ubuntu-create-autopkgtest

ubuntu-create-autopkgtest is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from canonical/copilot-collections. It costs 73 tokens per session (1,891 once invoked), scanned B, original, Apache-2.0.

A guide for writing Debian and Ubuntu package tests that run after installation. DEP-8 is the standard format for these tests.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to draft debian/tests/control and test scripts for libraries, services, command-line tools, or data packages; it does not run the tests.
Why use it?
It helps package maintainers propose small tests that check the installed package without expanding permissions or test scope unnecessarily.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex ✓ vendor

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it to draft debian/tests/control and test scripts for libraries, services, command-line tools, or data packages; it does not run the tests.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/canonical/copilot-collections/ubuntu-create-autopkgtest
About the project

Canonical Copilot Collections is a repository for organizing and distributing GitHub Copilot instructions, prompts, agents, and skills across Canonical repositories. Teams configure repositories to subscribe to shared collections, such as Python, documentation, or Juju development guidance, and keep those assets synchronized.

canonical/copilot-collections · 29 stars · on GitHub

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add canonical/copilot-collections --skill ubuntu-create-autopkgtest
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/canonical/copilot-collections

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote 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.

agentmods badge for ubuntu-create-autopkgtest

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/ubuntu-create-autopkgtest/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/ubuntu-create-autopkgtest)
Your own site
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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.

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Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/ubuntu-create-autopkgtest"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/ubuntu-create-autopkgtest.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 73 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,891 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector warn 7 Sept 2026
SkillSpector: 2 findings, up to medium

These are SkillSpector’s own severities. On a checked sample its high-severity flags on skills were ~96% false positives — a documented command, a public API, a “never do X” rule — so we show them as a caution to read, not a verdict. Why →

  • medium Privilege Escalation · line 65
    Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
    Fix: Avoid sudo/root unless strictly required. Prefer least-privilege patterns. If elevation is needed, document the justification and scope.
  • medium Excessive Agency · line 145
    Skill enables autonomous high-impact decisions without human-in-the-loop verification. Critical operations (destructive commands, financial transactions, data deletion) should require explicit user confirmation.
    Fix: Add human-in-the-loop confirmation for destructive, irreversible, or high-impact operations. Never auto-execute commands that modify files, send data, or alter system state.
How audits are shown
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00073 $0.01891
Opus 5 $0.00036 $0.00945
Sonnet 5 $0.00015 $0.00378
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00189

Measured 10d ago against content hash 0840400bc40f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

ubuntu-create-autopkgtest scanned grade B with 1 finding 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 10d 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.

Asks for rootmediumPrivilege escalation

A mod that escalates privileges can change anything on the machine, not only the project.

| Test must run as root | `needs-root` (justify, ASK) |
groups/ubuntu-engineering/skills/ubuntu-create-autopkgtest/SKILL.md · 180 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 180 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Ubuntu Autopkgtest (DEP-8) Authoring Skill

Author or improve debian/tests/ for as-installed (DEP-8) testing.

Persona & Role

  • Role: You are an experienced Ubuntu/Debian packager who writes careful, minimal as-installed (DEP-8) tests. You favour the smallest test that proves the installed package works, and you never expand a package's test surface or privileges without the maintainer's consent.
  • Tone: Professional, technical, and conservative about restrictions, privileges, and network access.

This skill is advisory: it produces a proposal — a draft debian/tests/control and any test scripts under debian/tests/ — for the maintainer to review and run themselves. It does not invoke autopkgtest, build the package, or touch any pocket.

Assumptions

  • You are run from the root of a source tree that has a debian/ directory.
  • The package builds. This skill does not verify that; if the build is broken, fix that first — a failing build will masquerade as a test failure later.
  • You (or the maintainer) can identify the upstream language and build system from debian/control and the source. There is no external context file.

Package shape detection

Inspect debian/control and the source/built layout to classify:

  • Library — binaries named lib* providing .so or language-specific equivalents (.rlib, .a for static-only). Test = ABI smoke: load the library and exercise a trivial documented symbol.
  • CLI toolSection: utils, devel, text, etc. with one or more binaries in /usr/bin/. Test = <bin> --version, <bin> --help, plus the most common subcommand if obvious.
  • Daemon — ships a *.service unit, listens on a port, Section: net, admin, etc. Test = start + healthcheck + stop. Restrictions needed; ASK before adding.
  • Library + tool — provide both kinds of tests, in separate test files.
  • Pure data/docsArchitecture: all with no executables. Test = installability + content sanity (file presence). Often a single superficial test.

Read the full file on GitHub · 180 lines

Changes

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.

  1. 10d ago First seen · 180 lines · 73 tokens per session scan B 0840400bc40f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ubuntu-create-autopkgtest is a skill published in the GitHub repository canonical/copilot-collections (29 stars, last pushed 8d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 73 tokens to every session and 1,891 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (asks for root). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.