Plugin Architecture and Installation
Lesson 1 diagnosed the three structural failures. This lesson installs the solution. The supply-chain plugin gives Claude 8 specialist skills for every major supply chain workflow, plus 5 persistent agents that run the monitoring layer continuously. By the end of this lesson, you will have the plugin active, configured for your organisation, and verified with a test command.
What the Plugin Contains
The supply-chain plugin is a focused collection of tools built around the workflows described in Lesson 1:
supply-chain/
├── .claude-plugin/
│ └── plugin.json
├── skills/
│ ├── vendor-assessment/SKILL.md
│ ├── supplier-risk/SKILL.md
│ ├── invoice-reconciliation/SKILL.md
│ ├── vendor-communication/SKILL.md
│ ├── logistics-brief/SKILL.md
│ ├── spend-analysis/SKILL.md
│ ├── network-design/SKILL.md
│ └── supply-chain-brief/SKILL.md
├── agents/
│ ├── vendor-health-monitor.md
│ ├── invoice-reconciliation-agent.md
│ ├── spend-intelligence-agent.md
│ ├── procurement-calendar-agent.md
│ └── logistics-intelligence-agent.md
└── README.md
No router skill — each of the 8 skills is directly addressable. No jurisdiction overlays — supply chain policy is organisation-specific rather than jurisdiction-specific, and is configured via supply-chain.local.md.
Installing the Plugin
Open Cowork and navigate to the plugin marketplace in the sidebar.
Option 1 — Marketplace install:
claude plugin install supply-chain@agentfactory-business
Option 2 — GitHub install (if not yet in marketplace):
claude plugin install github:panaversity/agentfactory-business-plugins/supply-chain
After installation, verify the plugin is active:
List all available supply-chain plugin commands with a one-line description of each.
You should see all 8 commands listed. If the plugin is not active, check the Cowork sidebar under Settings → Plugins to confirm it appears in the installed list.
If you encounter issues during installation, confirm you have Cowork open (not the standard Claude interface) and that you are running the installation command in the chat input — not in a terminal. Plugin commands are Cowork-specific.
The 8 Skills — What They Do
| Command | What It Does | Addresses (from Lesson 1) |
|---|---|---|
/vendor-assess | Six-dimension vendor assessment and Kraljic classification | Vendor Blind Spot |
/supplier-risk | Continuous multi-dimension risk brief for a named supplier | Vendor Blind Spot |
/invoice-reconcile | Three-way match invoice reconciliation with tolerance rules | Reconciliation Swamp |
/vendor-communicate | Vendor communications — dispute notices, CARs, exit letters | Reconciliation Swamp / Vendor Blind Spot |
/logistics-brief | Carrier performance analysis and lane efficiency review | Static Optimisation Trap |
/spend-analysis | Spend analytics — price consistency, vendor consolidation, benchmarks | Static Optimisation Trap |
/supply-chain-brief | Weekly executive supply chain intelligence dashboard | All three failures |
/supply-network-design | Supply chain network scenario modelling (MCP-connected) | Static Optimisation Trap |
Three commands in this plugin use names that differ from the original specification. The names were changed to avoid collision with Anthropic-owned command surfaces:
| Spec Name | Plugin Name | Why Changed |
|---|---|---|
/reconcile | /invoice-reconcile | Avoids collision with a potential generic /reconcile surface |
/communicate | /vendor-communicate | Avoids collision with a potential generic /communicate surface |
/network-design | /supply-network-design | Avoids collision with a potential generic /network-design surface |
Always use the plugin names. If you type /reconcile in Cowork, you may get unexpected behaviour. Use /invoice-reconcile.
The 5 Persistent Agents — What They Monitor
| Agent | Monitoring Role | Schedule |
|---|---|---|
vendor-health-monitor | Continuous supplier financial health, delivery performance, and news monitoring | Daily |
invoice-reconciliation-agent | Automated three-way match processing and exception triage | On invoice receipt / hourly |
spend-intelligence-agent | Price consistency monitoring, vendor consolidation opportunities, contract renewal alerts | Weekly |
procurement-calendar-agent | Contract renewals, review cycles, compliance deadlines, vendor review scheduling | Daily |
logistics-intelligence-agent | Carrier performance trends, lane cost drift, route optimisation opportunities | Weekly |
The agents automate the continuous monitoring work that Lessons 3–13 teach you to do manually. They are introduced here so you understand the architecture; you will activate and configure them properly in Lesson 12.
Configuring supply-chain.local.md
The plugin ships with sensible defaults. supply-chain.local.md is where you override those defaults with your organisation's specifics. Think of it as the plugin's institutional memory — the policies, thresholds, and classifications that make every skill behave correctly for your context.
Create or open supply-chain.local.md in Cowork's Instructions pane (Settings → Instructions → New file) and populate the template:
# Supply Chain Local Configuration
## Organisation
- **Name**: [Your organisation name]
- **Industry**: [Manufacturing / Retail / Services / Healthcare / etc.]
- **Primary currency**: [GBP / USD / EUR / PKR / etc.]
