⚡ Axen

A configuration-driven CLI to manage and sync AI Agent Skills across multiple targets and sources.

Axen allows you to subscribe to multiple skill registries (sources like Git repositories, local directories, or HTTP URLs) and deploy them automatically to the configuration folders of 60+ AI assistants (targets like Cursor, Windsurf, Roo Code, and more).

# 1. Install Axen (macOS & Linux)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harishphk/axen/main/install.sh | sh

# 2. Add a skill registry
axen source add https://github.com/example/agent-skills.git

# 3. Deploy to all your editors automatically
axen install

Managing AI Agent Skills across multiple editors and projects is frustrating:

• 🧩 Target Fragmentation: Every AI agent target expects skill packages in different directories (e.g., .cursor/skills/, .windsurf/skills/, or .roo/skills/).
• ✍️ Manual Deployment: Copying and maintaining skill packages across multiple workspaces, machines, and tools is tedious.
• 🥀 Stale Skills: When skill creators release updates, your locally installed skills become outdated because there is no automated sync mechanism.

Axen is a CLI tool that acts as a decentralized package manager for AI Agent Skills. Define your skill sources once, and Axen automatically syncs and deploys your skills across all your local AI agent targets instantly.

┌─────────────────────────┐
│  Decentralized Sources  │ ── (Git Repos, Local Folders, HTTP URLs)
└────────────┬────────────┘
             │
             │ axen source add <url|path>
             ▼
      ┌─────────────┐
      │  AXEN CLI   │ ◄─── Config-Driven Manifest (axen.json)
      └──────┬──────┘
             │
             │ axen install
             ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│  60+ Universal Targets  │ ── (Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot, Roo, etc.)
└─────────────────────────┘

• ⚡ Multi-Source Support: Fetch and install skills directly from remote Git repositories, local directories, or HTTP URLs. Add multiple sources to aggregate registries.
• ⚙️ Config-Based Tracking: Axen maintains state through a declarative axen.json manifest and an axen-lock.json lockfile. This ensures repeatable, idempotent installations and easy configuration sharing.
• 🔍 Intelligent Auto-Detection: Automatically resolves installation paths across Windows, macOS, and Linux for Cursor, Windsurf, Roo Code, and 60+ other AI agents. No path configuration needed.
• 🔄 Single-Command Updates: Keep all your installed skills up to date. Running axen update fetches the latest upstream changes, deploys them, and prunes orphaned files.
• 🛠 Skill Scaffolding: Use axen create <name> to instantly scaffold a new skill package with a standardized layout (SKILL.md, scripts/, references/) ready to share.
• 🎛 Granular Control & Conflict Resolution: Choose exactly which skills go to which targets using --skills and --targets flags, and handle source overlaps gracefully with interactive conflict prompts.
• 🧪 Safe Previews: Support for --dry-run across all destructive commands (install, remove, update) to let you preview exactly which files will be added or deleted.
• 🩺 Built-in Diagnostics: Run axen doctor to instantly check folder permissions, lockfile integrity, and identify orphaned skill directories in your environment.

Axen natively maps paths for 60+ AI tools across Unix/macOS and Windows, sorted by popularity:

• GitHub Copilot (.copilot/skills/)
• Cursor Editor (.cursor/skills/)
• Windsurf Editor (.windsurf/skills/)
• Continue.dev (.continue/skills/)
• Claude CLI / Desktop (.claude/skills/)
• Aider AI (.aider-desk/skills/)
• Roo Cline (Roo Code) (.roo/skills/)
• Devin (.config/devin/skills/)
• OpenHands (.openhands/skills/)
• Block Goose (.config/goose/skills/)

👉 For the complete list of all 60+ targets and their exact system paths, see the Supported AI Tools Documentation.

Install Axen globally using our quick-installation script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harishphk/axen/main/install.sh | sh

Install Axen globally using PowerShell (installs to %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin and automatically configures your PATH):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harishphk/axen/main/install.ps1 | iex

Note: If you encounter execution policy restrictions, allow scripts for the current user and run again:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser -Force
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harishphk/axen/main/install.ps1 | iex

Be sure to restart your terminal or PowerShell window after installation so axen is available in your PATH.

You can also download standalone pre-built .exe and binary archives for Windows (amd64 / arm64), macOS, and Linux directly from our GitHub Releases page.

go install github.com/harishphk/axen/cmd/axen@latest

Get started using Axen to download and manage AI agent skills in under 30 seconds.

Add a remote git repository containing agent skills to your local registry:

axen source add https://github.com/example/agent-skills.git

Install skills into your detected AI agent targets. Axen will automatically detect which editors (Cursor, Windsurf, etc.) you have installed:

axen install agent-skills

Tip: Run with -d / --dry-run first to preview the installation plan safely!

View all active sources, installed skills, and their corresponding target installation directories:

axen list

Keep all your installed prompt libraries up to date with upstream changes:

axen update

If you want to package and distribute your own prompts, instructions, or rules using Axen:

Create an axen.json manifest in the root of your git repository:

axen init

Scaffold a standardized skill folder structure (adds SKILL.md, scripts/, and references/ directories):

axen create <skill-name>

List your skills and define installation bundles. Here is an example manifest structure:

{
  "axen_version": "1",
  "name": "my-skills",
  "targets": ["cursor", "windsurf"],
  "skills": {
    "deploy-to-vercel": {
      "path": "skills/deploy-to-vercel/SKILL.md",
      "version": "1.0.0"
    },
    "deploy-to-netlify": {
      "path": "skills/deploy-to-netlify/SKILL.md",
      "version": "1.0.0"
    }
  },
  "bundles": {
    "deploy": {
      "description": "Skills for cloud deployments",
      "skills": ["deploy-to-vercel", "deploy-to-netlify"],
      "is_default": true
    }
  }
}

• Skills: Individual components containing target configurations and paths to a SKILL.md file.
• Bundles: Groups of related skills.
  • If a bundle has "is_default": true, Axen automatically installs it when running axen install <source> without flags.
  • You can install specific bundles using the -b / --bundle flag: axen install agent-skills -b deploy.
  • You can remove specific bundles using: axen remove agent-skills -b deploy.

{
  "axen_version": "1",
  "namespaces": {
    "agent-skills": {
      "source": "https://github.com/example/agent-skills.git",
      "type": "git",
      "ref": "main",
      "updated_at": "2026-05-30T12:00:00Z",
      "sync_all": true,
      "skills": {
        "installed": {
          "deploy-to-vercel": {
            "version": "1.0.0",
            "targets": [
              "cursor",
              "windsurf"
            ]
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

For deep dives into Axen's architecture and advanced usage:

• Full Documentation Site
• Core Concepts Guide
• Configuration Schema Reference

For developers working on the Axen CLI codebase, a Makefile is provided in the root directory to simplify local tasks:

make build          # Compile the CLI runner to ./bin/axen
make test           # Run Go unit tests
make test-e2e       # Run testscript E2E integration tests
make lint           # Execute golangci-lint
make gosec          # Execute local security scans
make clean          # Remove ./bin/ and coverage files

We welcome contributions! Please review our:

• Contributing Guidelines for local dev setup and commit styles.
• Code of Conduct to understand community standards.

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.