Packages Skill

Install, remove, and manage extensions and skills from third-party genesis packages.

When to Use

• “Install the frontier package”
• “What packages are installed?”
• “Check for updates from someuser/cool-extensions”
• “Remove the weather extension”
• Any time you want to add capabilities beyond the genesis template

What Is a Genesis Package

A genesis package is any GitHub repository that contains a .github/registry.json declaring extensions and/or skills. Package authors add the genesis-package topic to their repo for discoverability.

Packages are referenced as owner/repo (e.g., ianphil/genesis-frontier). An optional @ref pins to a specific tag or branch.

Quick Example

> install ianphil/genesis-frontier

═══════════════════════════════════════════
  ✅ PACKAGE INSTALLED
  Source: ianphil/genesis-frontier@main
═══════════════════════════════════════════

Installed:
  📦 heartbeat v0.1.0 — 8 files
  📦 code-exec v0.1.0 — 12 files, npm installed
  📦 tunnel v0.1.0 — 6 files

Registry updated.

Commands

Command	What It Does
search <owner/repo>	Browse what a package offers
install <owner/repo>	Install all or selected items
install <owner/repo> --items a,b	Install specific items only
remove <owner/repo>	Uninstall all items from a package
list	Show all installed packages
check <owner/repo>	Compare installed vs remote versions

How It Works

1. Fetches the remote .github/registry.json from the package repo
2. Downloads files for each requested item
3. Runs npm install if a package.json exists in the item’s directory
4. Updates local .github/registry.json — both packages[] and top-level entries

Conflict Resolution

• Template items are authoritative — packages cannot overwrite genesis-owned extensions or skills
• Conflicts are skipped, not failed — one conflict doesn’t block other items
• Skipped items are reported with a reason

Rules

• Always shows search results before installing — lets you see and select
• Confirms before removing — removals delete directories
• Requires gh CLI to be authenticated

Reference

Full details: skill definition