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Reference

Item format

Directory

trove/<kind-plural>/<namespace>.<name>/
├── <upstream files>        verbatim copies (entry file + everything bundled with it)
├── LICENSE.upstream        governing licence text, when the item didn't ship one (optional)
├── NOTICE.upstream         nearest upstream NOTICE file, when outside the item (optional)
├── ananke.yaml             generated Ananke manifest
└── dex.json                generated provenance + catalog record

<kind-plural> is one of skills, agents, instructions, prompts, hooks, workflows, plugins. Inside the wheel the same directories sit under dex_trove/.

Single-file upstream items (agents, instructions, workflows) become a folder containing that one file, under its original filename (e.g. api-architect.agent.md).

`dex.json`

A real example (trove/skills/awesome-copilot.git-commit/dex.json):

{
  "id": "awesome-copilot/git-commit",
  "kind": "skill",
  "namespace": "awesome-copilot",
  "name": "git-commit",
  "title": "Git Commit with Conventional Commits",
  "description": "Execute git commit with conventional commit message analysis, …",
  "tags": ["awesome-copilot", "skill"],
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "entry": "SKILL.md",
  "dir": "skills/awesome-copilot.git-commit",
  "source": {
    "id": "awesome-copilot",
    "title": "Awesome GitHub Copilot",
    "repo": "https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot",
    "commit": "613efc8c21d9b3ce642dff361d17006cd9967e28",
    "path": "skills/git-commit",
    "url": "https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot/tree/613efc8c…/skills/git-commit",
    "author": null
  },
  "license": {
    "spdx": "MIT",
    "verdict": "allow",
    "evidence": "frontmatter license: 'MIT'",
    "notice": "Copyright GitHub, Inc.",
    "components": []
  },
  "inspired_by": [],
  "executes_code": false,
  "members": [],
  "files": ["SKILL.md"],
  "entry_hash": "554d1a3c…",
  "content_hash": "2ec73abb…",
  "learned_at": "2026-10-20T03:28:53+00:00"
}

Field	Type	Meaning
`id`	string	`namespace/name` (unique per kind)
`kind`	enum	`skill` `agent` `instruction` `prompt` `hook` `workflow` `plugin`
`namespace`	string	source id
`name`	string	slugified name: `^[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9._-]{0,62}[a-z0-9])?$`
`title`	string	display title: `sources.yaml` override, else frontmatter `title`/`name` (non-skills), else first H1, else name
`description`	string	frontmatter `description`, else the first ~400 characters of the body
`tags`	string[]	upstream `tags`/`keywords` + kind + namespace + `executes-code` / `ananke-secret-flag` when applicable
`version`	SemVer	item version (rules)
`entry`	string	entry file, relative to the item directory
`dir`	string	item directory, relative to the trove root
`source.id` / `title` / `repo`		the source
`source.commit`	string \| null	upstream commit learned (null for non-git local folders)
`source.path`	string	item path inside the source
`source.url`	string \| null	pinned link to the item upstream (or into this repo for first-party items)
`source.author`	string \| null	upstream `author` (frontmatter or `plugin.json`)
`license.spdx`	string	SPDX id of the governing licence
`license.verdict`	`allow`	always `allow` for admitted items
`license.evidence`	string	where the verdict came from (file and fingerprint, or frontmatter value)
`license.notice`	string	copyright line(s) extracted from the governing text
`license.components`	string[]	other allowed licences found in nested files (e.g. `OFL-1.1` fonts)
`inspired_by`	`{title, url}[]`	from `sources.yaml` `items`
`executes_code`	bool	contains scripts or `hooks.json`
`members`	string[]	plugins only: `kind:namespace/name` of each admitted member
`files`	string[]	upstream files in the item (sorted; generated files excluded)
`entry_hash`	sha256	of the entry file (duplicate detection)
`content_hash`	sha256	over `{path: sha256}` of all `files` (drift detection, versioning)
`learned_at`	ISO-8601	when the current content was first learned (unchanged if content is unchanged)
`apply_to`	string	instructions only: upstream `applyTo` glob
`secret_flags`	string[]	`rule path:line` for each line Ananke’s scanner would refuse (no values)
`notes`	string[]	e.g. skipped symlinks, files withheld by `exclude` globs

`ananke.yaml`

Generated to satisfy Ananke’s strict ArtifactManifest schema (unknown fields are rejected):

Field	Value
`kind`	`skill`, `agent`, `prompt` (instruction/prompt), `tool` (hook), `workflow`, `bundle` (plugin)
`namespace`, `name`, `version`	from `dex.json`
`ananke_id`	`urn:dex-trove:<dex-kind>:<namespace>:<name>`, a stable identity across versions
`summary`	first sentence(s) of the description, ≤ ~200 chars
`description`	full description
`runtime.supported`	`[claude-code, github-copilot, generic]`
`instructions.ref`	agents and prompts: the entry file
`permissions`	items without code: explicitly empty (`filesystem` read/write `[]`, `shell.allow: []`, `network: []`). Items with code: omitted, so Ananke warns until reviewed.
`members`	plugins: `[{ref: ananke://<kind>/<ns>/<name>, version: '*'}]`
`license`	`{expression: <spdx>, source: <evidence>, approval: approved}`
`metadata`	`{tags, homepage: <pinned upstream url>, repository: <repo>}`

Ananke-side identity

	Example
URI	`ananke://skill/awesome-copilot/git-commit@1.0.0`
Reference	`awesome-copilot/git-commit@^1`
Installed layout	`.ananke/skills/installed/awesome-copilot.git-commit@1.0.0/`

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