Loadout

One desktop app to manage AI agent skills across every coding tool.

A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md. Loadout keeps every skill in one library (~/.loadout) and deploys it, by symlink or copy, into the skills folder of each agent you use: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and 49 more.

Install

Download the installer for your system from the latest release.

The builds are not signed with an Apple or Windows certificate yet, so macOS and Windows ask for one extra click the first time. docs/INSTALL.md says which file to pick and exactly what to click on macOS, Windows and Linux. After the first start, Loadout updates itself.

Screenshots

Library. Every skill in one place, with its source, tags and the agents it is deployed to.

A skill. The rendered SKILL.md, its files, where it came from, and switches per agent.

Editor. Edit any file of a skill with a live preview. Every save keeps the version it replaced.

An agent. Everything in the agent's skills folder, its instruction file, and presets to apply in one click.

A project. Skills that live inside a project, per agent, with the project's instruction files.

Install. Browse the skills.sh marketplace, or install from a folder, a .zip, a Git repository or a link.

Colours. Four palettes (Flight gear, Blueprint, Risograph, Iris & butter), each with a light and a dark version. Pick one in Settings or from the status bar; Loadout remembers it.

Features

• Library: one folder for every skill, with search, tags, filters, batch actions and checks against the Agent Skills format.
• Editor: edit any file of a skill with a live preview, the last 20 versions kept, and no silent overwrite of changes made on disk.
• Install: from a folder, an archive (.zip, .skill, .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz), a download link, a Git repository (Git itself is optional) or the skills.sh marketplace.
• Agents: 54 agents built in and found automatically, plus custom agents, custom folders and agents inside WSL.
• Deploying: give a skill to any agent in one click, by symlink or copy, without ever touching a folder Loadout didn't create.
• Instruction files: edit CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, GEMINI.md and the rest, globally and per project.
• Agent workspaces: see everything in an agent's skills folder, compare it with the library, and adopt skills installed elsewhere.
• Presets: named groups of skills you turn on for an agent or a project in one click.
• Projects: manage the skills inside each project, per agent, and keep them in step with the library.
• Skill updates: check sources on a schedule, see what an update would change, then update one skill or all of them.
• Backup and sync: back the library up to a private Git repository and keep several computers in step, with conflicts you resolve.
• Command line: a loadout CLI with JSON output, and a bundled skill that lets your agents manage skills themselves.
• App updates: Loadout updates itself and checks every download against the release checksum.
• Storage: everything lives in ~/.loadout, with sizes, clean-up, a movable library and a remove-everything button.
• App: dashboard, command palette (⌘K), keyboard shortcuts, four colour palettes in light and dark, tray icon and status bar.

Every feature in detail, current limitations and what still needs testing: docs/FEATURES.md.

Run locally

1. Install Node.js 22.12 or newer and Git. Use the pnpm version pinned in the packageManager field of package.json, currently 12.4.2:

   npm install --global pnpm@12.4.2

2. Open a terminal in your Loadout checkout. For this machine:

   cd /Users/pankaj/Projects/personal/loadout

   On another machine, use the folder where you cloned this repository.

3. Confirm the tools are available:

   node --version
   pnpm --version
   git --version

4. Install the project dependencies:

   pnpm install

5. Start the app:

   pnpm dev

   This builds the CLI and opens the Electron desktop app with development reload. Keep the terminal running. The real app opens in its own window; you do not need to open a browser or start a separate backend.

6. Stop development with Ctrl+C in that terminal. Run pnpm dev again next time.

No .env file or GitHub sign-in is required for basic local use. The default library is ~/.loadout; development uses your real library and agent folders.

First use

1. If the first-run backup prompt appears, choose to start fresh or restore an existing backup.
2. Open Install and import a local folder/archive, a Git repository, or a marketplace skill.
3. Open Agents, select an agent, and use Add Skills to deploy skills from the library. Installing into the library alone does not deploy a skill to an agent.
4. Use Presets to group skills, or add a project to manage its project-local skills.
5. Optionally configure Git backup. A personal access token or Git remote URL works now; GitHub device sign-in requires an OAuth Client ID in Settings → Backup.

CLI examples

Run these from the repository root:

pnpm cli --help
pnpm cli skills list
pnpm cli agents list
pnpm cli skills install /path/to/my-skill
pnpm cli skills deploy my-skill --agent claude_code --agent codex
pnpm cli skills status my-skill

Replace the example path, skill name and agent keys with your own. The app also publishes the CLI to ~/.loadout/bin/loadout when it starts. To let an agent manage skills, use the agent-control setup card on the Dashboard.

