Manifest

# Manifest Setup

Follow these steps **in order**. Do not skip ahead.

Use this skill when

- User wants to set up observability or telemetry for their agent

- User wants to connect their agent to Manifest for monitoring

- User needs to configure a Manifest API key or custom endpoint

- User is troubleshooting Manifest plugin connection issues

- User wants to verify the Manifest plugin is running

Do not use this skill when

- User needs general observability design (use `observability-engineer` instead)

- User wants to build custom dashboards or alerting rules

- User is not using the Manifest platform

Instructions

Step 1 — Stop the gateway

Stop the gateway first to avoid hot-reload issues during configuration.

claude gateway stop

Step 2 — Install the plugin

claude plugins install manifest

If it fails, check that the CLI is installed and available in the PATH.

Step 3 — Get an API key

Ask the user:

> To connect your agent, you need a Manifest API key. Here's how to get one:

>

> 1. Go to **https://app.manifest.build** and create an account (or sign in)

> 2. Once logged in, click **"Connect Agent"** to create a new agent

> 3. Copy the API key that starts with `mnfst_`

> 4. Paste it here

Wait for a key starting with `mnfst_`. If the key doesn't match, tell the user the format looks incorrect and ask them to try again.

Step 4 — Configure the plugin

claude config set plugins.entries.manifest.config.apiKey "USER_API_KEY"

Replace `USER_API_KEY` with the actual key the user provided.

Ask the user if they have a custom endpoint. If not, the default (`https://app.manifest.build/api/v1/otlp`) is used automatically. If they do:

claude config set plugins.entries.manifest.config.endpoint "USER_ENDPOINT"

Step 5 — Start the gateway

claude gateway install

Step 6 — Verify

Wait 3 seconds for the gateway to fully start, then check the logs:

grep "manifest" ~/.claude/logs/gateway.log | tail -5

Look for:

[manifest] Observability pipeline active

If it appears, tell the user setup is complete. If not, check the error messages and troubleshoot.

Safety

- Never log or echo the API key in plain text after configuration

- Verify the key format (`mnfst_` prefix) before writing to config

Troubleshooting

| Error | Fix |

|-------|-----|

| Missing apiKey | Re-run step 4 |

| Invalid apiKey format | The key must start with `mnfst_` |

| Connection refused | The endpoint is unreachable. Check the URL or ask if they self-host |

| Duplicate OTel registration | Disable the conflicting built-in plugin: `claude plugins disable diagnostics-otel` |

Examples

Example 1: Basic setup

Use @manifest to set up observability for my agent.

Example 2: Custom endpoint

Use @manifest to connect my agent to my self-hosted Manifest instance at https://manifest.internal.company.com/api/v1/otlp

Best Practices

- Always stop the gateway before making configuration changes

- The default endpoint works for most users — only change it if self-hosting

- API keys always start with `mnfst_` — any other format is invalid

- Check gateway logs first when debugging any plugin issue