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Agent Package Manager

Existing Projects

APM is additive. It never deletes, overwrites, or modifies your existing configuration files. Your current .github/copilot-instructions.md, AGENTS.md, .claude/ config, .cursor-rules — all stay exactly where they are, untouched.

Add APM in three steps

Section titled “Add APM in three steps”

1. Initialize

Section titled “1. Initialize”

Run apm init in your project root:

Terminal window
apm init

This creates an apm.yml manifest alongside your existing files. Nothing is deleted or moved.

2. Install packages

Section titled “2. Install packages”

Add the shared packages your team needs:

Terminal window
apm install microsoft/copilot-best-practices
apm install your-org/team-standards

Each package brings in versioned, maintained configuration instead of stale copies. Your apm.yml tracks these as dependencies, and apm.lock.yaml pins exact versions.

3. Commit and share

Section titled “3. Commit and share”
Terminal window
git add apm.yml apm.lock.yaml
git commit -m "Add APM manifest"

Your teammates run apm install and get the same setup. No more copy-pasting configuration between repositories.

What happens to your existing files?

Section titled “What happens to your existing files?”

They continue to work. APM-managed files coexist with manually-created ones. There is no conflict and no takeover.

Over time, you may choose to move manual configuration into APM packages for portability across repositories, but there is no deadline or requirement to do so. APM and manual configuration coexist indefinitely.

Rollback

Section titled “Rollback”

If you decide APM is not for you:

  1. Delete apm.yml and apm.lock.yaml.
  2. Your original files are still there, unchanged.

No uninstall script, no cleanup command. Zero risk.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”