# Setup

> Verify the actionlint-check hook's runtime prerequisites and configuration for this repository. Use when: 'set up actionlint', 'configure actionlint', 'is actionlint working', workflow lint silently isn't happening, or the hook reported a missing prerequisite. Actions: check (read-only verification, default) | apply (resolve what check found). Re-runnable and safe.

- Skill: `melodic-software/setup-16` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add melodic-software/setup-16`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/melodic-software/setup-16/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Productivity
- Author: melodic-software (https://skillmd.com/u/melodic-software)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/melodic-software/setup-16

---


## Purpose

Thin check-centric setup per the uniform setup contract (`docs/PLUGIN-PHILOSOPHY.md`
"Setup is explicit and repeatable" in the marketplace repository): `check` inspects and
reports, `apply` resolves. This plugin owns no consumer-project configuration. actionlint
auto-discovers its own optional config from the repository, and the tunables are the native
`userConfig` options (the `actionlint_enabled` toggle and `stdin_read_timeout`). Every
prerequisite is a `PATH` binary the plugin never bundles, and the plugin never installs
system packages, so `apply` is guidance-only with **no write path**. It never modifies the
repository, user settings, or the plugin cache.

Action routing: no argument or `check` runs the check; `apply` runs the check first, then
offers remediation guidance. Both are non-interactive. Never prompt when the action is given.

## `check` (read-only)

The hook script (`${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/actionlint-check.sh`) is the single source of
truth for what it requires and how it resolves things.

**Read it first.** Probe what it actually does, don't recite this file. Then run each probe via
Bash and report a PASS/FAIL/INFO table with one remediation line per FAIL. Do not modify anything.

When the plugin's toggle is disabled, every prerequisite absence downgrades from FAIL to
INFO. The hook exits through its enabled-gate before probing anything, so a deliberately
disabled plugin is not broken. Report the probes informationally and note that re-enabling
restores the FAIL semantics.

1. **Bash version.** Check against the hook's documented floor (README Requirements),
   noting any features the hook degrades without (for example telemetry's `EPOCHREALTIME`,
   a Bash 5.0+ builtin).
2. **`jq`.** `command -v jq`. FAIL if absent: the hook then skips with a visible
   once-per-session notice instead of linting.
3. **`actionlint`.** `command -v actionlint`. FAIL if absent: the hook skips workflow lint
   with a visible once-per-session notice (it ships no binary of its own).
4. **actionlint config.** INFO: actionlint auto-discovers an optional
   `.github/actionlint.yaml` from the repository when present. It is not required. actionlint
   runs with its built-in defaults without one. Report whether one exists for the reader's
   awareness; its absence is not a FAIL.
5. **Hook toggle.** Report the effective `actionlint_enabled` value:
   `${user_config.actionlint_enabled}` (unexpanded or empty means default `true`; any value
   other than `true` disables the hook).
5b. **Stdin read timeout.** INFO: report the effective `stdin_read_timeout` value:
   `${user_config.stdin_read_timeout}` (unexpanded or empty means default `2` seconds,
   minimum `1`). It is an IDLE bound. Any byte arriving resets it, so it fires only once
   the pipe has gone silent for that long, at which point this hook fails open. A value
   `read -t` will not accept, or `0`, falls back to the default.
6. **Hook registration.** INFO: confirm the plugin is enabled for this project
   (`/plugin` → Installed) rather than parsing settings files.

## `apply` (idempotent)

Run `check`, then for each FAIL point at the resolution. This skill installs nothing:

- missing `actionlint`: platform install guidance from the README Requirements section
  (the [actionlint install guide](https://github.com/rhysd/actionlint/blob/main/docs/install.md)).
- missing `jq` / Bash: platform install instructions from the README Requirements section.
- toggle off: reconfigure through Claude Code's native flow, per the marketplace's
  plugin-reconfiguration convention
  (<https://github.com/melodic-software/claude-code-plugins/blob/main/docs/conventions/plugin-reconfiguration/README.md>,
  which owns the verified-version record): interactive
  `/plugin configure actionlint@<marketplace>` any time, or headless
  `claude plugin install actionlint@<marketplace> -s <scope> --config actionlint_enabled=true`
  (repeatable per key) — against an already-installed plugin it prints `already installed`
  **and still writes the value**. Do **not** uninstall to reconfigure: that drops this plugin's
  entire stored `pluginConfigs` entry, resetting every option in the README's Options reference
  to its manifest default. `-s` defaults to `user`; pass the scope `claude plugin list` reports
  for this plugin, and run from that project's directory for a `project`/`local` scope, or the
  write lands at a scope that does not load. This skill never writes user settings or
  `pluginConfigs`. Afterwards rerun `check` in a **fresh session** — the rendered
  `${user_config.*}` is injected at skill load and each hook receives its
  `CLAUDE_PLUGIN_OPTION_*` from an environment fixed at session start, so a same-session
  `check` still reports the OLD value; report the observed effective value, never an
  unobserved change.

After pointing at a remediation, re-run the relevant `check` probe and report its actual
result. Never claim resolved on the reader's report that they installed something.

Re-running `apply` after everything passes changes nothing and reports "already configured".

## Gotchas

- **A userConfig knob is reachable natively only if the manifest declares it.** Per current
  docs, `claude plugin install --config <key=value>` sets options "declared in the plugin's
  manifest". An undeclared key silently cannot be set through native config surfaces (a raw
  settings `env` block still works). That is why `stdin_read_timeout` is declared in this
  plugin's manifest even though the shared hook lib supplies its default; hook plugins reusing
  the shared lib should declare it too.
- **`--config`'s post-install behavior is undocumented, so the guidance above rests on
  observation.** The official docs describe `--config` only as a `claude plugin install` flag
  and say nothing about an already-installed plugin. The verified-version record — which CLI
  release the still-writes claim was observed on, and which conditions it covered — lives only
  in the plugin-reconfiguration convention cited in `apply` above.
- **`-shellcheck=` / `-pyflakes=` are deliberate, and the deadlock claim is a local
  observation.** The hook disables actionlint's external run-block linters primarily for
  edit-time latency; the additional "ShellCheck deadlocks on large blocks under the Windows
  subprocess IPC path in actionlint 1.7.x" rationale is the hook author's own reproduction.
  No matching upstream rhysd/actionlint issue as of 2026-07-23. The latency rationale alone
  justifies the flags for an advisory edit-time hook; deep run-block linting belongs in a
  commit hook or CI.

## What this skill does NOT do

- Run the linter. Editing any `.github/workflows/*.yml` or `*.yaml` file exercises the hook
  end-to-end.
- Write the plugin cache, Claude Code user settings, or `pluginConfigs`. Nor the repository.
  Every prerequisite is a `PATH` binary or the native toggle, so remediation is guidance only.
- Download or execute tools during `check` beyond the read-only `command -v` presence probes.