Init MCP

Init MCP

One-shot plugin setup: install dependency marketplaces → install Python deps → write .mcp.json → register hooks → regenerate skill.json metadata → verify each server → report optional secrets.

Step 1: Install dependency marketplaces

This plugin depends on skills from 5 third-party marketplaces. If they are not added, plugin dependencies will stay unresolved (skills from those sources will be missing). The superpowers dependency uses Claude Code's built-in claude-plugins-official marketplace.

Check whether each marketplace is already added by looking at the user's installed plugins. For each missing marketplace, instruct the user to run:

/plugin marketplace add Imbad0202/academic-research-skills
/plugin marketplace add Lylll9436/Paper-Polish-Workflow-skill
/plugin marketplace add multica-ai/andrej-karpathy-skills
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin marketplace add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs

These are /plugin commands that must be typed by the user in the Claude Code prompt — they cannot be run via Bash. After the user adds all marketplaces, proceed to Step 2.

If all marketplaces are already present, skip this step.

Step 2: Run the installer script

self/install.py is a cross-platform Python script that handles MCP and hook setup.

python self/install.py

Supported flags:

• --target /path install to a non-default workspace
• --dry-run print plan without writing files
• --skip-deps skip pip install
• --skip-verify skip the MCP startup handshake

What the script does

1. Report dependency marketplaces — print the prerequisite plugin marketplace add commands.
2. Install Python deps — read self/mcp/requirements.txt, run pip install (default: pdfplumber).
3. Write .mcp.json — scan self/mcp/servers/ for every server.py, generate a Claude-Code-style .mcp.json with absolute paths to avoid ${workspaceFolder}-expansion failures.
4. Register hooks — inject SessionStart, PreToolUse, UserPromptSubmit, and PostToolUse hooks into .claude/settings.json. Idempotent; no duplicates.
5. Register conductor agent — set agent: copilot-conductor in .claude/settings.json.
6. Regenerate skill.json metadata — required by Claude Code 2.1.142+. Calls self/scripts/generate-skill-json.py to walk every skill and write a sibling skill.json from its SKILL.md frontmatter.
7. Verify MCP startup — send initialize JSON-RPC to each server and confirm a response.
8. Report optional secrets — check ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY; if unset, warn but do not block install.

Trigger scenarios

• First-time use after a fresh clone → /init-mcp
• An MCP server is unresponsive → /init-mcp (the script rewrites config and re-verifies)
• After adding a new dependency marketplace → /init-mcp to re-verify everything

Servers currently under self/mcp/servers/

The repo-root .mcp.json is generated by scanning self/mcp/servers/ — there is no static self/mcp/mcp.json.

After installation

1. Restart Claude Code (or run /clear) so the new MCP config takes effect.
2. In a fresh session, verify: call arxiv-search.search_arxiv or dblp-bib.search_dblp_bibtex to confirm tool registration.
3. If ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY is unset, arxivsub-search returns missing_api_key; configure via env var or .env as the warning suggests.

Notes

• Idempotent: the script can run multiple times; existing hooks are not duplicated; existing .mcp.json is overwritten to stay in sync with self/mcp/servers/.
• Does not touch global settings: writes only project-level .claude/settings.json; never touches ~/.claude/settings.json.
• Other MCP entries: the current implementation overwrites .mcp.json; if the user has non-self/ MCP entries there, they must be merged manually. Use python self/install.py --dry-run to inspect the planned write.