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.
npx agentmods add skills/microsoft/winappcli/winapp-manifestnpx skills add microsoft/winappCli --skill winapp-manifestgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/winappCliWhat 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 | $0.00090 | $0.01898 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00045 | $0.00949 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00018 | $0.00380 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00009 | $0.00190 |
Grade A, and why
winapp-manifest 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 3d 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 — 165 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
When to use
Use this skill when:
- Creating
Package.appxmanifestfor a project that doesn't have one yet - Generating app icon assets from a single source image
- Understanding manifest structure for package identity and capabilities
Prerequisites
- winapp CLI installed
- Optional: a source image (PNG or SVG, at least 400x400 pixels) for custom app icons
Key concepts
Package.appxmanifest is the key prerequisite for most winapp commands — it's more important than winapp.yaml. It declares:
- Package identity — name, publisher, version
- App entry point — which executable to launch
- Capabilities — what the app can access (internet, file system, etc.)
- Visual assets — icons for Start menu, taskbar, installers
- Extensions — share target, startup tasks, file associations, etc.
Two manifest templates:
packaged(default) — for full MSIX distributionsparse— for desktop apps that need package identity without full MSIX containment (usesAllowExternalContent)
winapp init also generates a manifest as part of full project setup. Use winapp manifest generate when you only need the manifest without SDK setup or winapp.yaml.
Usage
Generate a new manifest
# Defaults — uses current folder name, current user as publisher
winapp manifest generate
# Into a specific directory
winapp manifest generate ./my-project
# Customize identity
winapp manifest generate --package-name "MyApp" --publisher-name "CN=Contoso" --version "2.0.0.0"
# Set entry point and description
winapp manifest generate --executable myapp.exe --description "My awesome app"
# Generate a sparse manifest (for desktop apps needing identity without full MSIX)
winapp manifest generate --template sparse
# Overwrite existing manifest
winapp manifest generate --if-exists overwrite
Output:
Package.appxmanifest— the manifest fileAssets/— default app icons in required sizes (Square44x44Logo, Square150x150Logo, Wide310x150Logo, etc.)
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.
- 3d ago First seen · 165 lines · 90 tokens per session scan A cf0e4d41d8e5
winapp-manifest is a skill published in the GitHub repository microsoft/winappCli (1,205 stars, last pushed 5d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 90 tokens to every session and 1,898 once invoked, about $0.0005 per session on Opus 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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