Catalogs and marketplaces

A catalog lists what you can install without installing it. List catalogs in atril.json:

{ "catalogs": ["vendor/kit", "catalogs/team.json"] }

Each entry is either a folder in a store’s layout, or a JSON file of git sources, each pinned to a commit with a note on what it is for:

{
  "sources": [
    { "source": "owner/repo/skills", "commit": "<40-character sha>", "note": "process skills" }
  ]
}

Sources use the OpenSkills form owner/repo[/path], read as GitHub repositories.

atril catalog sync              # fetch every pinned source into the cache, once
atril search lint               # catalog hits come back with installed: false
atril install skill:lint        # install one, from its pinned commit

The fetch runs no hooks, lands symlinks as plain files and verifies the commit. Skills installed by OpenSkills into .claude/skills or .agent/skills move into the store with atril import --from openskills.

Marketplaces of plugins

A catalog can also be a plugin marketplace: any catalog folder that holds .claude-plugin/marketplace.json, either a directory catalog or a git source pinned and fetched with atril catalog sync. Nothing new goes in atril.json:

{ "catalogs": ["../my-marketplace"] }

Its plugins are indexed from the files already on disk, with no fetch and nothing installed. They show up in atril search as kind: plugin, installed: false, with the catalog they come from; --kind plugin lists only them:

atril search tdd --kind plugin

The first catalog that lists a plugin name wins it. A marketplace entry that cannot be read is skipped with a warning on stderr; an unreadable marketplace.json stops the search and names the catalog. atril route leaves plugins out of what it proposes. This release only finds plugins: installing them arrives in a later 5.x release.

The recommended set

atril ships a set of artifacts it recommends, bundled in the package. It is always the first catalog, before the ones in atril.json, so it works offline and versions with atril. Nothing in it is installed on its own:

atril recommended               # each entry: available, on-demand, persistent or changed

changed means the installed artifact differs from the one this version of atril ships. ATRIL_RECOMMENDED points atril at another set.