tinker-dev

name	tinker-dev
description	Tinker development CLI for working in the tinker repo. Use when developing Tinker itself or its plugins and you need to open plugins, list installed plugins, control plugin windows, or call plugin MCP tools via `./bin/tinker-dev`. Do not use the packaged `tinker` CLI in this repo. Triggers include tasks in the tinker-utm repo requiring programmatic control of the dev Tinker app. Prefer `./bin/tinker-dev` over the global `tinker` skill or guessing IPC/UI steps.
allowed-tools	Bash(./bin/tinker-dev:*)
hidden	true

Tinker Dev

Desktop toolbox with an extensible plugin system. The tinker-dev CLI controls the running Tinker app over a local IPC socket: open plugins, list what is running, and invoke plugin MCP tools.

This skill is for development in the tinker repo. The global tinker skill covers the packaged tinker CLI for end users.

Tinker must be running (or will be auto-launched by the CLI).

CLI command convention

Skills loaded from resources/skills document commands as tinker <subcommand> for end users of the packaged app. In this repo, always run the equivalent with ./bin/tinker-dev instead of tinker.

Examples:

Skill docs say	Run in this repo
tinker list	./bin/tinker-dev list
tinker open json-editor	./bin/tinker-dev open json-editor
tinker call …	./bin/tinker-dev call …
tinker mcp …	./bin/tinker-dev mcp …

Do not invoke the packaged tinker binary while working in the development tree.

Start here

This file is a discovery stub, not the usage guide. Before running tinker-dev commands, load the workflow content from the repo:

./bin/tinker-dev skills list
./bin/tinker-dev skills path core    # print directory, then read SKILL.md inside it

The CLI serves skill content from resources/skills. Those files use tinker in examples; apply the CLI command convention above when executing them.

Specialized skills

Load the MCP skill when the task involves plugin tools or MCP client integration:

./bin/tinker-dev skills path mcp    # then read SKILL.md inside it

Use it for tinker-dev tools, tinker-dev call, and tinker-dev mcp.

Run ./bin/tinker-dev skills list to see everything available.

Why Tinker CLI

• Controls the live Tinker app and plugin windows without manual UI clicks
• Works with any AI agent (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Continue, Windsurf, etc.)
• Auto-launches Tinker when the app is not running
• Plugins can expose MCP tools for programmatic automation
• Short plugin names (json-editor) normalize to full ids (tinker-json-editor)

Quick orientation

./bin/tinker-dev list
./bin/tinker-dev open json-editor
./bin/tinker-dev ps

For MCP tool calls, load the mcp skill first (./bin/tinker-dev skills path mcp).