Set Up & Verify

This page is written to be handed to your AI agent. After you’ve run the installer and restarted Rhino, paste the block below into Claude Code (or your MCP-capable assistant) and let it confirm everything is wired up — the start of working with Rook agent-first.

For a full post-install check your agent can run end-to-end, see Post-Install Agent Setup.

You're helping me verify a fresh Rook installation (the Rhino + Grasshopper
plugin). Please run these checks in order and report what you find:

1. Connection — list your MCP servers and confirm "rook" is present. It should
   expose a large set of tools (nearly 400). If it's missing, tell me — the MCP config
   may not be registered.

2. Live Rhino — make sure Rhino 8 is running, then call rhino_ping. You should get
   "pong". If it fails, remind me to start Rhino and that the RookNative plugin
   must be loaded (I can run ShowRookChat in Rhino to check).

3. Geometry round-trip — create a red sphere at the origin with radius 5, then
   confirm it exists by listing the objects in the document. This proves the whole
   chain works: you → MCP → Python → Rhino.

4. Skills (Claude Code only) — check whether the Rook skills are available (for
   example /design-grasshopper, /chirp, /design-road). If they aren't, the Rook
   marketplace plugin may not be installed yet — walk me through running
   `/plugin marketplace add bringfire/rook-release` then `/plugin install rook@rook`.

Give me a short PASS/FAIL summary for each step, and for anything that failed,
the most likely cause and the fix.

That’s it — your agent will tell you whether Rook is healthy and walk you through any gaps. The rest of this page explains what those checks mean.

What each check confirms

1. The MCP connection

Rook reaches your assistant through an MCP server named rook. When you run /mcp (or your agent lists its servers), rook should appear with nearly 400 tools. If it’s missing, the MCP configuration wasn’t registered — re-run the installer, or see Claude Code & Desktop for manual setup.

2. The live Rhino bridge

rhino_ping returns pong when the assistant can reach the RookNative plugin running inside Rhino. This only works when:

Rhino 8 is running
The RookNative plugin is loaded (run ShowRookChat in Rhino to confirm)

The plugin binds to an OS-assigned port and writes a discovery file to %TEMP%\rook\; the MCP server reads it to find Rhino.

3. The geometry round-trip

Creating a sphere and reading it back exercises the full stack:

your agent → MCP server (Python) → HTTP bridge → RookNative (C++) → Rhino

If the sphere appears, every layer is working.

4. The skills (Claude Code only)

Skills like /design-grasshopper and /chirp come from the Rook marketplace plugin (Plugin Overview), not the MCP server. If your agent has the tools but not the skills, the plugin isn’t installed yet — run /plugin marketplace add bringfire/rook-release then /plugin install rook@rook in Claude Code.

Codex users: the curated skills are delivered by the installer to ~/.codex/skills — no marketplace step needed.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
`rook` not in the MCP list	MCP config missing or wrong path	Re-run the installer, or add it manually (Claude Code)
`rhino_ping` errors	Rhino not running, or plugin not loaded	Start Rhino 8; run `ShowRookChat` to confirm the plugin
”Connection refused”	Plugin port not discovered	Check `%TEMP%\rook\` for discovery JSON files
Tools time out	Rhino is showing a modal dialog	Dismiss the dialog in Rhino, then retry
Tools work but no skills	Marketplace plugin not installed (Claude Code)	Run `/plugin marketplace add bringfire/rook-release` then `/plugin install rook@rook` — see Plugin Overview

Once everything passes, head to Your First Conversation — or skim the Skills That Ship to see what you can ask for.