pnpm plugin

pnpm-plugin-skills automatically installs agent skills during pnpm install.

How it works

The plugin hooks into pnpm's preResolution lifecycle and performs skill synchronization before dependency resolution. A typical run will:

  1. Read skills.json from the workspace root
  2. Resolve the manifest into an in-memory installation plan
  3. Materialize skills into installDir
  4. Create symbolic links for all linkTargets
  5. Update the internal install state for future incremental runs

Enable it

pnpm add pnpm-plugin-skills --config

Then add the following to the workspace root:

{
  "installDir": ".agents/skills",
  "linkTargets": [".claude/skills"],
  "skills": {
    "my-skill": "github:owner/repo#abc1234&path:/skills/my-skill"
  }
}

Suitable team scenarios

  • You want developers to run only pnpm install without remembering extra skill installation commands
  • You want skill dependencies to be initialized together with Node dependencies in a monorepo
  • You want CI to restore skill context in a unified way

Relationship with the CLI

The pnpm plugin does not replace the CLI. A typical recommendation is:

  • Use npx skills-package-manager add to manage manifest changes
  • Use pnpm install for automatic day-to-day synchronization
  • Use npx skills-package-manager update to proactively refresh remote skill versions