Without the app, install the CLI from npm (Node.js 22.13 or newer):

pnpm add -g @antick/loadout
loadout --help

Development commands

Command	What it does
pnpm dev	Build the CLI, then start the app with reload
pnpm check	oxlint, oxfmt check, typecheck, all tests
pnpm test	vitest across packages
pnpm build	Build the CLI and desktop app
pnpm format	Format with oxfmt
pnpm package	Build installers into apps/desktop/release
pnpm cli …	Run the CLI from source

Website

apps/landing is the landing page at loadout.potion.sh, an Astro static site. pnpm exec turbo run build --filter=@loadout/landing builds it. Vercel builds and serves it from vercel.json; links such as where installers are downloaded live in apps/landing/src/lib/site.ts. The agent list on the page comes from @loadout/shared, so it always matches the app.

Releases

GitHub Actions runs pnpm check on Linux and macOS for every push to main and every pull request (.github/workflows/ci.yml).

Installers are published as GitHub releases of this repository. The app's update check reads latest.json from the newest published release, and the landing page links there.

.github/workflows/release.yml builds macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel, DMG and ZIP), Windows (NSIS installer) and Linux (AppImage and DEB, x64 and arm64) installers and the standalone CLI executables. It then writes latest.json (version, and per system the download link, size and SHA-256) with apps/desktop/scripts/update-feed.mjs, and puts everything in a draft release.

Cut a release

1. Set the new version in apps/desktop/package.json and commit it.

2. Tag the commit with that version and push the tag, for example for 0.2.0:

   git tag v0.2.0
   git push origin v0.2.0

   Or run Release builds by hand from this repository's Actions tab.

3. When the workflow finishes, open github.com/antick/loadout/releases, check the draft and click Publish release.

Publishing puts the release live. Every running copy of Loadout offers it within six hours, or right away through Settings → About → Check for updates. A draft is invisible to users and to the update check.

A tag that doesn't match the version in apps/desktop/package.json stops the workflow. Don't mark a release as a pre-release: the update check only sees the newest full release.

The workflow signs latest.json with an ed25519 key (repository secret UPDATE_FEED_SIGNING_KEY) and uploads latest.json.sig. From 0.2.1 on, the app ignores a feed without a valid signature from that key; its public half is UPDATE_FEED_PUBLIC_KEY in packages/shared/src/constants.ts. Keep a copy of the private key somewhere safe (a password manager): losing it means shipping one more release signed with it that carries a new public key, which is impossible without it.

Publish the CLI to npm

The CLI is also on npm as @antick/loadout, at the app's version. After publishing a release:

1. Sign in once: pnpm login (an npm account that owns the antick scope).
2. Build the package: pnpm --filter @loadout/cli run pack:npm. It lands in packages/cli/dist/npm: a small launcher, the bundled CLI, a README and the licence.
3. Publish it: cd packages/cli/dist/npm && pnpm publish --access public.

npm refuses to publish the same version twice, so bump apps/desktop/package.json first.

Test an update locally

Updates can be tried end to end on one Mac without publishing anything:

1. Build two versions: pnpm build, then in apps/desktop run pnpm exec electron-builder --config electron-builder.yml --mac zip --arm64 --publish never once as is and once with -c.extraMetadata.version=0.1.1 added.
2. Unzip the older zip somewhere you can write to, with ditto -x -k <zip> <folder>.
3. Put the newer zip in its own folder. Write its feed with node apps/desktop/scripts/update-feed.mjs <folder> --version 0.1.1 --base-url http://127.0.0.1:8765, and serve the folder with python3 -m http.server 8765 --bind 127.0.0.1.
4. Start the older app with LOADOUT_UPDATE_FEED=http://127.0.0.1:8765/latest.json set, and click Update, then Restart now.

LOADOUT_UPDATE_FEED is also the only way a development build (pnpm dev) checks for updates; a development build never replaces itself.

Layout

Path	Purpose
apps/desktop	Electron main, preload and the React renderer
apps/landing	Landing page at loadout.potion.sh
packages/core	All behaviour, plain Node TypeScript (no Electron)
packages/cli	The loadout command-line tool
packages/shared	Types, API contract, events, settings, formatters

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the rules and docs/PLAN.md for the feature checklist, and TODO.md for pending work.

License

Loadout is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0-only). You may use, change and share it. If you distribute it or a changed version, you must share the source under the same license.