Man pages, completions, and skills

Tools installed with the packslip backend can ship man pages, shell completions, and agent skills that follow the tool version active in each project. The publisher declares them in the release manifest. Install the tool with a packslip: identifier to get them; an installation from another backend does not have them.

Man pages

When an installed tool's manifest declares a static man resource, mise adds the tool's man pages to MANPATH while that tool version is active. This works in an activated shell and in the environments that mise exec, mise run, and mise env create. Switching projects selects the matching version's pages.

mise keeps these pages under .mise-packslip/man in the tool's installation and prepends that directory to an existing MANPATH. When MANPATH was unset, mise keeps the operating system's default manual-page locations. If you installed the tool with mise 2026.9.3 or earlier, reinstall it once (mise install --force TOOL@VERSION) so its man pages are set up.

Man pages can come from the release archive, a separately signed release asset, or the source repository at the release commit. A file such as tool.1 is placed under man1, and compressed pages such as tool.5.gz also work. mise does not install man pages that would need a generator command (exec) or that exist only as a cli-spec.

Completions

Completions work in zsh, bash, fish, and PowerShell, and they follow the tool version active in each project, so you never reinstall them after switching versions.

Use completions

With mise activated, a tool's completions are available whenever the tool is active in your project:

mise use packslip:github.com/jdx/hk
mise exec -- hk --version

Then type hk and press Tab. hk ships native completion scripts, so no extra setup or usage install is needed. mise registers a loader in the shell and reads the publisher's script only when you complete a command. Switching projects or tool versions selects the matching completion, and leaving the project removes its registration.

Manual setup without shell activation

Without shell activation, mise can install a completion file for a tool whose manifest declares completions. Replace TOOL with the executable's name:

Shell	Command
zsh	mise completion zsh --tool TOOL --install
bash	mise completion bash --tool TOOL --install
fish	mise completion fish --tool TOOL --install
PowerShell	mise completion powershell --tool TOOL --install

Follow any one-time setup the command prints, then load the completion file or start a new shell. mise writes the completion file but does not edit your shell configuration, and it does not overwrite an existing file it did not create unless you pass --force. The installed file calls mise when you complete a command, so after you change directories or run mise use, the next completion uses that directory's active version.

To print a completion script without installing it, leave out --install:

mise completion zsh --tool TOOL

--tool accepts the executable name (hk) or the tool identifier (packslip:github.com/jdx/hk). With --install, pass the executable name, because the installed file is named after it. If a release contains several commands, name the one you want to complete. Without --tool, mise completion generates completions for mise itself.

Generated completions

A publisher can provide a completion file, a static usage CLI specification, or a command that generates either one. mise prefers a completion file, then a static specification, then the command. A completion derived from a usage specification uses the engine built into mise, so you do not need to install usage.

If a completion needs the publisher's generator command, mise runs it on demand and caches successful output for the installed version, executable, and shell. That can happen during tab completion or a direct mise completion --tool run, but not at shell startup. Static completion files are read in place, without writing a cache, so they also work from read-only or shared installs. packslip.exec applies only during installation; it does not stop on-demand completion generation.

Skills

A skill is a directory containing SKILL.md and supporting files. mise fetches the skills a release declares when it installs the tool, so each version carries its own. See the skills from the tools active in your project:

mise skills ls
mise skills ls --json

Link them where your agent reads skills:

mise skills sync --dir .agents/skills

These are symlinks into the active tool version's install directory, not portable copies, so they should not be committed; have each developer run sync on their own machine. mise records the links it owns in .mise-skills.json in the same directory.

Inside a git repository, sync lists those links and .mise-skills.json in the repository's .git/info/exclude, in a block marked mise skills that it keeps up to date. That file belongs to your clone alone, so nothing in the repository changes and git status does not offer the links for commit. Outside a git repository, and in a linked git worktree (which shares that file with every other worktree), sync does not do this.

