-overrides.md
for the contract.
Golden rule 8 — two families are always installed; the
rest are opt-in. Two skill families are wired up
unconditionally on every adopt / upgrade / worktree-init run
and the user is never asked about them:
setup-* — every framework skill whose source name
starts with setup- except the bootstrap setup itself
(which is copied as magpie-setup per Rule 6, not
symlinked). Concretely:
setup-isolated-setup-install,
setup-isolated-setup-update,
setup-isolated-setup-verify, setup-override-upstream,
setup-shared-config-sync, plus any new setup-* skill
the framework grows in the future — each symlinked as
magpie-setup-*.list-* — the discovery family; every framework skill
whose source name starts with list-. Today this is
list-skills only (symlinked as magpie-list-skills); the
prefix lets the framework grow a discovery family without
re-prompting every adopter.
These two families are not exposed in the skill-families:
prompt and not stored as user-selectable in the lock files;
every sub-action that wires symlinks always covers them in
addition to the user's opt-in family picks (security,
pr-management, issue). Dropping them is not a supported
configuration — the secure-setup and discovery flows the
framework ships depend on those skills being callable.
Golden rule 9 — reload setup in-flight after a
self-update. When a sub-action changes or creates the
content of the committed setup skill (in practice:
adopt recovering an out-of-date bootstrap, or upgrade's
overwrite-from-snapshot step), the agent re-reads the
modified files of this skill before continuing the rest of
the current run. Concretely: after the copy lands on disk,
re-load SKILL.md and the sub-action file you are
currently executing (and any helper file you have already
opened, such as agents.md or overrides.md), then
resume from the step after the overwrite. The reload runs as
the first thing that happens after the overwrite, before
any further reconciliation, symlink work, or doc updates.
The reason: the snapshot's skill version may have renamed
steps, added new sub-actions, or changed the symlink
contract; finishing the run against the old in-memory
copy of the skill would silently mis-apply the new
framework version the project just pinned to.
Sub-actions
The skill dispatches by the first positional argument:
| Invocation | Loads | Purpose |
|---|
/magpie-setup (no args) | adopt.md | First-time adoption (default; main-checkout only). Idempotent — re-running on an already-adopted repo behaves like verify. |
/magpie-setup adopt | adopt.md | Same as no-arg — explicit form. Main-checkout only. |
/magpie-setup upgrade | upgrade.md | Refresh snapshot per <committed-lock> + reconcile overrides + refresh symlinks. Main-checkout only — worktrees pick up upgrades automatically via the symlink installed by worktree-init. |
/magpie-setup worktree-init | worktree-init.md | Worktree-only. Symlink the worktree's <snapshot-dir> to the main checkout's so this worktree shares one framework state. No fetch, no lock files written; idempotent. |
/magpie-setup verify | verify.md | Read-only health check + drift status report. Works in both main and worktrees. |
/magpie-setup skill-sources (aka skill-sources add <id>) | skill-sources.md | Fetch/verify/pin/symlink skills from the trusted external sources the adopter listed in <project-config>/skill-sources.md. Main-checkout only — worktrees share the source snapshots via worktree-init. |
/magpie-setup override <skill> | overrides.md | Open / scaffold an override file. |
/magpie-setup unadopt | unadopt.md | Reverse the adoption. Removes snapshot, locks, symlinks, hook, doc sections, and this skill itself. Preserves .apache-magpie-overrides/ unless --purge-overrides is passed. |
Main-checkout-only sub-actions (adopt, upgrade, unadopt)
detect their context via git rev-parse --git-dir ≠
git rev-parse --git-common-dir and refuse to run in a worktree
with a pointer back to the main checkout. The worktree counterpart
of adopt is worktree-init; for upgrade, every worktree
automatically sees the refreshed snapshot once the main runs
upgrade, because each worktree's <snapshot-dir> is a symlink to
the main's.
adopt and upgrade always chain into worktree-init on every
linked worktree as their final pass. The chain is unconditional
— even on a fresh adoption with no linked worktrees yet (the pass
becomes a no-op), even on an upgrade where every worktree already
looks wired (worktree-init is idempotent, repairs broken
symlinks, and adds new always-on-family entries the upgrade
introduced). The user does not need to remember to cd into each
worktree and re-run anything; the main-checkout sub-action
propagates state outward to the worktrees by itself. See
adopt.md Step 12.2
and
upgrade.md Step 6c.
