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Quick start

Once your Cowork admin has connected empn-core to your organisation, the plugin is available on your next session. Three short steps to your first skill firing.

Not installed yet?

Installation depends on where you work, and the two paths are different: Cowork — your admin installs it, nothing for you to do. Claude Code — you install it yourself, locally, on each surface (terminal, desktop app, and once again in the VS Code extension). The full walkthrough, including the app downloads, is on the Installation page.

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The plugin is connected

✓ empn-core is active in this session

✓ the tutorial walks you through three real skills, about ten minutes

Routed to the right skill

✓ search-academic — finds papers, checks every DOI, never invents a source

✓ hands off to synthesize-literature when you're ready to write

1. Verify the plugin is active

In any Cowork conversation, type:

/help-tutorial

If the tutorial responds, the plugin is connected — proceed to step 2.

If nothing happens, your Cowork admin hasn't connected the plugin yet. Ask them to do it (see Admin setup on the Installation page).

2. Tell the plugin which organisation you belong to

EMPN members: skip this step. The plugin defaults to EMPN's identity.

Partner organisation members: one line, no script to run.

Declare your organisation in the CLAUDE.md at the root of your workspace. Add this near the top:

org: <your-slug>

Pre-prepared slugs: arena-ide, dezernat-zukunft, institut-avant-garde. If your organisation isn't on the list, see Contributing — register a new organisation.

That's it. Every session reads that file before doing anything, so the plugin picks up your voice, conventions and brand from there — no environment variable, no setup script, and it works the same in Cowork and Claude Code.

If you skip this, the plugin runs on EMPN's identity and says so at the start of every session until you add the line. No workspace CLAUDE.md yet? project-init writes one, or copy the template.

3. Fire your first skill

Run /help-tutorial again. It walks you through three real skills (help → an evidence skill → skill-feedback) in about ten minutes. By the end you've fired your first skill and filed your first feedback note — that's the whole loop.

Help improve the plugin

The plugin gets better the more we use it and the more we tell each other what failed. Three skills make contributing back trivial — no Git knowledge needed:

  • skill-feedback — when a skill misbehaves or its output isn't what you expected. Captures context and files a GitHub issue on your behalf.
  • skill-idea — when you want a skill that doesn't exist yet. Logs the idea so it gets considered.
  • skill-sender — when you've authored a new skill (via skill-builder) and want to ship it. Files a pull request.

All three need the GitHub MCP connected in your Cowork settings (see Prerequisites). Without it, they print a paste-ready block instead. Push back, propose, file — that's the loop.

After the tutorial

  • Don't know which skill to use? Type help in any conversation. It routes you to the right skill or chain.
  • Want to see all skills? Skills catalogue.
  • Want to see end-to-end workflows? Workflows.
  • Where do files land on disk? Folder structure.
  • Need to know what services or accounts are required? Prerequisites.

Common questions

  • Do I need Git? No. Everything happens in Cowork conversations.
  • Is my data shared? No. The plugin ships instructions (skills) that Claude follows. It doesn't read or transmit your work.
  • Does it work everywhere? See Where empn-core works. Short version: Cowork and Claude chat yes; Claude Code yes with a separate one-time setup on each surface; cloud sessions (claude.ai/code) and the API no.
  • How are updates delivered? In Cowork, every push to main on EMPN-eu/empn-core re-syncs within minutes — you do nothing. In Claude Code, updates arrive only if you turned on auto-update (or IT manages it) — see Installation.