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windows-builder

Build Windows images with Packer using WinRM communicator and PowerShell provisioners.

Skill by hashicorpOfficial

IndexedMPL-2.0★ 907
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Works with Claude Code, Claude apps, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, VS Code, OpenCode, Goose, Windsurf. Read the repository before you give any tool access to your data.

npx agentmarket install skill/hashicorp-windows-builder

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About

Build Windows images with Packer using WinRM communicator and PowerShell provisioners. Use when creating Windows AMIs, Azure images, or VMware templates.

Use cases: cloud

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Permissions

What this skill can do and what it asks for, from its SKILL.md. Checked Oct 25, 2026.

Tools
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Network hosts it talks to 1

  • codeload.github.com · found in install command

Files it touches

  • ~/.claude/skills/windows-builder

What's inside

Skill name
windows-builder
Description
Build Windows images with Packer using WinRM communicator and PowerShell provisioners. Use when creating Windows AMIs, Azure images, or VMware templates.
License
MPL-2.0
Metadata
lifecycle-status: active
Instructions
183 lines in SKILL.md · view on GitHub

Files (1)

  • SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Windows Builder

Platform-agnostic patterns for building Windows images with Packer.

**Reference:** [WinRM Communicator](https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/docs/communicators/winrm)

> **Note:** Windows builds incur significant costs and time. Expect 45-120 minutes per build due to Windows Updates. Failed builds may leave resources running - always verify cleanup.

## WinRM Communicator Setup

Windows requires WinRM for Packer communication.

### AWS Example

```hcl
source "amazon-ebs" "windows" {
  region        = "us-west-2"
  instance_type = "t3.medium"

  source_ami_filter {
    filters = {
      name = "Windows_Server-2022-English-Full-Base-*"
    }
    most_recent = true
    owners      = ["amazon"]
  }

  ami_name = "windows-server-2022-${local.timestamp}"

  communicator   = "winrm"
  winrm_username = "Administrator"
  winrm_use_ssl  = true
  winrm_insecure = true
  winrm_timeout  = "15m"

  user_data_file = "scripts/setup-winrm.ps1"
}
```

### WinRM Setup Script (scripts/setup-winrm.ps1)

```powershell
<powershell>
# Configure WinRM
winrm quickconfig -q
winrm set winrm/config '@{MaxTimeoutms="1800000"}'
winrm set winrm/config/service '@{AllowUnencrypted="true"}'
winrm set winrm/config/service/auth '@{Basic="true"}'

# Configure firewall
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="WinRM 5985" protocol=TCP dir=in localport=5985 action=allow
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="WinRM 5986" protocol=TCP dir=in localport=5986 action=allow

# Restart WinRM
net stop winrm
net start winrm
</powershell>
```

### Azure Example

```hcl
source "azure-arm" "windows" {
  client_id       = var.client_id
  client_secret   = var.client_secret
  subscription_id = var.subscription_id
  tenant_id       = var.tenant_id

  managed_image_resource_group_name = "images-rg"
  managed_image_name                = "windows-${local.timestamp}"

  os_type         = "Windows"
  image_publisher = "MicrosoftWindowsServer"
  image_offer     = "WindowsServer"
  image_sku       = "2022-datacenter-g2"

  location = "East US"
  vm_size  = "Standard_D2s_v3"

  # Azure auto-configures WinRM
  communicator   = "winrm"
  winrm_use_ssl  = true
  winrm_insecure = true
  winrm_timeout  = "15m"
  winrm_username = "packer"
}
```

## PowerShell Provisioners

### Install Software

```hcl
build {
  sources = ["source.amazon-ebs.windows"]

  # Install Chocolatey
  provisioner "powershell" {
    inline = [
      "Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force",
      "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))"
    ]
  }

  # Install applications
  provisioner "powershell" {
    inline = [
      "choco install -y googlechrome",
      "choco install -y 7zip",
    ]
  }

  # Install IIS
  provisioner "powershell" {
    inline = [
      "Install-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server -IncludeManagementTools"
    ]
  }
}

From hashicorp/agent-skills, MPL-2.0.

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Stars
907
Forks
134
Open issues
12
Last commit (this folder)
Aug 10, 2026 (2 months ago)
Last release
Aug 4, 2026 (2 months ago)

From GitHub (fetched Oct 24, 2026).

Details

License
MPL-2.0
First seen
Oct 24, 2026
Last checked
Oct 24, 2026

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Cite this page

windows-builder skill. Agent Mart. https://agentmart.dev/skills/hashicorp-windows-builder (last updated 2026-10-24)