Packslip Completions and Skills

Tools installed with the Packslip backend can provide shell completions and agent skills that match the version active in your project. The publisher declares these resources in the release manifest.

Install the tool through packslip: to use its declared resources. An existing installation from another backend does not acquire them automatically.

Completions

mise supports tool completions for zsh, bash, fish, and PowerShell. The installed completion file follows the tool version active in each project, so you do not need to reinstall completions after changing versions.

Use completions

With mise activated, completions become available when an installed tool is active in your project. For example:

mise use packslip:github.com/jdx/hk

Run mise exec -- hk --version to verify the installation, then type hk and press Tab in an activated shell. hk publishes native completion scripts for bash, zsh, fish, and PowerShell, so no extra setup command or usage installation is needed. mise registers a loader in the shell; it reads the publisher's script only when you complete a command. Switching projects or tool versions selects the matching completion, and leaving the project removes its registration.

Manual setup without shell activation

For tools that declare completions in their Packslip manifest, mise can install a completion file that loads those resources. Replace TOOL below with the executable's name:

Follow any one-time setup instructions printed by the command, then load the completion file or start a new shell. mise writes the completion file but does not edit your shell configuration. It preserves an existing file it did not create unless you pass --force.

To print a completion script without installing it, omit --install:

mise completion zsh --tool TOOL

--tool takes the command name, not a backend identifier such as packslip:github.com/jdx/hk. If a release contains several commands, choose the one you want to complete. Without --tool, mise completion generates completions for mise itself.

Generated completions

A publisher can provide a completion file, a static usage CLI specification, or a command that generates either one. mise prefers static sources. A usage-derived completion uses the engine embedded in mise; you do not need to install usage separately.

If a completion needs a publisher's generator command, mise runs it on demand and caches successful output for the installed version, executable, and shell. This can happen during tab completion or a direct mise completion --tool invocation. It does not run the publisher's tool merely at shell startup.

::: info packslip.exec controls resource generation during installation. Setting it to false does not disable on-demand completion generation. :::

Skills

A skill is a directory containing SKILL.md and any supporting files. mise fetches declared skills during tool installation by default, so different tool versions can carry different skill content. Use mise skills ls to inspect the skills fetched for active tools; a tool without declared skills has none to synchronize.

Inspect skills from the tools active in your project:

mise skills ls
mise skills ls --json

Link them where your agent reads skills:

mise skills sync --dir .agents/skills

These are local symlinks, not portable copies of the skill. Keep generated links out of version control and have each developer run sync on their own machine. The directory can also contain handwritten skills; mise preserves those.

Each link points into the active tool version's install directory. Run sync after a version change to update the links. mise preserves user-created directories and unrelated links, reporting any conflicting names as skipped.

Choose a skill directory

Without --dir, sync uses .claude/skills under the nearest mise project root. Set skills.dir to use your agent's preferred directory. --dir overrides the setting for one invocation.

mise skills sync --global resolves the configured directory under your home folder instead; with the default setting, that is ~/.claude/skills. An absolute directory is used as written.

Keep project links up to date

Configure the skill directory and enable synchronization after mise install and mise use:

[settings.skills]
dir = ".agents/skills"
auto_sync = true
prune = true

prune = true removes mise-owned links for skills no longer active. Without it, stale links remain. To prune on one manual run:

mise skills sync --dir .agents/skills --prune

The configuration above belongs in the project's mise.toml or your global settings, depending on where you want it to apply.

Automatic sync requires a mise project root. It does not run just because you change directories. Reload skills in your agent if it does not detect changes automatically.

Choose whether to fetch or generate skills

A skill can come from the artifact, a separate signed asset, or the source repository at the release commit. Fetching these files does not execute the tool. A skill provided only through an exec command is generated during installation when packslip.exec is enabled. That command runs the newly installed executable and must print SKILL.md content.

Turning off skills.fetch skips future fetching; it does not delete previously fetched files or existing links. Use sync with pruning to remove links to skills that are no longer active.

Resource selection and command execution

The following details apply when a release offers multiple sources for a resource.

Source selection

Resources can target an exact artifact filename or a platform. mise selects resources for the artifact it installed, preferring an exact artifact match, then the most specific platform match. Different executables, shells, and skill names identify separate resources.

For equally specific alternatives, mise prefers a file inside the artifact, then a separate signed asset, then a source-repository file. Static CLI specs follow the same ordering. Declaration order breaks ties within a source type. A usable higher-priority skill source prevents fetching or running lower ones. A directory counts as a skill only when SKILL.md is present.

For completions, mise first tries a supplied completion file, then a static usage CLI spec, then a command that generates a completion or CLI spec. Selection is specific to the installed artifact, executable, and shell.

Separate resource assets must match their signed digests; repository resources are pinned to the release's source commit. A missing optional resource can leave the tool installed without it. A digest mismatch is a verification failure.

Generation and caching

Concurrent requests for the same generated completion share the work. Empty output, a failure, or a timeout is not cached; mise tries the next source. Static completion files are read directly from the installation without writing a cache, so they also work from read-only or shared installs.

When mise runs a resource generator, it:

• Adds the installed executables to PATH and applies the manifest's environment variables, expanding {shell} for completion resources.
• Uses a temporary working directory, no stdin, and discarded stderr.
• Enforces a five-second deadline and a 4 MiB output limit, and cleans up child processes after completion, failure, timeout, or cancellation.

These limits do not sandbox the executable. The backend verification checks establish which publisher's executable is being used.

How completion files follow the active version {#follow-the-active-version}

The installed completion file delegates to mise when you complete a command. After you change directories or select another version with mise use, the next completion uses that directory's active version.

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Troubleshooting

For exact flags, see mise completion, mise skills ls, and mise skills sync. Publishers can follow the Packslip resources guide to add these declarations to their releases.