| name | init-mcp |
| description | Use when setting up the plugin for the first time, installing dependencies, configuring MCP servers, or when the user says '初始化', 'init', 'setup', '装环境', '配置', 'install', 'configure', 'first time', '首次使用'. Handles both dependency marketplace installation and MCP server setup. |
| version | 0.3.0 |
Init MCP
One-shot plugin setup: install dependency marketplaces → install Python deps → write .mcp.json → register hooks → regenerate skill.json metadata → verify each server → report optional secrets.
Step 1: Install dependency marketplaces
This plugin depends on skills from 5 third-party marketplaces. If they are not added, plugin dependencies will stay unresolved (skills from those sources will be missing). The superpowers dependency uses Claude Code's built-in claude-plugins-official marketplace.
Check whether each marketplace is already added by looking at the user's installed plugins. For each missing marketplace, instruct the user to run:
/plugin marketplace add Imbad0202/academic-research-skills
/plugin marketplace add Lylll9436/Paper-Polish-Workflow-skill
/plugin marketplace add multica-ai/andrej-karpathy-skills
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin marketplace add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs
These are /plugin commands that must be typed by the user in the Claude Code prompt — they cannot be run via Bash. After the user adds all marketplaces, proceed to Step 2.
If all marketplaces are already present, skip this step.
Step 2: Run the installer script
self/install.py is a cross-platform Python script that handles MCP and hook setup.
python self/install.py
Supported flags:
--target /path install to a non-default workspace--dry-run print plan without writing files--skip-deps skip pip install--skip-verify skip the MCP startup handshake
What the script does
- Report dependency marketplaces — print the prerequisite
plugin marketplace add commands.
- Install Python deps — read
self/mcp/requirements.txt, run pip install (default: pdfplumber).
- Write
.mcp.json — scan self/mcp/servers/ for every server.py, generate a Claude-Code-style .mcp.json with absolute paths to avoid ${workspaceFolder}-expansion failures.
- Register hooks — inject SessionStart, PreToolUse, UserPromptSubmit, and PostToolUse hooks into
.claude/settings.json. Idempotent; no duplicates.
- Register conductor agent — set
agent: copilot-conductor in .claude/settings.json.
- Regenerate skill.json metadata — required by Claude Code 2.1.142+. Calls
self/scripts/generate-skill-json.py to walk every skill and write a sibling skill.json from its SKILL.md frontmatter.
- Verify MCP startup — send
initialize JSON-RPC to each server and confirm a response.
- Report optional secrets — check
ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY; if unset, warn but do not block install.
Trigger scenarios
- First-time use after a fresh clone →
/init-mcp
- An MCP server is unresponsive →
/init-mcp (the script rewrites config and re-verifies)
- After adding a new dependency marketplace →
/init-mcp to re-verify everything
Servers currently under self/mcp/servers/
The repo-root .mcp.json is generated by scanning self/mcp/servers/ — there is no static self/mcp/mcp.json.
| Server | Deps | Description |
|---|
ai-scientist | stdlib only | runtime check, experiment directory browsing (non-model) |
arxiv-search | stdlib only | arXiv search, 3-second rate-limit + 429 retry |
arxivsub-search | stdlib + ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY | arXiv + top-venue joint search |
dblp-bib | stdlib only | DBLP BibTeX query, 1.5-second rate-limit |
google-scholar | stdlib only | Scholar metadata / citation formats |
pdf-text | pdfplumber (preferred) / PyPDF2 (fallback) | Local PDF text extraction |
After installation
- Restart Claude Code (or run
/clear) so the new MCP config takes effect.
- In a fresh session, verify: call
arxiv-search.search_arxiv or dblp-bib.search_dblp_bibtex to confirm tool registration.
- If
ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY is unset, arxivsub-search returns missing_api_key; configure via env var or .env as the warning suggests.
Notes
- Idempotent: the script can run multiple times; existing hooks are not duplicated; existing
.mcp.json is overwritten to stay in sync with self/mcp/servers/.
- Does not touch global settings: writes only project-level
.claude/settings.json; never touches ~/.claude/settings.json.
- Other MCP entries: the current implementation overwrites
.mcp.json; if the user has non-self/ MCP entries there, they must be merged manually. Use python self/install.py --dry-run to inspect the planned write.
