APM is a package manager for AI-agent configuration, using a manifest to declare reusable instructions, skills, prompts, agents, hooks, plugins, and MCP components. Development teams use it to reproduce agent setups across projects and control their dependencies through policies and lockfiles, while the catalogue contains many of these agent components.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to microsoft/apm. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/apm/main/.github/instructions/cli.instructions.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/apmWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/apm/cli)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/apm/cli"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/apm/cli/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/apm/cli"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/apm/cli.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.01211 | $0.01211 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00484 | $0.00484 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00242 | $0.00242 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00121 | $0.00121 |
Grade A, and why
apm cli.instructions.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 1mo ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 163 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
CLI Design Guidelines
Visual Design Standards
Rich Library Usage
- ALWAYS use Rich library for visual output when available
- Provide graceful fallbacks to colorama for compatibility
- Use the established
consoleinstance with custom theme - Wrap Rich imports in try/catch with colorama fallbacks
Command Help Text
- Keep command help strings plain ASCII — no emojis
- Format:
help="Initialize a new APM project"
Status Symbols & Feedback
- Use
STATUS_SYMBOLSdict for consistent ASCII bracket notation:[+]success / confirmed[>]running / execution / progress[*]action / configuration / processing[i]information / tips[#]lists / metrics[!]warnings[x]errors
- Use helper functions:
_rich_success(),_rich_error(),_rich_info(),_rich_warning() - Pass the appropriate key from
STATUS_SYMBOLSvia thesymbol=parameter (e.g.symbol="check",symbol="warning")
Structured Output
- Tables: Use Rich tables for structured data (scripts, models, config, runtimes)
- Panels: Use Rich panels for grouped content, next steps, examples
- Consistent Spacing: Add empty lines between sections with
console.print()orclick.echo()
Error Handling
- Use
_rich_error()for all error messages - Always include contextual symbols
- Provide actionable suggestions when possible
- Maintain consistent error message format
Interactive Elements
- Use Rich
Prompt.ask()andConfirm.ask()when available - Provide click fallbacks for compatibility
- Display confirmations in Rich panels when possible
Code Organization
Helper Functions
- Use existing helper functions:
_rich_echo(),_rich_panel(),_create_files_table() - Create new helpers following the same pattern
- Always include Rich/colorama fallback logic
Color Scheme
- Primary: cyan for titles and highlights
- Success: green with
[+]symbol - Warning: yellow with
[!]symbol - Error: red with
[x]symbol - Info: blue with
[i]symbol - Muted: dim white for secondary text
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 1mo ago First seen · 163 lines · 1,211 tokens per session scan A 8e39e8d5047c
apm cli.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/apm (4,133 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 1,211 tokens to every session, about $0.0048 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.
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