Good agent artifacts are spread across hundreds of repos. Installing a whole plugin to get one skill drags in agents, hooks and MCP servers you didn't want, under names you don't control, at whatever commit is current today. ipm lets you follow the repos, search everything in them, and build exactly the parts you want into a plugin of your own.
Read the documentation on the site, or start with getting started or install below. ipm is MIT licensed.
See it
Search every repo you follow, with keyword and semantic matching, on your machine:
$ ipm search "c# testing" --limit 3
SCORE TYPE NAME REPO ★ PLUGINS
71 agent csharp-pro wshobson/agents 40.3k jvm-languages
agent:wshobson/agents:plugins/jvm-languages/agents/csharp-pro.md
65 copilot-plugin csharp-dotnet-development github/awesome-copilot 39.9k —
copilot-plugin:github/awesome-copilot:plugins/csharp-dotnet-development
24 skill dotnet-backend-patterns wshobson/agents 40.3k dotnet-contribution
skill:wshobson/agents:plugins/dotnet-contribution/skills/dotnet-backend-patterns
Each hit's ID, under it, is what ipm show, ipm show tree and ipm pack add take.
Pick what you want into a pack, and build it:
$ ipm pack add csharp-sdlc \
skill:wshobson/agents:plugins/dotnet-contribution/skills/dotnet-backend-patterns \
agent:wshobson/agents:plugins/jvm-languages/agents/csharp-pro.md \
command:wshobson/agents:plugins/accessibility-compliance/commands/accessibility-audit.md \
'plugin:anthropics/claude-plugins-official#stripe'
$ ipm pack build
✓ csharp-sdlc: 3 item(s), 1 plugin dependency(ies)
validate: ok
Install in Claude Code: ipm install claude
Or wire it yourself:
claude plugin marketplace add ./.ipm
In Claude Code the skill, agent and command load as csharp-sdlc:<name>, and the Stripe plugin comes along as a pinned dependency.
Why it is different
- Pinned and reproducible. Every picked item is locked to a commit in
.ipm/ipm.lock. Commit it, and a teammate's ipm pack build builds the same plugin from the same commits, without your catalog.
- pnpm does the fetching. Your repos are git dependencies of one pnpm project, so fetching, pinning, a content-addressable store and cheap upgrades come from pnpm.
- No upstream code runs. pnpm always runs with
--ignore-scripts, repos' own npm dependencies are never installed, and a teammate's ipm.toml or lock can't make ipm read or write outside its folders.
- Your namespace. Picked items load under your pack's name. Whole plugins keep theirs and come with their hooks and MCP servers.
- Relationships, not just files. The catalog knows which plugin owns which skill and which marketplaces list which plugins, so
ipm show tree and ipm show graph show where anything comes from.
How it works
ipm marketplace shows the curated repos; ipm marketplace add records the repos you follow.ipm catalog sync has pnpm fetch each repo and pin it to a commit, then catalogs every repo, marketplace, plugin, skill, agent, command, hook and MCP server in them.ipm search runs hybrid keyword and semantic search over the catalog on a local Typesense server.ipm pack add picks skills, agents, commands and whole plugins into a pack in your project's ipm.toml.ipm pack build builds each pack into a Claude Code plugin and marketplace under .ipm/, and validates it. ipm install claude builds when needed and installs a pack into Claude Code at user, project or local scope, when you ask.
Install
You need Go 1.26+, pnpm 12+ or Node (ipm then runs pnpm 12 through npx), and Docker for search.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thinkjones/intelligent-package-manager/main/install.sh | bash
The script installs ipm into ~/.local/bin and starts ipm onboard, which lets you tick repos from a curated list, then fetches, catalogs and indexes them for search. Prefer to do it yourself? go install github.com/thinkjones/intelligent-package-manager/cli/cmd/ipm@latest, then follow the steps below.
Build your first plugin
Skip the first three lines if you ran ipm onboard.
ipm marketplace add obra/superpowers anthropics/skills
ipm catalog sync # fetch, pin and catalog
ipm catalog serve && ipm catalog rebuild # start local search and index the catalog
ipm search tdd --type skill # each hit shows its ID
# in your project
ipm pack new my-pack --description "My picks"
ipm pack add my-pack 'skill:obra/superpowers:skills/test-driven-development'
ipm install claude my-pack # build, then into Claude Code, for this project
The build your own plugin guide walks through a pack built from several repos. Prefer keys to IDs? ipm tui does the same search, collect, build and install in one screen.
Commands
| Command | Does |
|---|
ipm onboard | Pick repos from a curated list and build a searchable library |
ipm marketplace [add|remove|import|stats] | The curated repos and which you follow; follow or unfollow repos |
ipm catalog | A summary of your catalog and search server |
ipm catalog sync [--upgrade] | Fetch and pin every repo with pnpm, rebuild the catalog and reload search |
ipm catalog rebuild, ipm catalog serve, ipm catalog scan | Rebuild the catalog, run local search, scan sources |
ipm search | Search the catalog (same as ipm catalog search) |
ipm show <id>, ipm show tree, ipm show graph | Inspect an artifact and its relationships |
ipm pack new|add|remove|list|show | Edit packs in ipm.toml (-g for your user scope) |
ipm pack build [--update] | Build every pack into a plugin and validate it |
ipm install claude [pack] [--scope] [--path] | Build when stale, then install a pack into Claude Code; bare ipm install replays recorded installs |
ipm install gascity [pack] [-C DIR] [--name N] | Build when stale, then write a pack (every pack, without one) as a Gas City pack folder and print how to import it |
ipm tui [-g] | Four tabs: search and collect, packs, installs and the marketplace |
ipm doctor | Check everything ipm depends on |
ipm uninstall [--purge] | Remove ipm and its search container (--purge also deletes your data) |
Every flag is in the commands reference.
Limits
ipm installs into Claude Code only on ipm install claude. Building never touches your Claude Code configuration. ipm install gascity writes a Gas City pack folder in .ipm/.gascity (or where you point it with -C) and edits no city.- Hooks and MCP servers come only with their whole plugin. They (and inline commands) can't be picked on their own.
- Non-GitHub sources may lose files, because pnpm applies npm's packing rules to them.
- No prebuilt binaries: installing needs Go. Windows is untested.
Documentation
The documentation site is built from docs/: getting started, concepts, guides to sources, search, building a plugin and sharing packs, the commands, sources and files references, troubleshooting and how it works.
Contributing
git clone https://github.com/thinkjones/intelligent-package-manager.git
cd intelligent-package-manager
./install.sh # builds this checkout into ~/.local/bin/ipm
bin/ipm doctor # bin/ipm runs a development build, rebuilt when its source changes
mise run setup # installs the git hooks
mise run verify # format and lint checks, build, vet, unit tests: the gate for every change
Changes arrive as pull requests; AGENTS.md describes the hooks and CI. See cli/README.md for the code layout. ipm was previously called aihs; design history is in docs/superpowers/.
License
MIT · Maintained by Dr Gene Conroy-Jones.
