# Setup Engineering

> Install Engineering's repo-level machinery and configure model routing for skills-only consumers. Use for /setup-engineering or setting Engineering up in a repository.

- Skill: `patinaproject/setup-engineering` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 20 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add patinaproject/setup-engineering`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/patinaproject/setup-engineering/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: patinaproject (https://skillmd.com/u/patinaproject)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/patinaproject/setup-engineering

---


# Setup Engineering

Engineering ships as a full plugin (hook, subagents) and also as a vendored
skill catalog. Vendoring carries the skills but not the hook or the agents, so a
skills-only consumer loses the default-on entry point and the Claude-native
targets that provider dispatch names. This skill installs that machinery into
the target repo and, on Codex, the repo-scoped Codex config.

The machinery install is non-interactive and idempotent.

## Install repo-level machinery

`scripts/install-machinery.sh` (in this skill's base directory) owns the
idempotency and no-clobber contract. Run it rather than editing the target files
by hand. It writes a single marker-delimited mandate block and leaves everything
outside the markers untouched, so re-running updates in place with no
duplication.

The installer first checks that the sibling `setup-pstack` skill and the
`patina-mode` provider-dispatch references are present. If any required file is
missing, the install fails and tells the reader to install the full Engineering
skill catalog.

What it materializes, from the byte-identical payloads under `assets/`:

- The **patina-mode mandate** (from `assets/mandate.md`) into the repo's
  `CLAUDE.md`, wrapped in managed markers. This is the skills-only substitute
  for the plugin's `SessionStart` hook. The hook's own text defers to `CLAUDE.md`,
  so the block is an equal-or-stronger default-on trigger: a non-trivial task
  routes through patina-mode without the user invoking it.
- The **Engineering agents** (from `assets/agents/`) into the repo's
  `.claude/agents/`, so `subagent_type: "patina-agent"` resolves, no-comments
  can reach `comment-sicko`, and each Claude-native provider-dispatch lane can
  reach its `pstack-<stem>-<effort>` agent.

Run it from the target repo:

```bash
bash "<this-skill>/scripts/install-machinery.sh"
```

The script defaults `--repo` to the current Git toplevel and the instructions
file to `<repo>/CLAUDE.md`. Pass `--repo <dir>` or `--instructions <file>` to
target elsewhere.

### Codex

Codex has no `SessionStart` hook and no subagent registry. There the default-on
trigger is the same mandate block in the repo's `AGENTS.md`, which Codex reads
per project, and delegates route through the spawn-prompt convention in the
patina-mode `references/codex-tools.md` (dispatch a `spawn_agent` told to read
the `patina-mode` skill, or `agents/comment-sicko.md`, first). Subagent dispatch
also needs the `multi_agent` feature. Add `--codex` to install both:

```bash
bash "<this-skill>/scripts/install-machinery.sh" --codex
```

That upserts the mandate block into `<repo>/AGENTS.md` and enables `multi_agent`
under `[features]` in `<repo>/.codex/config.toml`, both idempotently. Writing the
repo-scoped config rather than the user's global `~/.codex/config.toml` keeps the
machinery committed and shared across contributors. Codex honors a repo-scoped
`.codex/config.toml` only for a project the user has marked trusted, so the flag
takes effect after Codex's one-time trust prompt. Override the paths with
`--codex-agents <file>` and `--codex-config <file>`.

Skills load natively by name on Codex, so patina-mode is reachable without any
`.codex-plugin/prompts/*` `/command` stubs; open-pstack ships none and this base
follows it.

## Configure model routing

After the installer succeeds, read its final `next skill:` line. Load the skill
at that path and run it. Let `setup-pstack` own its model choices, probes,
confirmation, and writes.

## Confirm

Tell the user what the machinery install wrote: the mandate block, the
Engineering agents, and on Codex the `multi_agent` flag. Relay `setup-pstack`'s
final report. Report setup-engineering complete only when `setup-pstack`
succeeds. Otherwise, report it incomplete and include the reason
`setup-pstack` reported when it stopped.