Skilllibrary skill-packaging

Package a skill folder into a distributable bundle (tarball or zip) with manifest, integrity checksums, and optional client-specific overlays. Use this when preparing a skill for sharing outside the source repository, publishing to a registry, or creating a versioned release. Do not use for installing packages (use skill-installer), creating skills from scratch (use skill-authoring), or skill still in active development (finish authoring first).

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/merceralex397-collab/skilllibrary

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/merceralex397-collab/skilllibrary "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/03-meta-skill-engineering/skill-packaging" ~/.claude/skills/merceralex397-collab-skilllibrary-skill-packaging && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: 03-meta-skill-engineering/skill-packaging/SKILL.md

source content

Purpose

Packages a skill folder into a distributable format (zip/tarball) with manifest, integrity checksums, and optional client-specific overlays. A packaged skill can be shared, versioned, and installed via registry tooling.

When to use this skill

Use when:

User says "package this skill", "create bundle", "prepare for distribution"
Skill ready for sharing outside source repository
Publishing to registry or marketplace
Creating versioned release

Do NOT use when:

Skill still in development (finish authoring first)
Just need to copy folder locally (no packaging needed)
Orchestrating multiple skills (use
```
skill-packager
```
)
Installing package (use
```
skill-installation
```
)

Operating procedure

Validate skill is packageable:
- SKILL.md exists with valid frontmatter (name, description, license)
- Required fields present
- No broken references to missing files
- All scripts/ and references/ files exist

Create manifest file (

manifest.yaml

name: skill-name
version: 1.0.0
description: "[from frontmatter]"
license: Apache-2.0
author: [author]
repository: [source URL]
files:
  - SKILL.md
  - scripts/*
  - references/*
  - evals/*
compatibility:
  clients: [list]
checksum: [sha256]

Generate client overlays (if needed):
- Create overlays/ directory
- Each: overlays/[client].yaml with modifications
Calculate integrity checksum:
- SHA-256 of all files concatenated
- Store in manifest

Create bundle:

tar -czvf skill-name-1.0.0.tar.gz skill-folder/

Or:

zip -r skill-name-1.0.0.zip skill-folder/

Validate bundle:
- Extract to temp location
- Verify files present
- Verify checksum matches
- Verify SKILL.md parses
Document installation: Add instructions to manifest

Output defaults

skill-name-1.0.0.tar.gz
├── manifest.yaml
├── SKILL.md
├── scripts/
├── references/
├── evals/
└── overlays/

## Verification Report
- [x] SKILL.md valid
- [x] Manifest complete
- [x] All files present
- [x] Checksum: abc123...
- [x] Extraction passed

Install: npx skills add ./skill-name-1.0.0.tar.gz

References

https://developers.openai.com/codex/skills — Codex skill format and packaging conventions
https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/agents/about-agent-skills — Agent skill structure
https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/overview — Claude Code skill placement

Failure handling

Missing required files: List what's missing; cannot package
Invalid frontmatter: Show errors; fix before packaging
Checksum mismatch: Re-generate, re-create bundle
Overlay conflicts with base: Overlays modify only, not contradict