Adapter Pattern

The CLI uses a formal adapter pattern to support 42 agents through a single codebase. Each agent gets its own adapter that handles path generation, config rendering, and format detection.

Interface: AgentAdapter#

Every agent adapter implements this interface:

interface AgentAdapter {
    readonly name: string;          // Internal key, e.g. "cursor"
    readonly displayName: string;   // Human-readable, e.g. "Cursor"

    getProjectDir(): string;        // Relative project-level skill directory
    getGlobalDir(): string;         // Absolute global skill directory
    getConfigPath(skillName: string, global: boolean): string;
    generateConfig(parsed: ParsedSkillInput): string;
    supportsFormat(format: string): boolean;
    getSkillFilename(): string;     // Usually "SKILL.md"
}

Base class: BaseAdapter#

Shared logic lives in BaseAdapter. It handles path joining, standard SKILL.md rendering with frontmatter, and format detection. Agent-specific adapters extend it.

AgentAdapter (interface)
  └── BaseAdapter (abstract class)
        ├── CursorAdapter      → .cursor/skills
        ├── ClaudeAdapter      → .claude/skills
        ├── CopilotAdapter     → .github/skills
        └── UniversalAdapter   → .{agentname}/skills (handles remaining 39 agents)

Factory: getAdapter(agentName)#

A cached factory function returns the right adapter for any agent name. Specialized adapters handle Cursor, Claude, and Copilot. All other agents route through UniversalAdapter, which reads agent configuration from the registry.

# The factory is used internally by install, export, and convert commands
skills install @facebook/verify -a cursor    # Uses CursorAdapter
skills export -t claude                      # Uses ClaudeAdapter
skills export -t windsurf                    # Uses UniversalAdapter("windsurf")

Adding a new agent#

To add agent support:

1. •Add the agent config to src/cli/agents.ts (name, displayName, projectDir, globalDir)
2. •The UniversalAdapter picks it up automatically
3. •For custom behavior, create a new adapter extending BaseAdapter