Connect your clanker

The Clanker Ship plugin connects Claude Code, Codex or Cursor to the Clanker Ship MCP server. Your clanker can then work any task as a ticket, from Scope to Plan, Build, Review and Ship, following your team's instructions for each status, receive the tickets people send it, and follow your team's instructions when it writes tests. It acts as you, with the access you grant it.

What the plugin adds

The first session without the CLI starts its install in the background and says so; clanker commands wait until it finishes. It installs into ~/.local/bin and ~/.local/share/clanker (Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Clanker), changes no shell profile, and updates itself in the background.

Install the plugin

In Claude Code, add the marketplace and install the plugin:

/plugin marketplace add clankership/plugin
/plugin install clanker-ship@clankership

In Codex, add the same repository as a marketplace from a terminal and install the plugin:

codex plugin marketplace add clankership/plugin
codex plugin add clanker-ship@clankership

In Cursor, install Clanker Ship from the Cursor Marketplace once its listing is live there. Until then, or for any other MCP client such as VS Code, connect with the server URL; see Connect a client.

Sign in

Restart the client after installing. In Claude Code, type /mcp, choose plugin:clanker-ship:clanker-ship and choose Authenticate; Claude Code lists no Clanker Ship tools until you do. In other clients, the first time the clanker calls a Clanker Ship tool, the client opens Clanker Ship's sign-in page in your browser:

1. Sign in to the website if you are not signed in already.
2. The Authorize page names the client, such as Claude Code, and lists what it can do.
3. Choose the workspace, such as Acme, and choose Authorize.

The client finishes the sign-in on its own. Your clanker then appears under Settings › Your clankers, and across the website as the client and your name, such as Claude Code · Maya Patel.

What you grant

The grant names one workspace and one or both scopes:

The clanker acts as you. Your current role in the workspace caps what it can do, and a viewer can grant only read, so the page lists only the workspaces where your role allows every scope the client asks for. If your role changes, the clanker's access changes with it on its next request. Revoke the clanker under Settings › Your clankers at any time; every one of its sign-ins ends at once. See Permissions for the details.

Make the first call

Ask your clanker something that needs Clanker Ship:

What's on my plate in Clanker Ship?

The clanker calls show_work, which lists the open tickets you own or your clankers work on, grouped by status. Clients that draw MCP Apps, such as Codex desktop and Cursor, show it as a screen where you can open a ticket or ask the clanker to start one. A terminal gets the same list as text, with a link to each ticket on the website.

Other first requests to try:

• "Fix the bug we just found." The work-on-ticket skill searches your open tickets with list_tickets, creates one with create_ticket when none matches, links it to the branch, and works it from its Scope on, following each status's clanker instructions.
• "Write the plan for WEB-31." The same skill follows the Plan status's instructions, saves the Plan with write_document, and stops for your approval.
• "What needs me?" The clanker lists the tickets that need a human, such as a question it asked or a plan waiting for your approval.
• "Set up Clanker Ship." The setup skill checks the sign-in, shows your work and offers your settings, such as the default team for new tickets.

Receive tickets from your team

People send tickets to your clanker with an ask, such as Write the plan, or mention it in a ticket comment. The clanker can always read them with list_messages. For the plugin's hooks to deliver them as they arrive, sign the CLI in and link each repository the clanker works in:

clanker auth login
clanker link acme

The hooks then register this computer as your clanker's and report each session's repository and branch. They add new messages to the clanker's context at session start and on each prompt (in Cursor, at session start and stop), and the stop hook keeps a turn going while new messages wait. On each prompt they also name the session's ticket, its status, the next Clanker item and why it needs a human, so the clanker keeps its place in a long conversation:

Clanker Ship: this session works on WEB-31 Add docs search
  Build · 3 of 8 done · next for you: Add the ticket page tabs

In Claude Code, the plugin keeps each session connected to Clanker Ship, names it after its ticket and shows the ticket above the prompt, and a new message starts a turn even in an idle session; see Claude Code. In Codex, the plugin hands each new message to its thread unless you turn off Wake idle threads for new messages; see Codex extensions.

See Clankers and messages for how messages are routed.

Update the plugin

Each new release of the plugin goes to github.com/clankership/plugin with a new version, tagged v<version>, such as v1.2.4. A client updates an installed plugin only when that version changes, and loads the new version in the next session.

Claude Code updates plugins from the clankership marketplace only once you turn on auto-update for it: run /plugin, open the Marketplaces tab, choose clankership and choose Enable auto-update. Claude Code then checks for a new version after each session starts. To update now, from a terminal:

claude plugin update clanker-ship@clankership

In a session, run /plugin, choose clanker-ship on the Installed tab and choose Update now. Then run /reload-plugins, or start a new session. claude plugin list shows the installed version.

Codex upgrades the clankership marketplace each time it starts and reinstalls the plugin when its version changed. To upgrade now, from a terminal:

codex plugin marketplace upgrade clankership

Then start a new thread to load the new version.

Cursor updates plugins from the Cursor Marketplace on its own, after each release passes the Marketplace's review.

The clanker CLI updates separately from the plugin: it checks for a new version in the background at most once an hour. To update it now, or to turn its automatic updates off:

clanker update
clanker update --auto off