Getting Started

Prerequisites

AKM requires two tools:

  • jq – JSON processor 
    # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install jq

# macOS
brew install jq
  • git – For skills sync, repo detection, and artifact sync

Install

Clone the repository and run the installer:

git clone https://github.com/akm-rs/akm ~/akm
bash ~/akm/install.sh

The installer places the akm binary in ~/.local/bin/ and the shell integration in ~/.local/share/akm/shell/.

Setup

Run the interactive setup wizard:

akm setup

Setup asks three things:

  1. Enable skills? (Y) – Installs the cold library and sets up three-layer activation
  2. Use Skillverse? (Y) – Configures Skillverse as your default skills remote
  3. Enable artifacts/instructions? – Configure artifact sync and global instructions

The happy path is Enter through everything – defaults work out of the box.

Verify

Open a new terminal (or source ~/.bashrc), then check your installation:

# Full status overview
akm skills status

# Browse installed skills
akm skills list

Shell Wrappers

akm setup wires akm-init.sh into your .bashrc, which provides wrapper functions for claude, copilot, and opencode. These wrappers automatically:

  1. Pull latest artifacts (if enabled)
  2. Create a per-session skills staging directory with manifest specs loaded
  3. Pass artifact and staging dirs to the tool via --add-dir
  4. On exit: destroy staging dir, commit+push artifacts (if auto-push enabled)

This means you just type claude or copilot as usual – AKM handles skills and artifacts transparently.

Next Steps