Agent Extension Standards

Agent Extension Standards

Ground extension work in the current research substrate. Do not reuse remembered Claude-only marketplace assumptions or flatten the two harnesses into a generic plugin format.

Load the applicable contract

Read .research/analysis/briefs/current-agent-extension-standards.md before making an architectural or behavioral decision in this domain.

Load a specialist brief when exact native details matter:

• Codex: .research/analysis/campaigns/marketplace-standards/specialists/codex.md
• Claude Code: .research/analysis/campaigns/marketplace-standards/specialists/claude.md
• Agent Skills: .research/analysis/campaigns/marketplace-standards/specialists/agent-skills.md

Use attestations under .research/attestation/ for source-direct verification. Treat specialist briefs and the parent synthesis as analytical guidance, not primary sources. Never cite .research/.import-holding/ as evidence.

Preserve these boundaries

• Treat a skill as its complete directory with top-level SKILL.md. Never manage only the Markdown file when sibling resources exist.
• Use .agents/skills/ as skilltap's canonical portable placement when the skill is compatible. Create harness-native links or copies through adapters.
• Keep Codex and Claude plugin manifests, catalogs, identities, caches, scopes, consent, and update semantics distinct.
• Prefer deterministic native marketplace and plugin operations. Do not mutate a native plugin cache as an installation API.
• Keep ~/AGENTS.md as skilltap's canonical global instruction file and model ~/.codex/AGENTS.md and ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md as native bridges, including their precedence and divergence hazards.
• Separate desired skilltap state, native declared state, and effective installed state.
• Classify transfer as faithful, materializable, partial, or blocked. Surface material consequences for piecewise operation-scoped approval.
• Register only sources selected by the user. Do not add search, browsing, ranking, recommendation, or inventory-discovery behavior.

Check freshness

The authoritative brief is dated 2026-07-10 and carries explicit revisit triggers. When a decision depends on a native command, schema, path, or lifecycle that may have changed, verify the current official primary source. If the contract moved, refresh the .research/ attestations and synthesis before changing foundation docs or implementation.