Kestral setup

Skill Kestral-Team/kestral-plugins/skills/kestral-setup

Connect this coding app to Kestral and start a first plan. Use when the user asks to onboard, connect, sign in, Authorize, or begin planning — or when invoking /kestral:kestral-setup or $kestral-setup.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add Kestral-Team/kestral-plugins --skill kestral-setup

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

4 stars4 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

5.1 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

Setup

Walk a connected (or about-to-connect) session through Authorize, ask what work they want to plan, then run multiphase-plan in this conversation.

Entrypoint

This skill is kestral-setup. Hosts may surface it as /kestral:kestral-setup, $kestral-setup, or kestral-setup. Also match "Connect Kestral", "Authorize Kestral", "get me onto Kestral", or "onboard".

Workflow

0. Identify the host before giving connection steps

When running in Claude, classify the current host as desktop or cli before checking tools or writing any connection instructions:

If the app or session metadata identifies Claude Desktop, Claude Cowork, or a Desktop playground, classify it as desktop.
Otherwise, if a shell is available, follow this instruction exactly:

First detect whether you're running in Desktop or CLI. Check your shell's process ancestry using whatever method is native to your OS, walking up a bounded number of levels and stopping immediately on an empty, missing, or repeated parent PID. If any ancestor is a Claude.app (or equivalent packaged desktop app) process, output exactly desktop; otherwise output exactly cli.
If neither signal is available, ask whether the user is in Claude Desktop or Claude Code CLI and stop until they answer.

Lack of a TTY, a non-interactive session, or inability to open OAuth from the current chat does not mean cli. Never default to CLI, tell a Desktop user to open an "interactive Claude session," or recommend /mcp until the host has been classified.

1. Connect if Kestral tools are missing

Look for Kestral MCP tools in this session (whoami, execute_operation, or entity_lookup).

If they are present: go to step 2.

If they are missing: the plugin is installed but its connector is unavailable in this conversation. Use exactly one matching entry below. Do not combine hosts or synthesize generic "interactive session" instructions.

Connect first. Cursor loads plugin skills in this session after install.

cli: Run /reload-plugins if the skill is missing, then run this skill again.
desktop: Fully quit and reopen so the plugin appears. Go to Customize → Plugins → Kestral → Connectors and click Install for the Kestral MCP connector. Fully quit and reopen again, then start a new chat and run /kestral:kestral-setup — open chats keep their old plugin and tool snapshot.

On Codex, after MCP login always start a new thread (CLI: /new) — the thread where you authenticated will not see Kestral tools.

I can't see Kestral in this session yet. Connect it, then run this skill again.

A browser window will open. Sign in with Google — that creates a Kestral account if you are new. When you see the permissions screen, click Authorize.

Cursor: Open Settings → Tools & MCPs. If Kestral shows Needs authentication, click Connect.

Claude Code CLI: Run /reload-plugins if /kestral:kestral-setup is missing. Then run /mcp and reconnect Kestral if it shows disconnected.

Claude Code Desktop: Fully quit and reopen so the plugin appears. Go to Customize → Plugins → Kestral → Connectors, click Install for the Kestral MCP connector, then fully quit and reopen again. Start a new chat and run /kestral:kestral-setup. Open chats keep their old plugin and tool snapshot.

Claude Cowork: Fully quit and reopen so the plugin appears. Go to Customize → Plugins → Kestral → Connectors, click Install for the Kestral MCP connector, then fully quit and reopen again. Start a new task before running /kestral:kestral-setup.

Codex app: Open Plugins → Kestral, click the MCP servers gear icon, find Kestral under From plugins, and click Authenticate. Then start a new thread and run this skill again — this thread will not see Kestral tools after login.

Codex CLI: If you see "The Kestral MCP server is not logged in", run codex mcp login Kestral and complete Authorize in the browser. After login succeeds, start a new thread using /new and run $kestral-setup there. Do not continue in this thread.

If a later MCP call returns auth failure (401, unauthorized, or Not authenticated), give the same Connect steps.

2. Confirm who you are

Call whoami. Show the workspace name and the user's display name. Example:

Connected to Acme as Jane Chen.

If whoami fails, go back to step 1 (Connect / Authorize).

3. Ask what to plan, then run `multiphase-plan`

Ask:

What do you want to plan?

Once they name the work, load ../multiphase-plan/SKILL.md and follow it in this conversation with that goal. If this host exposes multiphase_plan_workflow via execute_operation, you may use that instead — same outcome: a plan document and phase tasks on Kestral.