[FEATURE] Support installing skill from complete GitHub URL to SKILL.md file

[Addono]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When finding a specific skill you want to install on GitHub, you would need to manually break-down the URL to the file, e.g. https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/productivity/handoff/SKILL.md, into the repo URL and skill-path as two separate inputs for apm install.

The intuitive way would be to paste the complete URL to the file, e.g. https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/productivity/handoff/SKILL.md:

However, this is not supported. Instead, you would need to parse that URL into:

Describe the solution you'd like
Add support to give a complete URL to a SKILL.md file (in a valid ./skills/ folder) hosted on GitHub in apm install, e.g.:

apm install  https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/productivity/handoff/SKILL.md

Which should behave identical to:

apm install https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/ --skill productivity/handoff

Describe alternatives you've considered

• Manually parsing
• Creating a browser plugin to add a "Copy APM install instructions" to GitHub (seems like a lot of work though 🙃)

Additional context
Optionally, support for other Git forges could be added. However, considered out of scope for the feature request as GitHub covers a lot of usage already, especially for situations where a web search for a skill leads to the SKILL.md file being the top hit.

[github-actions]

Triage Panel Verdict

Issue: [FEATURE] Support installing skill from complete GitHub URL to SKILL.md file
Reporter: @Addono

Panel Assessment

DevX UX Expert
High-value UX improvement. The natural discovery path for skills is: web search -> GitHub -> SKILL.md file. Requiring the user to manually decompose a GitHub blob URL into repo + skill-path is unnecessary friction that blocks an otherwise smooth install flow. The proposed behavior (apm install https://github.com/owner/repo/blob/branch/skills/name/SKILL.md) is intuitive and well-specified. The URL format is stable and parseable.

OSS Growth Hacker
This directly reduces drop-off in the new-user acquisition funnel. When a blog post or GitHub search result links to a SKILL.md file, users should be able to copy-paste the URL into apm install. Removing this friction step is high leverage for adoption.

Python Architect
Implementation scope is bounded and clean. Detect GitHub blob URL format in apm install argument parsing (pattern: github.com/{owner}/{repo}/blob/{branch}/{path}). Extract owner/repo as the source and the relative path within skills/ as the --skill argument. Handle edge cases: URL without /skills/ in path (emit a clear error), HTTPS vs raw.githubusercontent.com URLs, and optional trailing fragments. The reporter also mentions future support for other Git forges as optional/out-of-scope -- start with GitHub only.

APM CEO Arbiter
Clear, bounded, high-value feature. Strong accept. This is the kind of polish that separates a tool people recommend from one they tolerate. Prioritize for next minor release.

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Decision

Dimension	Value
Type	feature
Theme	portability (install from richer source formats)
Area	cli
Priority	high
Status	accepted
Milestone	none (no active milestone; target next minor)

Labels to apply: theme/portability, area/cli, priority/high, status/accepted, status/triaged

Suggested next action: Implement GitHub blob URL detection in apm install argument parsing. Parse github.com/{owner}/{repo}/blob/{branch}/{path} into repo URL and --skill path. Add integration test covering full-URL install. Contributor welcome -- the scope is well-defined.

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Triage status: agentic proposal pending human ratification.
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Posted by the Triage Panel workflow. See .apm/skills/apm-triage-panel for the panel skill.

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