Skill Forge & Context Bazaar

Knowledge artifacts for AI coding assistants. Author once, compile to every harness.

What Is This?

AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Kiro, Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Q Developer) each use a different format for rules, context, and configuration. Context Bazaar lets you author a knowledge artifact in a single canonical format and compile it to any supported harness with the Skill Forge CLI.

This repository contains the forge tool and a catalog of 41 artifacts organized into themed collections.

Key Concepts

Concept	Description
Knowledge artifact	A skill, prompt, workflow, power, agent, rule, template, or reference pack. Lives in skill-forge/knowledge/<name>/.
Harness	An AI coding assistant target (e.g. Kiro, Claude Code, Copilot). Each has its own file format and conventions.
Collection	A group of related artifacts. Membership is declared in each artifact's frontmatter.
Catalog	Machine-readable index (catalog.json) of all artifacts. Powers the browse UI and MCP bridge.
Capability matrix	Per-harness declaration of feature support levels (full, partial, none) with degradation strategies for unsupported features.
Skill Forge	The CLI that validates, builds, catalogs, imports, installs, and publishes artifacts.

Supported Harnesses

Harness	Compiled Output
Kiro	Steering files, hooks, powers, skills
Claude Code	CLAUDE.md, settings.json, MCP config
GitHub Copilot	Instructions, path-scoped rules, AGENTS.md
Cursor	Rules, MCP config
Windsurf	Rules, workflows, MCP config
Cline	Toggleable rules, hook scripts, MCP config
Amazon Q Developer	Rules, agents, MCP config

Collections

Collection	Artifacts	Focus
Kiro Official	26	Upstream powers from Kiro — AWS, observability, infrastructure, partner integrations
Byron Powers	8	Literary and publishing workflows — novelists, technical authors, agents, proofreading
Neon Caravan	6	Craft-focused developer workflows — commits, debugging, code review, type discipline
JHU	1	Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries artifacts

Browse the full catalog with bun run dev catalog browse or see the deployed catalog site.

Repository Structure

context-bazaar/
├── skill-forge/             ← the forge CLI tool (TypeScript, Bun)
│   ├── src/                 ← CLI and core modules
│   │   ├── adapters/        ← per-harness compiler adapters (pure functions)
│   │   ├── backends/        ← pluggable install/publish backends (GitHub, S3, HTTP, local)
│   │   ├── guild/           ← manifest-driven team distribution and sync
│   │   ├── importers/       ← multi-harness import parsers
│   │   └── help/            ← CLI help rendering
│   ├── knowledge/           ← canonical knowledge artifacts
│   ├── collections/         ← collection manifests (metadata only)
│   ├── templates/           ← Nunjucks templates for harness output
│   ├── bridge/              ← compiled MCP server (CJS, for Claude Code plugin)
│   ├── dist/                ← compiled harness output (generated)
│   ├── evals/               ← cross-artifact eval configs
│   ├── changes/             ← towncrier-style changelog fragments
│   ├── docs/adr/            ← architecture decision records
│   ├── scripts/             ← build and release scripts
│   ├── .forge/              ← guild manifest and sync state
│   ├── catalog.json         ← machine-readable artifact index (generated)
│   └── forge.config.yaml    ← forge configuration (backends, workspace)
├── .claude-plugin/          ← Claude Code plugin manifests
├── .kiro/                   ← Kiro workspace config (steering, specs)
├── .github/                 ← CI/CD workflows, issue templates, PR template
├── .mcp.json                ← MCP server config
├── CLAUDE.md                ← Claude Code project instructions
├── CONTRIBUTING.md          ← how to add artifacts and contribute
├── PLUGIN_USAGE.md          ← Claude Code plugin install and usage
└── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

Quick Start

Use as a Claude Code plugin

See Plugin Usage for installation instructions. No build step required.

Develop locally

cd skill-forge
bun install

# Build all artifacts for all harnesses
bun run dev build

# Build for a single harness
bun run dev build --harness kiro

# Validate artifacts (including security checks)
bun run dev validate
bun run dev validate --security

# Browse the catalog in your browser
bun run dev catalog browse

# Export a static catalog site for GitHub Pages
bun run dev catalog export --output dist/web

# Scaffold a new artifact
bun run dev new my-artifact --type skill

# Guided walkthrough for first-time authors
bun run dev tutorial

# Install into your project
bun run dev install my-artifact --harness kiro --source .

# Publish to a release backend
bun run dev publish

# Team distribution
bun run dev guild sync

How It Works

The core pipeline is: source → parse → adapt → write.

1. Each artifact in knowledge/<name>/ contains a knowledge.md file (YAML frontmatter + Markdown body), with optional hooks.yaml, mcp-servers.yaml, and workflows/ phase files.
2. The forge CLI parses the frontmatter and body, validates against Zod schemas, and passes the result to per-harness adapters.
3. Each adapter is a pure function that receives the parsed artifact plus a capability context, uses Nunjucks templates to produce harness-native output, and applies degradation strategies for unsupported features.

Artifact types: skill · power · rule · workflow · agent · prompt · template · reference-pack

Documentation

Document	Description
Skill Forge README	CLI commands, project structure, development guide
Plugin Usage	Claude Code plugin installation and MCP tools
Contributing	How to add artifacts, run tests, and submit PRs
Architecture Decision Records	30 ADRs documenting design rationale and key technical choices
Changelog	Release history

License

MIT License