weave-install

name	weave-install
description	This skill should be used when the user wants to "install the weave plugin", "set up weave", "install weave-claude-code", "configure weave for the first time", "get started with weave tracing", or needs to complete the initial setup of the Weave Claude Code plugin including dependency installation and project configuration.

Weave Claude Code Plugin — Install

Complete the full installation and initial configuration of the Weave Claude Code plugin.

Step 0 — Detect prior install state

Before installing or upgrading, find out what's already on the system. Run these four checks in parallel:

which weave-claude-code
which weave-claude-plugin
test -d ~/.weave_claude_plugin && echo legacy_dir_present || echo legacy_dir_absent
jq -e '.["weave-claude-plugin"]' ~/.claude/plugins/known_marketplaces.json 2>/dev/null && echo legacy_marketplace_present || echo legacy_marketplace_absent

Decide based on the results:

• Nothing found (no binary on PATH, no legacy dir, no legacy marketplace) → Fresh install. Continue with Step 1.
• weave-claude-code found, all legacy checks absent → Already installed or being upgraded. Continue with Step 2 — re-running install is the path for both "refresh after npm upgrade" (drift detection fires automatically) and "no-op idempotent re-validate." Skip Step 1.
• Any legacy artifact present (weave-claude-plugin binary, ~/.weave_claude_plugin/, or weave-claude-plugin in known_marketplaces.json) → Cross-rename migration required. Jump to "Migrating from weave-claude-plugin" below — it covers npm install + install itself — then come back to Step 3.

Step 1 — Install the CLI (fresh install only)

npm install -g weave-claude-code

If it fails with a permission error (EACCES on a system Node install), confirm with the user before retrying with sudo npm install -g weave-claude-code.

Verify:

which weave-claude-code

Do not proceed until this prints a path.

Step 2 — Run install

weave-claude-code install

This creates ~/.weave-claude-code/settings.json, registers the marketplace in Claude Code, and installs the weave plugin at user scope.

The output will include one of:

• ✓ Marketplace registered (vX.Y.Z) — first time on this machine.
• ✓ Marketplace already registered (vX.Y.Z) — fully idempotent re-run.
• ✓ Marketplace refreshed (vOLD → vNEW) followed by ✓ Plugin updated — restart Claude Code to apply — the binary was upgraded since last run; drift detection refreshed the pin and upgraded the loaded plugin.

If --force is needed (e.g., rebuilding a corrupted settings.json), run weave-claude-code install --force.

Step 3 — Configure Weave Project

Check if weave_project is already set:

weave-claude-code config get weave_project

If it returns (not set), ask the user for entity/project and set it:

weave-claude-code config set weave_project ENTITY/PROJECT

Step 4 — Configure API Key

Check current state:

weave-claude-code config show

If wandb_api_key shows (not set) and no WANDB_API_KEY env var is active, ask the user for their key (https://wandb.ai/authorize) and set it:

weave-claude-code config set wandb_api_key API_KEY

Step 5 - (Optional) Custom Agent Name

Traces appear under the agent name claude-code in Weave's Agents view by default. If the user wants a custom name (e.g. to distinguish teams or projects), set it:

weave-claude-code config set agent_name CUSTOM_NAME

Skip this step unless the user asks; the default is fine for most users.

Step 6 - Verify

weave-claude-code status

All items should show ✓. If anything shows ✗, diagnose and fix before reporting success.

On success, tell the user Claude Code sessions will now be traced to their Weave project starting from the next session. If a Plugin updated or Marketplace refreshed line appeared in Step 2, remind them to run /reload-plugins (or restart Claude Code) so the running session picks up the new code.

---

Migrating from weave-claude-plugin

The package was renamed in #63 (v0.2.3). Users on v0.2.0–v0.2.2 installed the old weave-claude-plugin package and need a one-time migration. Do this BEFORE running weave-claude-code install — otherwise you end up with two weave plugins (weave@weave-claude-plugin and weave@weave-claude-code) firing hooks in parallel.

Step 1 — Capture the user's existing settings

The legacy ~/.weave_claude_plugin/settings.json likely contains the user's configured weave_project and wandb_api_key. Capture them into shell variables so they survive the cleanup and can be re-applied to the new install.

Use this exact pattern so the API key never appears in your tool output:

LEGACY_WEAVE_PROJECT="$(jq -r 'if .weave_project == null then "" else .weave_project end' ~/.weave_claude_plugin/settings.json 2>/dev/null || echo "")"
LEGACY_WANDB_API_KEY="$(jq -r 'if .wandb_api_key == null then "" else .wandb_api_key end' ~/.weave_claude_plugin/settings.json 2>/dev/null || echo "")"
echo "captured weave_project=${LEGACY_WEAVE_PROJECT:-<empty>}, wandb_api_key length=${#LEGACY_WANDB_API_KEY}"

Only the length of the API key is echoed — never the value itself.

If ~/.weave_claude_plugin/settings.json doesn't exist, both variables stay empty and the rest of this section still applies.

Step 2 — Remove the legacy marketplace from Claude Code

claude plugin marketplace remove weave-claude-plugin

This is the load-bearing step. Claude Code couples plugins to their marketplace: removing the weave-claude-plugin marketplace also uninstalls the weave@weave-claude-plugin plugin. If the marketplace was already absent (the binary was installed via npm but install was never run), the CLI will print No configured marketplace named "weave-claude-plugin" — that's fine, continue.

Step 3 — Install the new package

npm install -g weave-claude-code@latest
which weave-claude-code

Retry with sudo if the install fails with EACCES — but only after confirming with the user.

Step 4 — Run the new install

Do not use --non-interactive here unless the user explicitly asked for it; the install command is harmless to re-run, and TTY output is more informative.

weave-claude-code install

If the prompts for weave_project / wandb_api_key come up, skip them with blank input — Step 5 below re-applies the captured values without needing user retyping.

Step 5 — Re-apply the captured settings

Only set values that were actually captured (skip blanks):

[ -n "$LEGACY_WEAVE_PROJECT" ] && weave-claude-code config set weave_project "$LEGACY_WEAVE_PROJECT"
[ -n "$LEGACY_WANDB_API_KEY" ] && weave-claude-code config set wandb_api_key "$LEGACY_WANDB_API_KEY"

The shell substitution keeps the API key out of your tool transcript; config set itself only echoes the first four characters.

Step 6 — Remove the legacy config dir

rm -rf ~/.weave_claude_plugin

Don't do this before Step 1 — the settings live in there.

Step 7 — Uninstall the legacy npm package

npm uninstall -g weave-claude-plugin

If this fails with EACCES, confirm with the user before retrying with sudo. If the user declines, that's fine — leaving the old binary on PATH is harmless once the marketplace and config dir are gone (the hooks no longer reference it). Note in your final report that they should remove it themselves when convenient.

Step 8 — Resume the main install flow

The migration is complete. Jump back to the main install flow above at Step 3 (Configure Weave Project) to validate that the carried-forward settings landed correctly, then proceed through the main flow's Steps 4 and 5.

In the main flow's Step 5 final report, mention that the user is now on weave-claude-code (rename from weave-claude-plugin) and remind them to run /reload-plugins or restart Claude Code so the new plugin code is loaded.