REPO PACKAGE
microsoft winappcli
OFFICIAL9skills
0ready to use
LABSCO SUMMARY
The CLI itself sets up the Windows SDK, generates app manifests, adds package identity, builds MSIX installers, and manages code-signing certificates so a cross-platform app built with Electron, .NET (WPF or WinForms), C++, Rust, Flutter, or Tauri can add Windows-only features -- push notifications, background tasks, file-type associations, on-device AI -- without leaving its own framework. Eight named skills mirror that workflow one stage at a time: winapp-setup scaffolds a project or a brand-new WinUI 3 app, winapp-frameworks covers per-framework packaging quirks, winapp-manifest edits the appxmanifest, winapp-identity wires up package identity, winapp-package builds the MSIX, winapp-signing creates and manages the signing certificate, winapp-troubleshoot diagnoses packaging and signing failures, and winapp-ui-automation drives a running app's UI tree from the command line for testing.
This only makes sense once the CLI itself is installed, by WinGet, npm, or a CI action, since every one of those skills assumes winapp is already on the machine; two of them also need a real credential to finish, a certificate password for packaging and an Azure client secret for signing. It is for someone already building a cross-platform desktop app who wants Windows-native capabilities without reading the CLI's own docs by hand, not for anyone starting a Windows app from nothing.
READ THE FULL ANALYSIS
One of the 10 live entries is not about packaging at all. pr-review is a multi-agent code-review skill scoped to vetting a pull request against this repository's own contribution bar -- security, correctness, tests, shipping surfaces -- and it is written for a contributor to winappcli itself, not for someone using the CLI to ship their own app.
The 10 live entries are really nine skills, one of them counted twice. winapp-ui-automation is filed under two different paths in the repository with an identical name and description; nothing distinguishes the copies, so a reader who installs everything gets the same UI-automation guide twice.
It says itself that this is not finished. The repository's own README labels the CLI "Public Preview" and warns that its main branch is under active development and can differ from the latest release, so a skill documenting today's commands can drift out of step with whichever build a reader actually installs.
ALSO IN THIS PACKAGE
PLUGINS
1 itemPLUGIN
winappcli
Windows app development, packaging, and distribution. Helps with creating Windows installers (MSIX), code signing, certificates, Windows SDK and Windows App SDK setup, package identity for Windows APIs (push notifications, background tasks, share target), appxmanifest authoring, and Microsoft Store distribution.
AGENT PERSONALITIES
1 itemAGENT PERSONALITY
winapp
Expert in Windows app development, packaging, distribution, platform integration, and UI automation for any app framework. Activate for ANY task involving packaging apps for Windows, creating Windows installers (MSIX), code signing Windows apps, Windows SDK setup, Windows App SDK, Windows API access (push notifications, background tasks, share target, startup tasks), creating or editing appxmanifest.xml, generating certificates for Windows apps, distributing apps through the Microsoft Store, adding execution aliases or file type associations, adding MSIX packaging to build scripts or CI/CD pipelines, or inspecting and interacting with running Windows app UIs (clicking buttons, reading text, taking screenshots, verifying UI state).
WHAT'S INSIDE
9 showing · 9 total9 of 9
SETUP
Showing all 9 skills
pr-review
A proposed code change gets reviewed from several angles at once, checked by actually building and running the software, and stripped of nitpicks before you see the verdict.
winapp-frameworks
Each app toolkit needs Microsoft's Windows packaging tool driven slightly differently, so this is the cheat sheet of install method, launch command and known traps for Electron, .NET, C++, Rust, Flutter or Tauri.
winapp-identity
Notifications, background tasks and Windows AI features only work for apps that Windows counts as installed; this registers an app you are still building as installed, so you can use and debug them.
winapp-manifest
Every Windows app carries a file stating its name, version, icon and what it is allowed to do on the machine, and this writes and edits that file for you instead of leaving you to hand-write XML.
winapp-package
Takes the folder your app was built into and turns it into a single installer file that people can double-click.
winapp-setup
Gets a project to the point where it can be built, run and debugged as a real Windows app — Microsoft's development files downloaded, and the app's identity and icon files created.
winapp-signing
An unsigned app will not install on Windows — this creates the certificate that vouches for yours, trusts it on the machine, and signs the app or its installer.
winapp-troubleshoot
First aid for a Windows packaging or signing session that has gone wrong: the common error messages, what actually caused each one, and the way out.
winapp-ui-automation
Drives another Windows program's window from a script or an AI agent, the way a person with a mouse and keyboard would.
No skill in this package matches that.
HOW TO GET IT
WHOLE PACKAGEInstall the whole package (9 skills)
npx skills add microsoft/winappcliSINGLE SKILLOr install a single skill
npx skills add microsoft/winappcli --skill <name> --full-depthPick the skill name from the Skills tab — each entry there installs independently.
PLUGIN MARKETPLACEAdd the marketplace, then install the plugin
/plugin marketplace add microsoft/winappcli/plugin install winappcli@winappcliTyped inside the agent's own prompt, not in a terminal. The marketplace is called winappcli, which is the part after the @.