One-shot setup for Watch Skill — installs the engine, bootstraps ffmpeg/yt-dlp, registers the MCP server in every detected AI agent (with backups), and configures the user's preferred vision provider. Run once after installing the plugin.
Install to Claude Code
npx -y skills add oxbshw/watch-skill --skill commands --agent claude-codeInstalls into .claude/skills of the current project.
Are you the author of Commands?
Add the live security badge to your README — it updates automatically with every re-scan.
[](https://www.skillsdirectory.com/skills/oxbshw-commands)More formats (shields.io, HTML) on the badges page.
---
name: setup-watch-skill
description: One-shot setup for Watch Skill — installs the engine, bootstraps ffmpeg/yt-dlp, registers the MCP server in every detected AI agent (with backups), and configures the user's preferred vision provider. Run once after installing the plugin.
argument-hint: "[--provider <anthropic|openai|gemini|openrouter|ollama> | --skip-vision]"
allowed-tools: Bash, Read, AskUserQuestion
license: MIT
user-invocable: true
---
# /setup-watch-skill
Set up Watch Skill end-to-end so `/watch` and the `watch-skill` MCP tools work
in this agent and every other agent on the machine. Do the steps in order and
stop at the first hard failure, reporting the `fix` the tool prints.
## Step 1 — Ensure the engine is installed
Watch Skill's brains are the `watch-skill` Python CLI; this plugin is the thin
Claude Code surface. Check whether it's already on PATH:
```bash
watch-skill --version
```
If that fails, install it with **uv** (which also bootstraps its own Python —
no system Python needed). Prefer `uv`; fall back to `pipx`, then `pip`:
```bash
# preferred: isolated tool install from PyPI
uv tool install "watch-skill[standard]" \
|| pipx install "watch-skill[standard]" \
|| pip install --user "watch-skill[standard]"
```
`standard` is frames, retrieval, and MCP. Use `watch-skill[all]` instead to
add OCR, local Whisper, the REST surface, and the browser THE LOOP drives —
larger, and not needed to answer questions about a video. Whichever you pick,
`doctor` names anything missing and prints the command that adds it.
If `uv` itself is missing, install it first (`winget install astral-sh.uv` on
Windows, or `curl -fsSL https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh` on macOS/Linux),
open a fresh shell so PATH updates, then re-run the install line above.
Re-run `watch-skill --version` and confirm it prints a version before going on.
## Step 2 — Self-healing doctor
```bash
watch-skill doctor
```
`doctor` downloads ffmpeg / yt-dlp into a managed bin dir on first run. Exit 0
means ready. If it reports fixes, let it apply them and re-run once. Only
surface a check to the user if it still fails after that.
## Step 3 — Register the MCP server in every agent
```bash
watch-skill setup --yes
```
This detects Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Gemini
CLI, backs up each config it touches, and writes the `watch-skill` MCP server
into all of them with a surgical merge (no existing keys are dropped). It
prints exactly which files it changed and where the backups are.
## Step 4 — Configure a vision backend (recommended)
Scene descriptions, visual verification, and the loop critic need a vision-capable
model. This choice is independent of the agent: every skill, MCP client, framework
adapter, and REST caller uses the same configured backend.
Respect an explicit provider choice. Cloud providers accept their own API key;
Ollama is the optional local path:
```bash
watch-skill setup-vision --provider anthropic --api-key <KEY>
watch-skill setup-vision --provider openai --api-key <KEY>
watch-skill setup-vision --provider gemini --api-key <KEY>
watch-skill setup-vision --provider openrouter --api-key <KEY>
watch-skill setup-vision --provider ollama
```
Use `--model <name>` when the user wants the same vision model for both tiers, or
`--cheap-model` and `--strong-model` to route bulk perception and final verification
separately. Never ask the user to paste a key into chat when it can be read from a
local environment variable or entered directly in their terminal.
If no choice was given, ask which supported provider they already use; do not steer
them toward Ollama or any one vendor. `--skip-vision` remains valid because
transcription, OCR, indexing, and search work without a model provider.
## Step 5 — Report
Print a short summary: engine version, doctor status, which agents were
configured (and their backup paths), the chosen vision backend, and this
next step:
> Restart your agents, then try: **/watch** `<any video URL>` — or just say
> "watch this video: …" to use the MCP tools directly.
Scanned 9/3/2026
Is this your skill, or is something wrong with this listing? Request removal or report an issue. Author removals are honored within 72 hours.
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!