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This guide shows you how to install your Standards, Commands, and Skills locally using the Packmind CLI, making them available to your AI coding assistant. This approach downloads content directly to your local machine without requiring Git configuration.

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Create your first package

Before distributing your artifacts, organize them into Packages. A package is a curated collection of commands, standards, and skills grouped together—for example, “Frontend Guidelines” or “Backend API Standards”. Packages make it easy to distribute related guidelines as a single unit. To create a package:
  1. Navigate to Packages in the Packmind UI
  2. Click Create Package
  3. Provide a name and description
  4. Select commands, standards, and skills to include
  5. Save the package
You can organize packages by technology, domain, team, or architectural layer—whatever matches how your team works. For more details on managing packages, see the Packages Management documentation.

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Install packages with CLI

API Key Required — The install command requires a valid API key to authenticate with Packmind. See the CLI documentation for setup instructions.
Use the Packmind CLI to install packages locally: List available packages:
View package details:
Install one or more packages:
This downloads all commands, standards, and skills from the specified packages and creates the appropriate files for your AI coding assistant. Example - First installation:
When you run install for the first time, it creates a packmind.json file in the current directory that tracks which packages are installed. Subsequent runs of packmind install (without arguments) will automatically install all packages listed in this file. Example - Update from packmind.json:
This installs all packages defined in your packmind.json file. For detailed CLI usage, see the CLI documentation.

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Understanding packmind.json

The packmind.json file is automatically created in your directory when you first run packmind install with package names. This file tracks which packages are installed locally, making it easy to keep your standards and commands up to date.

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File Structure

The file has a simple JSON structure:
Each package slug maps to a version number. Currently, all packages use "*" which means “latest version”.

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How It Works

First Installation: When you run packmind install <package-slug> for the first time, the CLI:
  1. Downloads the specified packages
  2. Creates a packmind.json file in the current directory
  3. Adds the installed packages to the file
Subsequent Installations: When you run packmind install (without package names), the CLI:
  1. Reads the packmind.json file
  2. Installs all packages listed in the file
  3. Updates your local standards and commands to the latest versions
Adding More Packages: You can add more packages to an existing installation:
This merges the new package with your existing packmind.json configuration.

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Managing packmind.json Manually

You can edit the packmind.json file directly to add or remove packages. To add a package manually:
  1. Open packmind.json
  2. Add the package slug to the packages object:
  1. Run packmind install to download the new package
To remove a package with the CLI: Use the uninstall command (aliased as remove) with one or more package slugs:
For example:
This removes the packages from packmind.json and deletes the files that were generated for them. To remove a package manually:
  1. Open packmind.json
  2. Remove the package slug from the packages object
  3. Run packmind install to update your local files
Removal is driven by the packmind-lock.json lock file, which records every file Packmind generated during installation. Because the lock file tracks files for all coding assistants, cleanup is agent-agnostic: it covers every agent’s artifacts — CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, GitHub Copilot (.github/copilot-instructions.md), Cursor (.cursor/rules/), and others — so you no longer need to delete leftover files by hand.

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Using Multiple packmind.json Files

You can run packmind install in different directories within your project, and each directory will have its own packmind.json file with its own set of packages. This is useful for:
  • Monorepos: Different packages or applications can have different standards
  • Layered architectures: Frontend and backend directories can have separate guidelines
  • Team boundaries: Different teams working in different directories can maintain their own standards
Example directory structure:
Each packmind.json file operates independently. By default, running packmind install (without package names) walks the entire directory tree starting from where you run it, updating every packmind.json it finds in that directory and its sub-directories. To limit the scope to a specific directory (and its direct sub-directories only), pass the --path (-p) option:

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Alternative: Install globally for Claude Code

If you use Claude Code and want a package available across every project on your machine — not just one repository — you can run packmind install inside your ~/.claude directory. The CLI detects this and switches to a home-install mode that renders artifacts directly into ~/.claude/{skills,rules,commands}/..., skips the agent prompt, and avoids creating a .packmind/ mirror in your home folder. See Install Globally for Claude Code for the full benefits and behavior.

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Alternative: Distribute to Git repositories

Instead of pulling locally, you can distribute packages directly to your Git repositories. This pushes standards and commands as files that are committed to your codebase. To learn about distributing to Git repositories, see the Distribution documentation.

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Use your artifacts

When you prompt your coding assistant, Standards and Commands are automatically included in its context. For complex tasks, the context can grow large, and the generated code may stop following your standards and commands. If this happens, re-add the .packmind directory to the agent’s context and try again.