Axi Skills

AXI-in-skill: bake an AXI CLI into a skill

This skill is a supplement to the axi skill, scoped to one specific job: shipping an axi-sdk-js CLI inside a Claude Code skill so a single npx skills add <owner>/<repo> delivers a ready-to-run, agent-facing tool with no install step.

Division of labor — keep them straight:

If you're deciding what a command should output, that's the axi skill. If you're deciding how the tool gets built and installed, you're in the right place.

When this pattern is worth it

The deciding question is does the tool make sense as a standalone install? A general-purpose tool an agent would reach for in any repo does — publish it to npm and let agents run it via npx -y mytool (the lavish-axi model). The AXI-in-skill pattern is for tools that don't stand alone. Three cases (building on agent-skills#7):

1. The tool only makes sense alongside a skill. It's significantly more usable as part of a skill that supplies the broader functionality or usage protocols the tool assumes. The canonical example, specops: the CLI is a thin determinism layer (readiness, ordering, the DAG) over a files-first methodology — it's near-meaningless without the spec/plan protocol the skill teaches. Shipping the protocol (prose) and the tool together is the whole point.
2. A skill needs helper scripts, and those scripts benefit from AXI principles. When a skill would ship helper scripts anyway, building them as an AXI gets TOON output, structured errors, content-first home views, and a session hook "for free" — worth it once the scripts do enough that output quality matters.
3. You want private distribution. For a tool you don't want on a public registry, npx skills add <owner>/<private-repo> is a better distribution channel than publishing to npm — the committed bundle means a clone just runs, no registry, no install.

If none of these hold — the tool is genuinely standalone and public — prefer npm. And if the scripts are trivial and rarely called, a couple of plain zero-dep scripts beat any build pipeline.

The core idea: a committed, self-contained bundle

One esbuild step compiles your TypeScript CLI source into a single .mjs with every dependency inlined (axi-sdk-js, @toon-format/toon, …), committed into the skill's scripts/. It runs under plain node ≥ 20 on any machine that has only the skill installed — no npm install, no node_modules, no npm publish. The repo is the skill.

Two alternatives were tried and rejected for this use case:

• Publish to npm, call via npx -y mytool — splits the code across repos and adds a release pipeline, and the tool is fetched from the registry on demand (needs network; no good for private/offline/reproducible cases). Fine for a standalone public tool — the lavish-axi skill is the public example of this model — but overkill when the CLI lives with the skill and must run offline.
• A bootstrap wrapper that npm installs on first call — adds per-machine first-run friction. agent-skills#7 concluded: the committed-bundle route works; drop the bootstrap wrapper.

Choose your repo layout

The recipe is identical; only paths change. Three real shapes:

1. Single-skill repo (canonical: specops) — CLI source in src/cli/, one skill in skills/<name>/. Start here if you can; it shows the pattern in isolation.
2. Multi-skill repo (canonical: claude-assist) — several skills, one shared build. build-cli.ts and build-skill.ts each iterate a TARGETS array; source lives in packages/*/src/axi/.
3. CLI alongside a server app — CLI in src/cli/ shares types with the server; the bundle is committed under skills/<name>/scripts/. One repo, no cross-repo drift.

What you'll end up with

<repo>/
  src/cli/                      # CLI source (or packages/*/src/axi/ for multi-skill)
    bin.ts                      # entry: await main()
    cli.ts                      # runAxiCli() wiring + command registry
    reference.ts                # SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH: DESCRIPTION + COMMAND_GROUPS
    invocation.ts               # cliInvocation() — resolved path for emitted examples
    skill.ts                    # spliceGeneratedRegions() — SKILL.md marker splicer
    commands/{home,hook,...}.ts # handlers (home doubles as the hook payload)
  scripts/
    build-cli.ts                # esbuild → committed .mjs, version-stamp, --check drift gate
    build-skill.ts              # splice generated regions into SKILL.md, --check
  skills/<name>/
    SKILL.md                    # hand-authored prose + machine-generated regions
    scripts/
      <tool>                    # bash shim (executable) — the documented invocation
      <tool>.mjs                # COMMITTED self-contained bundle (linguist-generated)
  .gitattributes                # marks <tool>.mjs linguist-generated
  .github/workflows/check.yml   # type-check + drift gate (--check) + tests
  package.json                  # devDeps: axi-sdk-js, @toon-format/toon, esbuild (pinned)

Ready-to-adapt versions of every build/config file are in references/templates/.

