Quickstart

End-to-end path: authenticate → create an approved skill → bind a git repo → pull into agent folders.

Prerequisites:

• Node 18+ and pm-skills installed (Installation)
• An Instructions Manager account with at least one project you can access
• An elsai_… API key from the console

1. Log in

Always set the API base URL

Pass --server (or type the API URL at the prompt). Do not accept a default like https://pm.elsai.io — it may not resolve. Use the API origin, not the browser console URL.

• SaaS API: https://instruction-manager-api.elsai.ai
• SaaS console (browser only): https://instruction-manager.elsai.ai
• On-prem: your deployment’s API origin

pm-skills login \
  --server https://instruction-manager-api.elsai.ai \
  --api-key "$PM_SKILLS_API_KEY"

Or run interactively — when asked for Server URL, enter the API base above (do not leave a broken default):

pm-skills login
# ? Server URL: https://instruction-manager-api.elsai.ai
# ? API key:    elsai_****

Confirm identity:

pm-skills whoami

You should see your email, organizations, and Projects : N accessible with N ≥ 1. If N is 0, create or join a project in the UI first.

2. Create and approve a skill in the UI

pm-skills only syncs active (approved/published) skills. If none exist yet, create one before listing or pulling:

1. Open the Instructions Manager console and your project.
2. Create a skill, submit it, and have it approved (status active).

Full walkthrough: Create your first skill.

If you already have active skills for the project, skip to step 3.

3. Bind your git repository

Run this inside the repo

cd into the git repository you want skills in (the project you develop in). Do not run init / pull from a random parent folder — .pm-skills.json is written in the current directory.

cd /path/to/your/repo
pm-skills init

This writes .pm-skills.json (project id + detected agents). Commit it.

4. See what resolves

pm-skills list

This is the effective skill set after tier resolution (project ▸ org ▸ global), shadowing, and install pins. Only active versions appear.

If the list is empty, go back to step 2 — nothing will be written on pull until at least one skill is active.

5. Preview (optional)

pm-skills preview <skill-name>

Renders the skill from the server without writing to disk — use this before trusting marketplace content.

6. Pull

Still inside the same repo:

pm-skills pull --dry-run   # plan only
pm-skills pull

Writes skill directories under agent folders (for example .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md) and updates pm-skills.lock.json. Commit the lockfile for reproducible CI.

7. Check drift later

pm-skills status
pm-skills update          # advance pins deliberately when updates exist

Where to go next

• Create your first skill — if you skipped step 2
• Pull skills into agents — deeper pull / agent mapping
• CLI overview — mental model and command map