Agent Skills Standard

The portable SDLC standards layer for AI coding agents. Sync once, then work in your own runtime.

Current release: cli-v2.6.5 — ags sync no longer rejects repo-root LICENSE/NOTICE against release manifests; the skill validator accepts package directories under scripts/ (needed by the draw.io diagram pipeline's schema_parsers/); builds on v2.6.1's OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10 hardening (skill-content lockfile, ags verify, enforcing hooks, secret/dependency scanning). See CHANGELOG.md.

280 ready-to-use coding standards for Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, Windsurf, Trae, Kiro, Roo and more — synced, versioned, and optimized to use 85% fewer tokens than traditional prompt engineering.

npx agent-skills-standard@latest init
npx agent-skills-standard@latest sync
# Done. Your AI now has portable team standards and SDLC workflows.

If ags -V still shows an old version after reinstalling, check your PATH order. ~/Library/pnpm must come before ~/Library/pnpm/bin, then run hash -r and verify with ags -V again.

Not an engineer? You don't need to run any of the above — just describe your idea to your AI agent. See Getting Started: Product Owner.

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The Problem

Every team has coding standards. But AI agents don't know them.

You end up repeating the same instructions: "Use OnPush change detection", "Always wrap errors with context", "No business logic in handlers". And every time, you face the same trade-off:

• Too many rules = AI forgets them, wastes tokens, gets confused
• Too few rules = AI writes generic code that doesn't match your standards
• Copy-paste .cursorrules = out of date in a week, doesn't scale to teams

The Solution

Agent Skills Standard turns your engineering rules into modular, version-controlled skills that any AI agent can load on demand.

Without Skills	With Skills
3,600+ token architect prompt in every chat	~500 token skill, loaded only when relevant
Rules drift across team members' prompts	Single source of truth, synced via CLI
Works in one AI tool, copy-paste to others	Works in Cursor, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, Windsurf, Trae, Kiro, Roo
AI scans all rules every time (slow, lossy)	Hierarchical lookup: ~25 lines scanned per edit

Not Another Agent Runtime

Agent Skills Standard does not force you into a new daily command system. ags is for setup, sync, validation, MCP wiring, and updates. After sync, your AI tool receives native assets:

• Claude/Roo/OpenCode commands
• Codex/Cursor/Trae skills
• Gemini TOML commands
• Copilot prompts
• Antigravity/Kiro workflow files
• MCP tools for runtime enforcement

You keep the files in your repo, customize them with .skillsrc and custom_overrides, and run workflows inside the agent you already use.

How It Works

You run: npx agent-skills-standard sync

What your AI gets:

1. AGENTS.md (router ~20 lines)
   "Editing *.ts? Check typescript/_INDEX.md"

2. typescript/_INDEX.md (trigger table)
   File Match:  typescript-language  *.ts, *.tsx, tsconfig.json
   Keyword:     typescript-security  validate, sanitize, auth

3. typescript-language/SKILL.md (loaded on demand)
   The actual rules — only when needed.

The AI loads only the skills that match the file being edited and the task at hand. No wasted tokens. No forgotten rules.

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Architecture & Token Economy

This project follows a Zero-Trust architectural model inspired by Rust Token Killer (RTK). Instead of injecting all rules into every prompt (which can cost 5,000+ tokens and cause "prompt loss"), we use a hierarchical loading system.

Detailed documentation is available in ARCHITECTURE.md, covering:

• Hierarchical Resolution: Router Table (AGENTS.md) -> Category Index (_INDEX.md) -> Skill (SKILL.md).
• Integration Taxonomy: Multi-agent bridge support for Cursor, Claude, Copilot, Windsurf, Trae, Roo, etc.
• High-Density Design: All skills must be < 100 lines and optimized for token economy.

Quick Start

1. Initialize

Detects your tech stack and creates a .skillsrc config:

npx agent-skills-standard@latest init

2. Sync

Downloads skills into your AI agent's folders, records ownership in .skills-lock.json v2, and generates the index:

npx agent-skills-standard@latest sync

Safe Install & Local Edits

• Edit Protection: User-modified owned files are preserved and reported; they are never silently overwritten.
• ags sync --dry-run: Preview what would change without modifying files.
• ags sync --dry-run --verbose: List every affected file path.
• ags sync --dry-run --json: Output the install plan as JSON for CI or automation.
• ags sync --force : Overwrite kept files after automatically backing them up.
• Scoped Backups: Pruned files and forced overwrites are saved to .ags/backups/ (latest 3 kept).
• Restore: Undo destructive changes with ags restore <id> or view backups with ags restore --list.
• Safe Uninstall: ags uninstall [--all] [--agent ] [--category <categories...>] removes only owned-unchanged files, preserving user edits and backing up first.

3. Code

Your AI agent now reads AGENTS.md automatically. Skills activate based on what file you're editing and what you ask for.

Works instantly with Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Trae, Kiro, and Roo. No plugin or extension needed — the CLI generates each agent's native format.

4. (Optional) Enable runtime enforcement via the MCP server

The CLI