winapp CLI is a command-line tool for Windows application development that manages SDKs, app identity, manifests, certificates, packaging, and build tools. It helps developers using frameworks such as .NET, Win32, CMake, Electron, or Rust access Windows-native development capabilities. The catalogue add-ons provide agent workflows for using the CLI.
Getting it into your agent
It runs from inside its repository, so the clone comes first — what it calls does not travel with the file alone.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/winappClinpx agentmods add skills/microsoft/winappcli/winapp-setupWrote 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/skills/microsoft/winappcli/winapp-setup)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/microsoft/winappcli/winapp-setup"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/microsoft/winappcli/winapp-setup/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/skills/microsoft/winappcli/winapp-setup"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/microsoft/winappcli/winapp-setup.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>- NVIDIA SkillSpector warn
SkillSpector: 1 finding, 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 MCP Rug Pull · line 246 npx commands without a version suffix (e.g. @1.0.0) create a rug-pull risk if the upstream server is compromised and publishes a malicious update.Fix: Pin the version: npx @scope/[email protected]
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 | $0.00071 | $0.06253 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00028 | $0.02501 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00014 | $0.01251 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00007 | $0.00625 |
Grade A, and why
winapp-setup 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 14d 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 — 331 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
If you can't run winapp yourself (no shell, or the command is denied), give the user the exact winapp command(s) for their project instead of only describing the steps.
When to use
Use this skill when:
- Scaffolding a brand-new WinUI 3 app from an official Windows App SDK template (
winapp new) - Adding Windows platform support to an existing project (Electron, .NET, C++, Rust, Flutter, Tauri, etc.)
- Cloning a repo that already uses winapp and need to restore SDK packages
- Updating SDK versions to get the latest Windows SDK or Windows App SDK
Prerequisites
Install the winapp CLI before running any commands:
# Via winget (recommended for non-Node projects)
winget install Microsoft.WinAppCli --source winget
# Via npm (recommended for Electron/Node projects — includes Node.js SDK)
npm install --save-dev @microsoft/winappcli
You need an existing app project — winapp init does not create new projects, it adds Windows platform files to your existing codebase.
Already have a
Package.appxmanifest? .NET projects that already have a packaging manifest (e.g., WinUI 3 apps or projects with an existing MSIX packaging setup) likely don't needwinapp init. Ensure your.csprojreferences theMicrosoft.WindowsAppSDKNuGet package and has the right properties for packaged builds (e.g.,<WindowsPackageType>MSIX</WindowsPackageType>). WinUI 3 apps created from Visual Studio templates are typically already fully configured — you can go straight to building and usingwinapp runorwinapp package.
Key concepts
Package.appxmanifest is the most important file winapp creates — it declares your app's identity, capabilities, and visual assets. Most winapp commands require it (package, run, cert generate --manifest).
winapp.yaml is only needed for SDK version management via restore/update. Projects that already reference Windows SDK packages (e.g., via NuGet in a .csproj) can use winapp commands without it.
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.
- 14d ago Changed 0ab3959fc481
- 18d ago Changed · +5 lines a40e1fc2074f
- 19d ago Changed · +14 lines · -7 tokens per session 8020bab547bc
- 25d ago Changed 2605304cba26
- 28d ago Changed 27a9f969f6df
- 1mo ago Changed · +1 lines f040ee0bd1eb
- 1mo ago Changed · +4 lines 1236fb37bc7b
- 1mo ago Changed · +39 lines 4e98a121cae7
- 1mo ago Changed 6232f06caa88
- 1mo ago First seen · 268 lines · 78 tokens per session scan A 6f3a7b32223e
winapp-setup is a skill published in the GitHub repository microsoft/winappCli (1,346 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 71 tokens to every session and 6,253 once invoked, about $0.0003 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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