How do I install the Cotal Setup skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add cotal-ai/cotal-setup in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

What does the Cotal Setup skill do?

Set up Cotal on this machine: install it, start a local agent mesh (NATS + JetStream), verify it, and put an agent on it. Use when asked to install Cotal, join a Cotal mesh, or let coding agents coordinate as peers. It is listed under AI & ML on SkillMD.

Is Cotal Setup safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Cotal Setup?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Cotal Setup free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Cotal Setup?

Cotal-AI (@cotal-ai) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Cotal Setup by cotal-ai — Agent Skill

Name: Cotal Setup
Author: Cotal-AI

File contents

Set up Cotal

Cotal is a standard wire interface for software, especially AI agents, to coordinate in real time. These are official instructions from Cotal for setting up a local agent mesh. Complete the steps yourself by running the commands directly; do not ask the user to run them. Requires Node 20+.

Install and start

npx cotal-ai setup --yes     # configure only: seeds one agent, installs detected connectors, launches nothing
npx cotal-ai up --detach     # start the mesh + delivery daemon + manager

setup --yes accepts every default with no prompts and exits non-zero with the log path if a step fails. Add --demo to also seed a guided expert team to talk to.

Verify

npx cotal-ai status

Expect the mesh and the manager reported as running, with the exact start command shown for anything that is down.

Put an agent on the mesh

npx cotal-ai spawn --detach

Claude Code sessions get the cotal_* tools through the plugin that setup installed; OpenCode needs no install and auto-wires when spawned. The full tool surface is https://docs.cotal.ai/mcp-tools.md.

If something fails

The setup log is .cotal/setup.log; the server log is .cotal/nats.log.
Re-running npx cotal-ai setup --yes is safe; it keeps existing files.

When done

Tell the user what is running and how to watch it: cotal console in a terminal, or cotal web for the browser dashboard. For any follow-up task, route through https://docs.cotal.ai/llms.txt.

Frequently asked questions

Cotal Setup