# Setup

> Configure the review plugin for this repository: bootstrap the consumer's standards index per the standards convention — the index review criteria resolve through — persisting docs/standards/ and, on relocation, .claude/standards.yaml. Use when: 'set up review', 'configure the review plugin', 'review setup', 'set up standards', 'bootstrap the standards index', or a review skill reports a missing or version-skewed standards index. Actions: check (read-only verification, default) | apply (bootstrap, reconfigure, or migrate). Re-runnable.

- Skill: `melodic-software/setup-4` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add melodic-software/setup-4`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/melodic-software/setup-4/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: melodic-software (https://skillmd.com/u/melodic-software)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/melodic-software/setup-4

---


## Purpose

Settle where the consumer's **standards** live, the adopted conventions and criteria this
plugin's review modes resolve through. By implementing the normative "Setup and migration"
section of the plugin's contract binding
[`${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/standards-contract.md`](${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/standards-contract.md).
The procedure (state reading via the index presence test, the conforming-index short-circuit, the
hand-authored-README confirmation gate, interview, skeleton write, row-path validation,
DIRECTIONAL version-delta detection with guided migration, idempotent re-run) lives there. Implement it by reference; do not restate it.

Idempotent: re-running reads the current state and offers an update rather than overwriting blind;
a re-run against a conforming, current-version index proposes no changes.

Action routing per the uniform setup contract
([`docs/PLUGIN-PHILOSOPHY.md`](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/melodic-software/claude-code-plugins/main/docs/PLUGIN-PHILOSOPHY.md)
"Setup is explicit and repeatable"): no argument or `check` runs
the binding's state-reading procedure read-only and reports index presence and resolved
standards root, per-row path validation, and the DIRECTIONAL version delta as a PASS/FAIL/INFO
table with one remediation line per FAIL, writing nothing. `apply` runs `check` first, then the
binding's bootstrap / reconfigure / migration flow below; after any write it re-runs the relevant
probe and reports the actual result. Non-interactive when the state admits exactly one conforming
action (the conforming-index short-circuit); the binding's explicit-confirmation gates
(hand-authored README conversion, bootstrap writes) remain explicit user decisions, never silent.

## `apply` task

Plugin-side notes on top of the binding's procedure:

1. **State reading order:** `.claude/standards.yaml` → index presence test at the resolved
   `<standards_dir>/README.md` → inference sources (existing review docs such as a repo-root
   `REVIEW.md` or `docs/review*` directory, other docs directories, ecosystem configs, ambient
   `CLAUDE.md` content). Pre-existing review documentation is an inference source for proposing
   index rows. Converting it requires the binding's explicit-confirmation gate.
2. **Bootstrap writes** (interactive, user-accepted. No silent writes): the skeleton index with
   its `standards-contract` frontmatter at the binding's version, and the setup-owned
   `<standards_dir>/.gitignore` containing `*.local.md` (the personal-overlay ignore). Write
   `.claude/standards.yaml` only when the user relocates the root from the documented default.
   After a bootstrap write, run the tracked-file pair on each written team file:
   `git check-ignore -v` reports no match (a match is FAIL with the pattern) AND
   `git ls-files --error-unmatch` exits 0 (non-zero right after a fresh write means "written but
   untracked: commit it to share with the team", never success).
3. **Validate every index row path** on each run (external-row validation duty); surface broken
   rows with an offered fix.
4. **Optional offers, never demands:** reorganizing mixed or spread standards content toward the
   SRP + index shape.
5. **Migration is this skill re-run**. No separate action; direction and messaging per the
   binding.

## Output

A written (or confirmed-healthy) standards index and its overlay `.gitignore`, a one-line summary
of the effective standards root, the row-validation result, and how to re-run this setup to
reconfigure or migrate.

## What this skill does NOT do

- Run a review. That is `/review:quality-gate` and this plugin's reviewer agents; they resolve
  criteria through the index this setup bootstraps.
- Write the plugin cache, Claude Code user settings, or `pluginConfigs`.
- Edit the consumer's root `.gitignore` or any ignore file it did not itself create, the single
  setup-owned ignore file is the standards root's bootstrap-shipped `<standards_dir>/.gitignore`.
- Write anything into the plugin directory or the plugin data directory
  (`${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}` is for caches and generated state only).