Plugin Overview

Rook is two things working together:

1. An MCP server — the nearly 400 MCP tools your assistant uses to operate Rhino and Grasshopper. Any MCP-capable client gets these.
2. Skills and hooks — guided workflows that turn those tools into coherent design sessions. This is the part that makes Rook feel like it knows how to design, not just how to click.

Understanding the split matters: a client with only the MCP server can do things; a client with the skills also knows the workflows.

What’s in the plugin

Part	What it is
Skills	11 guided workflows you invoke with / — see Skills That Ship
Hooks	A session-start hook that loads Rook context and skill awareness automatically
MCP link	The plugin points at the Rook MCP server, so tools and skills travel together

The plugin is declared in .claude-plugin/plugin.json and published through .claude-plugin/marketplace.json in the Rook repository.

Two different “agent” layers

Rook’s built-in multi-agent fleet — the planner / worker / conductor orchestration that spawns background agents — lives in the MCP/runtime layer and works for any MCP-capable client (see Multi-Agent). That is separate from Claude Code subagent definition files: the public plugin ships user skills and a session hook; private development subagents (internal review/audit agents) are not shipped.

How it gets installed

There are two distinct steps with different delivery channels:

Step 1 — The installer sets up the Rhino plug-ins and the local MCP server, and registers it with your assistant. It also copies the curated skill set to ~/.codex/skills for Codex users. See Install Rook.

Step 2 — The marketplace plugin (Claude Code only) delivers the skills and the session-start hook to Claude Code. Run these two commands in Claude Code after the installer:

Paste this to your agent (Claude Code)

Add the Rook plugin marketplace and install the Rook plugin for me:

1. Run: /plugin marketplace add bringfire/rook-release
2. Then: /plugin install rook@rook
3. Confirm the Rook skills are now available (e.g. /design-grasshopper, /chirp).

If anything fails, tell me what happened and the likely fix.

After installing, the session-start hook loads Rook’s context automatically and the skills appear under /.

Which clients get what

Client	MCP tools	Skills	Session hook
Claude Code (CLI / Desktop / VS Code)	✅	✅ (marketplace plugin)	✅
Codex CLI	✅	✅ (curated, 11; installer-delivered)	—
Cursor / Windsurf	✅	—	—
Old Claude Desktop chat app	✅	—	—

See Claude Code & Desktop and Codex & Other Clients for per-client setup.

Verify it worked

Hand your agent the Set Up & Verify page — it checks the MCP connection, the live Rhino bridge, and whether the skills are present.