---
name: setup-plugins
description: Install the Cortex Core plugin bundle out-of-the-box, and offer the optional tiers by role. Use when the user says "set up plugins", "install the core plugins", "give this machine the Cortex toolset", or after connecting the brain. Core is default; Browser/QA, Dev-tools, Platform are opt-in.
effort: low
metadata:
  capability: mechanical
---

# /setup-plugins — provision the Cortex plugin bundle

## What to do
1. Run this — it installs the Core tier (superpowers, skill-creator, claude-md-management, claude-code-setup, feature-dev, code-review, code-simplifier, context7):
   ```bash
   node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/mcp/ai-os.js" setup-plugins --tier core --scope user
   ```
   `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}` is the installed plugin; from a clone of the Cortex repo, use that
   clone's path instead. No vault and no `AI_OS_ROOT` are needed — this reads only the bundle
   manifest shipped with Cortex.
2. Then ask the user their role / stack and OFFER optional tiers (do not auto-install):
   - Frontend/QA → `--tier browser-qa` (playwright, chrome-devtools-mcp; heavy: downloads browsers).
   - TS repos / lots of PRs → `--tier dev-tools` (typescript-lsp, github).
   - Deploys to Vercel/Cloudflare → `--tier platform`.
3. If the `claude` CLI is unavailable, the command prints the exact commands instead of failing — relay them for guided setup.
4. Confirm which tiers were installed in one line.

## Then

Installing is not staying current: an update to the marketplace does not move the installed plugin,
so a machine can sit for weeks running a version nobody meant to run. `/plugin-sync` is that check,
and it is the first thing to suspect when a skill edit appears to have no effect.

Plugins give this machine the tools; they do not give it recall. `/connect-brain` registers
`mcp/server.js` so capture and recall actually work, and is the step people skip after a clean
plugin install — the commands are all there and nothing remembers anything. Inside a repo,
`/cortex-next` names what that repo is waiting on.

## Don't
- Don't auto-install the heavy/platform tiers — offer them by role.
- Don't fail hard if the CLI is missing; the command degrades to printing commands.