Installing and building Arka plugins

Extend Arka by installing third-party plugin skills into ~/.config/arka/skills/ with skill.json trigger files that hook into the router.

Extend Arka with third-party skills installed to ~/.config/arka/skills/.

Arka also provides a universal plugin registry. Existing Arka manifests remain supported, while Claude/Codex-style folders, MCP-backed plugins, and executable plugin repositories are normalized into the same catalog and execution path.

Install a plugin

arka skills install https://github.com/user/my-skill.git
arka skills refresh
arka skills list
arka plugin doctor
arka plugin inspect my_skill
arka plugin search browser

plugin and plugins are lifecycle aliases; skills remains compatible with older installations.

Plugin compatibility

Source	Detection	Default adapter
Arka skill.json, manifest.json, plugin.json	manifest in a plugin directory	Arka manifest
Claude/Codex skill	SKILL.md or README.md	external skill
Executable repository	run.py, main.py, run.sh, or index.js	executable
MCP server	MCP server entry in the configured MCP catalog	MCP tool adapter

Inspect the normalized descriptor before enabling an unfamiliar plugin:

arka plugin inspect my_skill
arka plugin doctor

The descriptor reports its adapter, source, entrypoint, capabilities, requirements, permissions, health, and any trigger conflicts. Conflicting or unavailable plugins are not routed.

Security defaults

Third-party plugins pass Arka’s security and hosted-mode gates. Permissions can declare read, write, network, shell, or install; risky operations need interactive approval, and hosted/user-disabled skills remain unavailable. Command plugins receive structured arguments and are not evaluated through a shell string. Unsafe argument syntax, missing dependencies, invalid manifests, and failed health checks block activation. Plugin installation is always explicit; discovery never executes code.

skill.json format

Every plugin needs a skill.json manifest:

{
  "name": "my_skill",
  "description": "What it does",
  "type": "python",
  "entry": "run.py",
  "triggers": ["my skill", "do the thing"],
  "voice_ack": "Running my skill."
}

Supported types

Type	Entry	Runs as
python	run.py	Python script
fish	skill.fish	Fish function
shell	run.sh	Shell script
command	echo hello	Direct command

How triggers work

Arka matches plugin triggers before AI routing. When you say something that matches a trigger, Arka runs the plugin immediately with zero LLM tokens.

"triggers": ["weather in", "forecast for"]

Triggers are case-insensitive substring matches against the full user request.

Directory structure

~/.config/arka/skills/
└── my_skill/
    ├── skill.json
    ├── run.py
    └── README.md

Voice acknowledgment

Set voice_ack to speak a confirmation when the plugin runs from voice:

"voice_ack": "Checking the weather for you."

Profession plugins

Arka supports profession-domain plugins with curated source registries. See src/arka/professions/examples/ in the repo for an architect example.

Refresh after changes

arka skills refresh
arka reload

Keep triggers specific enough to avoid false matches. Test with arka route "your trigger phrase" before deploying.