Imported from clockgrove/factory (skills/factory-setup/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add clockgrove/factory --skill factory-setup. Copyright stays with the author.

Factory setup

Identify the environment before changing it: the agent client and version, Linux host type, user, CODEX_HOME, Factory installation source, target OWNER/REPO (plus the Objective number when the user supplied one), and the absolute Linux checkout. A terminal inside a desktop client is not necessarily the parent of its MCP process.

Read the local quick start for the supported Codex install commands, prerequisites, GitHub permissions, first Objective, and success criteria. Use the configuration reference only when credentials, process placement, or an optional provider is relevant. Do not copy those changing facts into this skill.

For a user who asks only to install Factory's public skills, direct them to npx skills add clockgrove/factory. That portable third-party install supplies this skill, Director, and Objective compilation, but no MCP runtime. Do not describe it as repository registration or as an execution-capable Factory installation.

Optional human Objective form

Global plugin installation has no destination-repository argument and never changes a repository. Never add the form automatically when Factory loads, a session starts, or the user asks only to install the plugin.

When the user explicitly asks to add Factory's human Objective form to an exact repository, read the shipped canonical form. Inspect the destination's AGENTS.md and existing .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ files first. Add the canonical content at .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/objective.yml as an ordinary reviewable repository change, preserving unrelated templates and repository policy. If that path or a semantically equivalent Objective form already exists, compare it and report the existing or proposed state rather than overwriting adopter-owned content. Validate the YAML and the required GitHub issue-form fields. Do not add a human Work Item template: Factory generates Work Items from the accepted graph.

Diagnose safely

1. If the plugin is absent, follow the public install commands. If it is present but not loading, inspect the installed plugin record and the actual client/MCP process environment; do not edit a cache, marketplace file, client configuration, or credential file silently.
2. Check only the prerequisites relevant to the selected local path. Confirm Linux, Node.js, Git, GitHub CLI authentication, a compatible Codex executable/login, and the exact checkout. Never print tokens, authentication files, or secret-valued environment variables.
3. Once Factory's MCP tools load, route an omitted Objective number to the director skill's read-only discovery step. After it resolves an exact Objective, call factory_doctor for that Objective and checkout. Use factory_status only to inspect existing durable state. These are read-only; do not substitute factory_plan with compile: true, controller lifecycle tools, activation, or factory_run as a setup test.
4. Report either a verified installed artifact plus the doctor/status result, or one specific blocker and its next action. Treat missing optional-provider credentials and a stopped controller as informational unless the user selected that provider or unattended mode.

Installation does not authorize controller installation/start, model compilation, Objective activation, worker execution, cloud use, or spending. Route requests to start, stop, inspect the progress of, or recover an Objective to the director skill. Route requests to decompose or repair an Objective graph to objective-compilation.

For missing runtime, login, repository permission, or repository/toolchain support, use the exact next actions in the quick-start troubleshooting table. Load unattended setup only after the user asks for durable background operation. Load a provider-specific guide from docs/setup/ only after that provider is selected; successful authentication alone never authorizes a paid probe or run.