The recipe

Work top to bottom; each step has a deep-dive reference and a template.

1. Add build deps (pinned). axi-sdk-js, @toon-format/toon, esbuild as devDependencies, pinned to exact versions so the committed bundle's bytes are reproducible. Add npm scripts build:cli, build:skill, and a combined check that runs both with --check.

2. Make reference.ts the single source of truth. Export DESCRIPTION and a COMMAND_GROUPS array of {group, commands:[{usage, summary}]}. The home view's help, the --help text, and the generated SKILL.md region all derive from this one structure — so the skill doc can never drift from the implementation. See references/skill-md-generation.md.

3. Wire cli.ts with runAxiCli(). Register home, your commands, and a hook command. Watch the two SDK quirks that bite everyone (flags-before-command rejected; the home view is zero-arg) — both covered in references/build-pipeline.md and references/session-hooks.md.

4. Emit resolved invocation paths, never bare names. The bundle is not on PATH. Use cliInvocation() (template: references/templates/invocation.ts) so every emitted example, help line, and hook hint points at the real path. A bare mytool makes an agent assume it's on PATH and the call fails. Detail in references/build-pipeline.md.

5. Build the bundle + shim. scripts/build-cli.ts runs esbuild, stamps the version from git describe, and offers a --check drift gate. Commit <tool>.mjs and an executable bash shim <tool>. Full reasoning (incl. the version-normalization trick) in references/build-pipeline.md.

6. Generate the SKILL.md command reference. Mark a region with <!-- BEGIN/END GENERATED: command-reference --> and let build-skill.ts splice it from COMMAND_GROUPS. Prose outside the markers is never touched. See references/skill-md-generation.md.

7. Add the SessionStart hook command. hook install|uninstall|status with project (default) and global scope, built on the SDK's computeSessionStartHookUpdate. The project/global path distinction (${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR} vs absolute) is the subtle part — see references/session-hooks.md.

8. Split home from dashboard (if you have live data). A lean, offline-safe home (identity + reference) for the cheap every-session global hook; a richer dashboard (live state) for on-demand or project-scoped use. See references/home-vs-dashboard.md.

9. Gate drift in CI. A check.yml that runs type-check and bun run check (both --check builds) with fetch-depth: 0 so git describe is stable. Template: references/templates/check.yml.

Hard-won gotchas (the ones that cost hours)

These are distilled from building specops and claude-assist (and other internal AXI tools), and are enumerated upstream in kunchenguid/axi#46. Internalize them before you start — most are invisible until they bite.

• A .mjs-named bundle never auto-installs hooks. The SDK infers auto-install from the bin filename and silently no-ops on any filename containing a .. So you don't pass hooks: false (it isn't even in the published AxiCliOptions type in 0.1.7) — you manage hooks explicitly via your hook command and rely on this implicit no-op.
• runAxiCli rejects flags before the command. mytool --dir x fails ("Flags must come after the command"). The no-args home view is therefore strictly zero-arg — it can't take a leading --dir. Lean on the SessionStart working directory instead, or register an explicit home command for the flag-bearing form.
• The bundle is not on PATH. Always emit resolved paths via cliInvocation().
• Version drift would fail --check forever. Committing the bundle changes the git sha (and CI may lack tags), so the embedded git describe version always differs. Normalize the version literal out of both sides before comparing — covered in references/build-pipeline.md.
• Write doesn't set +x. The shim and .mjs must be committed executable (chmod 755).
• os.homedir() ignores $HOME. Don't try to fake $HOME to test global hook install — it writes to your real ~/.claude/settings.json. Install-then-uninstall against the real path and assert other hooks survive.
• Mark the bundle linguist-generated in .gitattributes so the giant generated .mjs collapses in PR diffs.

Templates

references/templates/ holds adaptable starting points — copy, then rename mytool/MyTool to your CLI:

• build-cli.ts — esbuild bundle + version stamp + --check drift gate
• build-skill.ts — SKILL.md region splicer (single- and multi-skill TARGETS forms)
• invocation.ts — cliInvocation() resolved-path helper
• skill.ts — spliceGeneratedRegions() marker engine + COMMAND_GROUPS → markdown
• shim — the three-line bash shim
• gitattributes — the linguist-generated line
• check.yml — the CI drift gate