Install & register

This page covers how to make a2acli’s skills available to your agent runtime — either as the Agent Plugin package or as individual skills — and how to keep the tool itself installed alongside them.

Install the binary too

The plugin and skills only teach an agent how to drive a2acli. The a2acli binary is not bundled and must be installed separately (see Installation). Every skill preflights with a2acli version.

Register the Agent Plugin

A plugin-aware client can consume either of the two package shapes the repository ships (both target Agent Plugins Specification 1.0.0, both are skills-only):

• Root package — the repository root itself: the root plugin.json plus the full skills/ tree (all three skills with their references/, scripts/, and assets/). This is the richer, canonical source.
• Self-contained mirror — the agent-plugin/ directory: its own plugin.json plus a single skills/a2acli/ skill that points back to the root copy. This mirrors a2aproject/a2a-cli’s official layout.

Point your plugin-aware client at the repository, or at the agent-plugin/ subdirectory for the self-contained shape.

Install individual skills

If you want one skill (or all three) rather than the whole plugin, use your runtime’s skills mechanism.

Open Agent Skills CLI

The Open Agent Skills CLI (npx skills) supports OpenCode, Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, and 70+ agents.

# List the skills the repository ships
npx skills add ghchinoy/a2acli --list

# Install one skill into the current project (saves under ./<agent>/skills/)
npx skills add ghchinoy/a2acli --skill a2acli
npx skills add ghchinoy/a2acli --skill a2a-expose
npx skills add ghchinoy/a2acli --skill a2a-conformance

# Install all three at once
npx skills add ghchinoy/a2acli --all

# Install all three globally, across every project
npx skills add ghchinoy/a2acli --all -g

Gemini CLI

# Install a specific skill globally
gemini skills install https://github.com/ghchinoy/a2acli.git --path skills/a2a-conformance

# Or link the skills from a local clone
git clone https://github.com/ghchinoy/a2acli.git
cd a2acli && gemini skills link

Manual copy

Copy the skill folder(s) from skills/ directly into your workspace’s skill directory:

• OpenCode: .opencode/skill/
• Claude Code: .claude/skills/
• General / Antigravity: .agents/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/

Verify the install

After registering the skill(s) and installing the binary, confirm both are in place:

1. Confirm the binary is on PATH:

   a2acli version

2. Trigger the skill from your agent with an explicit prompt, e.g. "Use skill a2acli to discover the agent at http://localhost:9001". The agent should load the a2acli skill and run a2acli discover … --output json.

Single source of truth

The a2acli skill exists in two places on purpose, and they are not peers:

• skills/a2acli/SKILL.md (repository root) is the canonical, maintained copy — command index, flag tables, determinism rules, and references all live here.
• agent-plugin/skills/a2acli/SKILL.md is a deliberately thin pointer back to the root copy. It carries only a preflight note and a “defer to the root skill and a2acli --help” instruction, so there is nothing in it to drift.

If you are editing or vendoring the skill, change the root copy. Leave the agent-plugin/ copy as a pointer.

Next

• Skills reference — what each of the three skills does.
• Worked example — an agent driving a2acli end to end.