Purpose
A skill package manifest is the contract between a model artifact and the ecology that may run it. It tells the loader what the artifact is, the router when to select it, the evaluator how to score it, and the release controller how to rollback it.
Without a manifest, small models become anonymous files. Anonymous files cannot be bred responsibly because parentage, compatibility, and risk are unclear.
Required fields
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
id | immutable package identity |
version | release and rollback target |
parents | lineage graph and reproducibility |
operator | fine-tune, distill, merge, quantize, prune, adapter-train |
input_contract | router compatibility |
output_contract | downstream compatibility |
runtime | backend, opset, quantization, tokenizer |
resource_profile | bytes, latency, energy class |
risk_profile | data, license, safety tier |
evaluation_card | score suite and date |
lifecycle_state | candidate, shadow, canary, champion, retired |
Example manifest shape
skill_manifest = {
id: "skill.math.reasoner.q4.2026-06-26.sha256-...",
version: "1.2.0",
parents: ["base.reasoner.1.1.0", "adapter.math.0.4.2"],
operator: "adapter_fusion_then_quantization",
input_contract: "text-question/v1",
output_contract: "worked-answer/v1",
runtime: {
backend: "webgpu-or-wasm",
tokenizer: "family-compatible-tokenizer",
quantization: "q4"
},
resource_profile: {
bytes: 420000000,
expected_p95_ms: 900,
peak_ram_bytes: 760000000
},
risk_profile: {
data_lineage: "approved-math-mixture",
license: "reviewed",
safety_tier: "medium"
},
evaluation_card: "eval.math.reasoner.2026-06-26",
lifecycle_state: "candidate"
}Manifest validation
A manifest must be validated before the model is touched. Do not load first and inspect later. The manifest is the cheap way to avoid incompatible tokenizers, unsupported operators, expired approvals, or excessive resource use.
FUNCTION validate_manifest(manifest, policy)
REQUIRE manifest.id IS CONTENT_ADDRESSABLE
REQUIRE manifest.parents ALL EXIST_IN_REGISTRY
REQUIRE manifest.input_contract IN policy.allowed_inputs
REQUIRE manifest.output_contract IN policy.allowed_outputs
REQUIRE manifest.runtime.backend IN policy.supported_backends
REQUIRE manifest.resource_profile.peak_ram_bytes <= policy.memory_ceiling
REQUIRE manifest.risk_profile.safety_tier <= policy.max_risk_tier
REQUIRE manifest.evaluation_card EXISTS_AND_CURRENT
RETURN VALID
END FUNCTIONVersioning rule
Any change to weights, tokenizer, runtime assumptions, resource profile, evaluation suite, or risk tier creates a new manifest version. Mutable aliases like champion may point to immutable versions, but immutable versions must not be edited.
Source reports used for this guide
These reports are preserved verbatim in the site archive. The guide above is an editorial synthesis and may narrow, qualify, or reorganize claims from the source material.