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Agent Package Manager

Agent Package Manager

A dependency manager for AI agents -- like npm for agent context.
Quickstart View on GitHub

APM is a dependency manager for AI agents. Declare the skills, prompts, instructions, plugins, and MCP servers your project needs in one apm.yml, then any developer runs apm install and gets the same agent context across GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, Codex, Gemini, and Windsurf.

Portable by manifest

One apm.yml, every harness, every machine. The lockfile pins exact versions and content hashes so a fresh clone reproduces the same agent setup byte-for-byte.

Secure by default

Every install scans for hidden Unicode, pins content hashes, and gates transitive MCP servers behind explicit trust prompts. No opt-in required.

Governed by policy

apm-policy.yml is enforced at install time, including transitive MCP. Tighten-only inheritance flows enterprise -> org -> repo. See the Governance Guide.

Install APM

Section titled “Install APM”
Terminal window
curl -sSL https://aka.ms/apm-unix | sh

Then try it on a sample package:

Terminal window
apm install microsoft/apm-sample-package

The manifest

Section titled “The manifest”
# apm.yml -- ships with your repo, like package.json
name: my-project
version: 1.0.0
dependencies:
  apm:
    # Skills, prompts, agents, plugins -- from any GitHub repo, with version pinning
    - anthropics/skills/skills/frontend-design
    - microsoft/apm-sample-package
    - github/awesome-copilot/plugins/context-engineering#v2.1
    - github/awesome-copilot/agents/api-architect.agent.md
    # GitLab, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, Gitea, any git server
    - git: https://gitlab.com/acme/coding-standards.git
      path: instructions/security
      ref: v2.0
    - dev.azure.com/acme/platform/_git/prompts/review.prompt.md
    - bitbucket.org/team/agent-rules#main
  mcp:
    # MCP servers governed by the same manifest
    - io.github.github/github-mcp-server
    - io.github.microsoft/playwright-mcp
Terminal window
git clone <repo> && cd <repo> && apm install

That’s it. Copilot, Claude, Cursor, OpenCode, Codex, Gemini, Windsurf — every harness configured in one command, every dependency pinned, every MCP server policy-checked before it touches disk.

Pick your path

Section titled “Pick your path”

Use a package

Install someone else’s primitives and run them on your harness. Start in the consumer ramp.

Author and publish

Build skills, prompts, plugins, or full packages others can install. Start in the producer ramp.

Govern at fleet scale

Policy, audit, and CI gating across the org. Start in the enterprise ramp.

APM is open source under the microsoft org, MIT-licensed. Built on AGENTS.md, Agent Skills, MCP. See the changelog for what shipped recently.