- **ERP system**: [SAP / Oracle / Dynamics / NetSuite / Other]
## Vendor Classification Defaults
- **Total active vendors**: [Approximate number]
- **Strategic tier (Tier 1)**: [Approximate count] vendors
- **Tactical tier (Tier 2)**: [Approximate count] vendors
- **Commodity tier (Tier 3)**: [Approximate count] vendors
- **Bottleneck tier (Tier 4)**: [Approximate count] vendors
## Invoice Reconciliation Thresholds
- **Standard tolerance**: [e.g., 2% or £50 — whichever is less]
- **Strategic vendor tolerance**: [e.g., 1% — tighter threshold for high-value relationships]
- **Auto-approve below**: [e.g., £25 discrepancy — resolve without escalation]
- **Escalate above**: [e.g., £500 discrepancy — requires manager approval]
## Supplier Risk Review Frequencies
- **Strategic vendors**: Quarterly + event-triggered
- **Tactical vendors**: Bi-annual
- **Commodity vendors**: Annual
- **Bottleneck vendors**: Quarterly
## Key Contacts
- **Head of Procurement / CPO**: [Name, if relevant for brief generation]
- **AP Team Lead**: [Name, if relevant for escalation routing]
- **Logistics Manager**: [Name, if relevant for carrier reviews]
## MCP Integrations (Active)
- **ERP**: [Connected / Not yet configured]
- **Accounts Payable**: [Connected / Not yet configured]
- **Logistics / TMS**: [Connected / Not yet configured]
- **Financial databases**: [Connected / Not yet configured]
You will refine this configuration as you work through each lesson. For now, complete what you know. The classification counts and invoice thresholds are what the skills use most immediately — start there.
Connecting MCP Integrations
The plugin's full value comes from connecting Claude to your live operational data. Without MCP, you provide data manually in prompts. With MCP, the skills pull current data from your systems automatically.
The five key MCP integration points:
| System | What It Provides | MCP Server |
|---|---|---|
| ERP (SAP, Oracle, Dynamics, NetSuite) | Purchase orders, goods receipts, vendor master data | Vendor-specific MCP server or Pipe17 |
| Accounts Payable | Invoice records, payment status, dispute logs | AP system MCP or Pipe17 |
| Logistics / TMS | Shipment records, carrier performance, route data | Freight platform API / MCP |
| Supplier portal | Delivery confirmations, quality certificates | Portal API |
| Financial databases | Supplier financial health, credit ratings | Companies House, D&B, Creditsafe APIs |
The Web Search MCP is also valuable for this plugin — specifically for the vendor-health-monitor agent's external monitoring: supplier news, commodity price changes, regulatory updates, geopolitical risk signals. If you have Web Search MCP enabled in Cowork, it is automatically available to the plugin's agents.
For the exercises in Lessons 3–13, you do not need MCP connected. Each exercise provides sample data in the prompt. When you deploy the plugin for real operational use, MCP connection is what converts it from a demonstration tool to a live intelligence layer.
Verify Your Installation
Run these three prompts to confirm the plugin is correctly installed and configured:
Verification 1 — Plugin active:
List all commands available from the supply-chain plugin.
For each command, provide a one-line description of when to use it.
Verification 2 — Configuration loaded:
What are my current invoice reconciliation thresholds?
Show me the configuration that will govern tolerance rules in /invoice-reconcile.
Verification 3 — First skill test:
/vendor-assess
Vendor: Test Vendor Ltd
Category: Office supplies
Annual spend: £12,000
Dependency: Low — 8 alternatives available in market
Jurisdiction: UK
Relationship: New — first assessment
You expect to see a Tier 3 (Commodity) classification for this test vendor — low spend, low supply risk, many alternatives. If the classification output looks structured and includes tier reasoning, the skill is working.
Try With AI
Reproduce: Apply what you just learned to a simple case.
I have just installed the supply-chain plugin. I want to verify it is
working correctly. Please:
1. List all 8 plugin commands with their one-line descriptions
2. Confirm which 3 commands were renamed from their original spec names
and explain why
3. Tell me what information I need to provide in supply-chain.local.md
before using /invoice-reconcile for the first time
What you are learning: Verifying a plugin installation before using it confirms you understand the architecture — not just that the install command ran. The command naming question reinforces the collision-avoidance pattern you will use throughout this chapter.
Adapt: Modify the scenario to match your organisation.
I am configuring supply-chain.local.md for [describe your organisation:
industry, approximate vendor count, primary currency, ERP system].
Based on that context:
1. What invoice reconciliation thresholds would you recommend as starting
defaults for a business of this type?
2. How many vendors would you expect in each Kraljic tier for this industry?
3. What are the two most important MCP integrations to prioritise first,
and why?
What you are learning: The right defaults for supply-chain.local.md depend on your industry and scale. A manufacturer processing 5,000 invoices monthly needs tighter automation thresholds than a services firm processing 200. This prompt helps you think through your own configuration before completing it.
Apply: Extend to a new situation the lesson didn't cover directly.
A CPO wants to deploy the supply-chain plugin across a global manufacturing
organisation with:
- 3 regional procurement teams (EMEA, Americas, APAC)
- Different currencies and ERP instances per region
- Centralised strategic vendor management, regional tactical/commodity management
- Different invoice tolerance policies by region (UK: £50 threshold, US: $75, APAC: variable)
1. How should supply-chain.local.md be structured to handle multi-region configuration?
2. Should there be one shared plugin installation or region-specific instances?
3. Which commands would benefit most from region-specific configuration, and which
can use global defaults?
What you are learning: Enterprise plugin deployment introduces configuration complexity that a single supply-chain.local.md file may not address cleanly. Thinking through multi-region configuration reveals the boundaries of the local configuration approach — and where organisational governance decisions need to be made before the plugin is deployed.
Flashcards Study Aid
Continue to Lesson 3: Vendor Classification — The Kraljic Matrix →