Velopack — a Claude skill for the Velopack installer & auto-update framework

A Claude skill that teaches Claude to integrate, package, sign, and ship auto-updating desktop apps with Velopack — the cross-platform installer and auto-update framework (the successor to Squirrel / Clowd.Squirrel). It bundles a faithful, offline copy of the official Velopack documentation as structured Markdown references, with a concise, task-oriented guide on top.

What it does

Ask Claude to add auto-updates or an installer to a desktop app — or anything involving the vpk CLI, update feeds, channels, deltas, or code signing — and the skill activates so Claude answers from the real docs instead of guessing. It covers:

• SDK integration for C#/.NET, C/C++, Rust, JavaScript/Electron, and Python — the VelopackApp startup lifecycle and the UpdateManager check → download → apply loop
• Packaging with vpk pack — Windows Setup.exe/MSI, macOS .app/.pkg, Linux .AppImage
• Distribution — hosting the releases.{channel}.json feed on S3, Azure, GitHub, or a plain web server; vpk download/upload; release channels and delta updates
• Code signing & notarization — Windows (Azure Trusted Signing, signtool) and macOS (Developer ID + notarytool)
• Debugging — NotInstalledException, lock errors, and the common gotchas

What's inside

skills/velopack/
├── SKILL.md            # the guide Claude loads on trigger (workflow + reference map)
└── references/         # 168 pages of faithful Markdown from the official docs
    ├── CONTENTS.md     # full navigation, by section
    ├── index.md        # the upstream "Introduction" landing page
    ├── getting-started/  integrating/  packaging/  distributing/
    ├── cli/   api/ (C#, C++, JS, Python)   migrating/   troubleshooting/   blog/
    └── LICENSE         # upstream documentation license (MIT, Velopack Ltd)

Every reference page keeps a > Source: link to its page on https://docs.velopack.io.

Installation

Via npx skills (recommended)

npx skills add hinoderun/velopack-skill

Claude Desktop / Web

1. Download skills/velopack/SKILL.md
2. Go to Customize → Skills → + → Upload a skill
3. Upload SKILL.md
4. The skill activates automatically when you ask about Velopack, auto-updates, or vpk

Manual install for Claude Code

# Personal (available across all projects)
git clone https://github.com/hinoderun/velopack-skill ~/velopack
ln -s ~/velopack/skills/velopack ~/.claude/skills/velopack

# Per-project (shared with the team via git)
git clone https://github.com/hinoderun/velopack-skill .velopack
ln -s .velopack/skills/velopack .claude/skills/velopack

How it activates

The skill triggers automatically when you:

• Ask Claude to add installers or auto-updates to a desktop app
• Mention Velopack, vpk, Squirrel migration, an update feed / releases.json, channels, or delta updates
• Ask about packaging, code signing, or notarizing a Windows / macOS / Linux desktop app
• Hit a Velopack error such as NotInstalledException

Provenance & license

The references/ are converted from the official velopack.docs source (MDX → Markdown) and kept faithful — each page links back to https://docs.velopack.io, the canonical and always-current reference. They are redistributed under the upstream MIT license (skills/velopack/references/LICENSE).

The skill itself — SKILL.md, structure, and this repository — is MIT licensed; see license.

Unofficial, community-built skill. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Velopack.