Plugin Setup -- cortex

July 30, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

The cortex plugin ships no Claude Code lifecycle hooks. There is no plugins/cortex/hooks/hooks.json, and .claude-plugin/plugin.json declares no hooks key. Nothing runs automatically on SessionStart or ConfigChange.

Setup is explicit and operator-driven: run cortex setup yourself after you install, upgrade, or reconfigure the plugin.

File location

plugins/
  cortex/
    scripts/
      plugin-setup.sh       # Thin adapter: CLAUDE_PLUGIN_OPTION_* -> env -> cortex setup pluginhook
      check-runtime-current.sh
      smoke-test.sh
scripts/
  plugin-setup.sh           # Repo-root copy of the same adapter

Setup is owned by the binary

cortex setup pluginhook is the single entrypoint. It:

  • Server mode: exports the current Claude Code userConfig values as CORTEX_* environment variables.
  • Ensures a cortex binary exists on PATH; if it is missing, runs the one-line installer.
  • Delegates host setup to cortex setup repair, which owns ~/.cortex/.env, ~/.cortex/compose/, and the Docker Compose container.
  • Client mode: skips local server setup and only checks the configured server's /health endpoint.
CommandBehavior
cortex setup checkRead-only; reports drift, changes nothing
cortex setup repairIdempotent; converges the host to the desired state
cortex setup pluginhookMaps plugin options, then repairs
cortex setup pluginhook --no-repairAudit mode; maps options and checks only

Manual execution

Run the binary-owned setup directly:

CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-$PWD/plugins/cortex}" \
  "$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/bin/cortex" setup pluginhook

Or go through the adapter, which maps CLAUDE_PLUGIN_OPTION_* values to environment variables before delegating to the binary:

bash scripts/plugin-setup.sh

Setup deliberately contains no separate Compose rendering logic. The Claude plugin and the one-line installer both converge on the same cortex setup implementation and the same ~/.cortex host layout.

See also