If the snapshot is missing (no <snapshot-dir>/) and
<committed-lock> exists, the skill treats any sub-action as
the recover-snapshot path: re-install per the committed lock
first, then continue.
Inputs
| Flag | Effect |
|---|
from:<git-ref> / from:<version> | Adopt or upgrade from a specific framework ref or version. Used during adopt (overrides the user prompt) and upgrade (overrides the committed lock for this run only — does NOT update the committed lock). |
method:<git-branch|git-tag|svn-zip|local> | Pick the install method explicitly. Default during adopt: prompt the user. local is framework-checkout only — it self-adopts by linking the in-repo skills/ source directly instead of fetching a snapshot (see adopt.md → Local self-adoption). |
agents:<list> | Comma-separated agent targets to wire symlinks into (agents.md registry ids: universal, claude-code, github, windsurf, goose, …). Default on adopt/upgrade: auto — the always-on neutral set (universal + claude-code + github) plus any other registry dir already present in the repo. When passed, replaces the auto-detected set for that run, except universal (.agents/skills/) which is always retained because it is the canonical home every other target relays into — dropping it would leave the relays dangling. |
skill-families:<list> | Comma-separated opt-in families to symlink (security, pr-management, issue). Default on adopt: prompt. Default on upgrade: read the families list from <committed-lock> / <local-lock>, auto-include any opt-in family the framework has introduced since the lock was written (recorded back into the lock), and ensure every framework skill in the effective family set has a valid symlink — create or repair missing / broken symlinks, not just add new ones. The flag never accepts the always-on families ( minus itself, and ); per those are wired up unconditionally on every run and there is no way to ask for them or opt out. |
What this skill is NOT for
- Not for installing the secure agent setup (sandbox, hooks,
pinned tools). That is
setup-isolated-setup-install.
- Not for upgrading framework tools installed on the host
(
bubblewrap, socat, claude-code itself). That is
setup-isolated-setup-update.
- Not for syncing the user's
~/.claude-config across
machines. That is
setup-shared-config-sync.
- Not for committing framework changes. Framework PRs go
against
apache/magpie directly — the snapshot is
read-only.
Failure modes
| Symptom | Likely cause | Remediation |
|---|
/magpie-setup verify reports drift between committed and local locks | Project lead bumped <committed-lock> since this machine last fetched, or local snapshot is stale on a main-tracking adopter | /magpie-setup upgrade |
| Snapshot present but symlinks dangle | Adopter ran git clone but not /magpie-setup after — symlinks are gitignored but persist in their target's absence on disk | /magpie-setup verify --auto-fix-symlinks (or /magpie-setup adopt, idempotent) |
| Worktree off the adopter repo can't find framework skills | Worktrees off the adopter don't auto-inherit the gitignored snapshot | The adopt sub-action installs a post-checkout git hook that re-runs the snapshot install on worktree creation; verify the hook is present (/magpie-setup verify) |
git clone of an upstream PR sees no framework skills | Expected — the snapshot is gitignored, so a fresh clone has no <snapshot-dir>. The clone needs /magpie-setup once before any framework skill is invocable | /magpie-setup |
| Project decided to stop using apache-magpie | The reverse of adoption — remove the snapshot, locks, symlinks, hook, doc sections, and the setup skill itself. .apache-magpie-overrides/ is preserved by default | /magpie-setup unadopt (add --purge-overrides to also drop the overrides directory) |
