Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Compound Engineering Setup agent skill (ce-setup)
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
ce-setup is an agent skill for the Compound Engineering plugin. It asks your AI coding agent to check whether the plugin is set up correctly in your project, report anything missing or broken, and offer to fix the repo-local config files. After this guide you will know how to install the skill, how to ask for a check, and what the agent will and will not change without asking you.
Compound Engineering SetupEveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Install the plugin. Make sure the Compound Engineering plugin is installed, since the health check only applies inside that environment.
- 2Download and unzip the skill. Download the ce-setup ZIP from the page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ or the project's .claude/skills/ folder.
- 3Check the prerequisites. Confirm bash, python3 and git are available on your machine.
- 4Run the health check. Invoke /ce-setup in your repository and read the diagnostic output.
- 5Review each offer. Approve only the repo-local fixes you want. Decline any you do not.
- 6Scaffold a pack if needed. Run /ce-setup pack:<id> with the id you want and approve the pack and its config entry when prompted.
What is an agent skill, and what does ce-setup do?
An agent skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file and supporting files that an AI coding agent loads when it needs a specific capability. ce-setup is the skill for setting up the Compound Engineering plugin in a repository.
When it runs, it does three things. It runs a bundled health-check script and shows you the output. It reports missing or broken pieces, and it marks missing optional tools as optional rather than failures. It then offers to fix repo-local config files such as the example config, an optional config.yaml, and .gitignore entries. Each change to a file you own is applied only if you approve it.
- Checks the plugin version when the platform exposes it, and passes it to the health script
- Reports the resolved artifact root (where Compound Engineering artifacts will be written) and which config layer set it
- Offers to remove an obsolete compound-engineering.local.md and to fix a config.local.yaml that is not safely gitignored
- Offers to create a Compound Pack and its config entry when you ask for one with pack:<id>
Install the ce-setup skill
Download the ZIP for the skill from the page you found this guide on. Then choose one of the following ways to add it.
For Claude Code, unzip the folder into ~/.claude/skills/ to make it available to all your projects, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder to make it available only in that repository. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
- Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
- Project install: unzip into .claude/skills/ inside the repository
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
~/.claude/skills/ce-setup/SKILL.mdRequirements before you run it
The skill needs bash to run the bundled check-health script, python3 to run scripts/packs-resolve.py, and git, because it finds the repository root with git rev-parse. It also expects the Compound Engineering plugin itself to be installed, since the health check only makes sense inside that plugin's environment.
Other tools, such as node for cross-model peers, are optional. The health check reports whether they are available. The skill says to install only the ones you use, and it does not install them for you.
- Required: bash, python3, git
- Required context: the Compound Engineering plugin installed
- Optional: tools the health check reports, such as node
How to trigger ce-setup with a request
Invoke the skill by name for a health check of the current repository. The skill's metadata sets disable-model-invocation to true, so run it explicitly rather than expecting the agent to start it on its own.
To scaffold a Compound Pack, pass the pack:<id> argument. The skill also accepts the same request phrased in words, such as asking it to create a pack with a given id. Replace <id> with the identifier you want for the pack.
- Health check: /ce-setup
- Scaffold a pack: /ce-setup pack:<id>
- Plain-language version: ask the agent to set up or scaffold a Compound Pack with the id you choose
/ce-setup pack:<id>What happens during a run
The run has three phases. Phase 1 diagnoses your environment: it prints a status line, runs the health script, and shows the output. Phase 2 fixes repo-local issues, but only after you approve each offer. Phase 3 prints a short summary with three lines: what was fixed, what you skipped, and which optional tools are missing.
Phase 2 needs a writable git checkout. If the session has none, the skill skips repo-local writes and tells you so. Fixes that depend on the checkout apply to the checkout that was diagnosed.
- Phase 1: Diagnose
- Phase 2: Fix Repo-Local Issues (approval required for each change)
- Phase 3: Summary (Fixed, Skipped, Optional)
Safety notes: scripts and network access
The skill runs scripts and uses the network. Its bundled scripts run as part of the health check and the pack resolver. The source says the skill can warm the npm cache for cross-model peers, which downloads a supported acpx version and its adapters from the npm registry and lets npm run any install scripts those packages declare. The skill asks before doing this, and you can decline.
If you do not want the agent writing config or .gitignore changes, do not approve Phase 2 offers. The skill is designed so that approving nothing leaves your repository files as they were, apart from the generated example files that Phase 2 maintains on its own.
- Read the offers before approving; each file change is a separate choice
- Npm cache warming downloads packages and runs their install scripts, so decline it if you do not want that
- Optional tools are never installed automatically
Tips for getting useful results
Run the check in the repository you actually work in, because Phase 2 changes only the checkout that was diagnosed. Look at the artifact root line in the report to confirm where Compound Engineering artifacts will be written. If you see an invalid docs_root message, fix it before other skills write artifacts, since the skill will not write them until the value is valid.
Re-run the check after you install an optional tool or change config, to confirm the status has changed.
- Confirm the artifact root line before running other Compound Engineering skills
- Install optional tools only for the workflows you use
- Re-run the check after each change to see the updated report
What people use it for
- Confirming that Compound Engineering is working in a repository after installing the plugin
- Setting up shared repo-local configuration, such as an example config and gitignore entries, for a team
- Scaffolding a new Compound Pack in a repository with a chosen pack id
- Finding out which optional tools, such as node, are missing before you use a workflow that needs them
Frequently asked questions
Is the ce-setup skill free?
The source material for this page lists the skill's licence as MIT. It does not state any price, so check the repository for the terms that apply to you.
What do I need to run ce-setup?
You need bash, python3 and git, plus the Compound Engineering plugin installed. Optional tools such as node are reported by the health check, and the skill says to install only the ones you use.
Where do I put the ce-setup skill?
Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder for one repository. In the Claude apps, upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
Will ce-setup install things for me?
No. The skill does not bulk-install optional dependencies. It reports missing tools so you can install only the ones you need, and it asks before changing repo files.
Can the skill change my .gitignore or config without asking?
No. Every change to a user-owned file is offered and applied only if you approve it. Phase 2 does maintain the generated example config files on its own.
Why does ce-setup say it cannot find the health script?
The skill looks for the bundled check-health script in its own folder. If it is missing, the skill says so and falls back to the inline checks listed in references/repo-fixes.md. Make sure you unzipped the whole skill folder, not just SKILL.md.
How does ce-setup compare with checking the setup by hand?
ce-setup runs one bundled health check, reports the results in a consistent format, and offers fixes you can approve one by one. Doing it by hand means you must look up each file and command yourself. The source does not compare it with other tools.
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Our verdict
Use ce-setup if you have installed the Compound Engineering plugin and want your agent to confirm that it works in a repository, or to set up shared repo-local config and scaffold a Compound Pack. Pick something else if you have not installed the plugin, or if you do not want an agent writing config or .gitignore changes in your repository.
Download the skill