The directory can also hold handwritten skills: mise leaves user-created directories and unrelated links alone, reports any conflicting names as skipped, and git still sees them. Run sync again after a version change to update the links.

Choose a skill directory

Without --dir, sync uses the skills.dir setting under the nearest mise project root. Set it to the directory your agent reads; --dir overrides it for one run.

mise skills sync --global uses the same setting under your home directory instead. An absolute directory is used as written.

Keep project links up to date

Add this to the project's mise.toml, or to your global config to apply it everywhere:

[settings.skills]
dir = ".agents/skills"
auto_sync = true
prune = true

With auto_sync, mise syncs after mise install, after mise use changes a version, and after mise upgrade. prune = true removes links mise made for skills that are no longer active; without it, stale links stay. To prune on one manual run:

mise skills sync --dir .agents/skills --prune

Automatic sync needs a mise project root, and changing directories does not trigger it. Reload skills in your agent if it does not notice the change.

Skill settings

Setting	Default	Effect
skills.fetch	true	Fetch declared skills during tool installation.
skills.dir	.claude/skills	Choose the directory sync links into.
skills.auto_sync	false	Sync after install, use, and upgrade within a mise project.
skills.prune	false	Remove stale mise-owned links during sync.
packslip.exec	false	Run the installed tool to generate a resource during installation.

A skill can come from the artifact, a separate signed asset, or the source repository at the release commit, and fetching it does not run the tool. A separate asset must match its signed digest, and a mismatch is a verification failure. A skill offered only as an exec command is generated during installation when packslip.exec is on; that command runs the newly installed executable and must print SKILL.md content.

Turning off skills.fetch skips fetching from then on. It does not delete skills already fetched or existing links; run sync with --prune to remove links to skills that are no longer active.

When a declared skill is not installed

mise skills ls and mise skills sync name each skill a release declares that is missing from the install, with the reason: skills.fetch is off, the skill is generated by an exec command and packslip.exec is off, or the download failed at install time, in which case reinstalling the tool fetches it.

When mise runs a publisher's command

If a completion or skill is available only as a command, mise runs the installed executable with its bin directory on PATH and the manifest's environment variables, in a temporary directory with no stdin. Each run has a five-second limit and a 4 MiB output limit, and mise cleans up child processes when it ends. Empty output, a failure, or a timeout is not cached, and mise tries the next source. The run is not sandboxed: the verification checks establish whose executable it is.

When a release offers several sources for one resource, mise prefers one declared for the exact artifact it installed over one declared for a platform. Among equally specific sources, it prefers a file inside the artifact, then a separate signed asset, then a file from the source repository. The packslip resources guide describes the full selection rules for publishers.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Next step
Tool was installed through another backend	Check mise ls, then install with an explicit packslip: identifier from a release that declares the resource.
No completion declared	Confirm the release supports your shell and executable. If it does not, the publisher must add a completion or CLI spec.
--install rejects a tool identifier	Pass the executable name, such as hk, instead of packslip:github.com/jdx/hk.
A completion file already exists	Inspect the existing file before replacing it with --force.
Script prints but tab completion does not work	Check that mise is activated and the tool is active in this project. With manual setup, follow the instructions printed by --install. mise handles usage-derived completions itself.
Completion generation fails	Check that the publisher's command produces nonempty output within the time and size limits. Report a failing generator to the publisher.
Man page not found	Check that the tool is active (mise ls --current) and that its release declares a man page. Reinstall a tool installed with mise 2026.9.3 or earlier.
No skills listed	Check mise skills ls, the active version, and whether its manifest declares skills. Check skills.fetch; an exec-only skill also needs packslip.exec during installation.
A skill link is skipped	Inspect the conflicting path; mise does not touch user-owned files and directories.
Links point to an old version	Run mise skills sync, or enable skills.auto_sync for future installs.

For every flag, see mise completion, mise skills ls, and mise skills sync. Publishers can follow the packslip resources guide to declare these resources.