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What is the Compass agent skill?

The Compass agent skill is a packaged, versioned plugin that teaches your AI coding agent to operate Compass — over the compass CLI or the hosted MCP server. Instead of wiring up tool definitions yourself, you describe a DeFi action in plain English and the agent does the rest. The same skill works both ways: it drives the compass CLI in a shell, or calls the Compass MCP tools directly when your agent has them connected. It uses whichever your agent supports; the plain-English workflow below is the same either way — only the preview mechanics differ (the CLI has a --dry-run flag; MCP has no such flag). Tell your agent “find the best USDC vault on Base and deposit 100” or “open a 2x long on ETH”, and it will:
1

Map intent to a command

It translates your request into the right action — a compass CLI subcommand or an MCP tool call — reading the live command surface (compass --usage / --help, or the MCP tool schemas). On the CLI path, first use also installs the compass CLI for you if it’s missing (see Prerequisites).
2

Preview, then run

On the CLI it previews the call with --dry-run before running it; over MCP the agent shows you the tool call it’s about to make. Either way you see the action before it executes.
3

Hand off for signing

Any resulting transaction — an unsigned tx or EIP-712 typed data — is handed back to your wallet to sign.
Non-custodial by design. The CLI and MCP tools return unsigned transactions / EIP-712 typed data. The skill never holds your keys, signs, or broadcasts — signing is always done with your own wallet.

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How it compares

The skill is one of four agent surfaces. It sits on top of the CLI and the MCP server — the fastest way to get an autonomous agent transacting on Compass.

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Prerequisites

  • A Compass API key — get one at compasslabs.ai/login, then export COMPASS_API_KEY_AUTH="your_api_key_here".
  • An agent that supports skills/plugins — Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex — or any agent that can read an AGENTS.md file.
On the CLI path, the skill installs and configures the compass CLI for you, so you don’t have to set it up first. On the MCP path there’s no binary — you connect the hosted MCP server and the Compass tools appear natively.

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Install

Two slash commands, typed in the chat — no terminal. First register the Compass plugin catalog (one-time), then install the plugin:
The compass skill is now available in this and every future session. Update it with /plugin update compass@compass-labs, or remove it with /plugin uninstall compass@compass-labs.
Prefer native tools over a CLI binary? Point your agent at the hosted MCP server instead — same Compass key, sent as an X-API-Key header. The skill’s workflow is the same; the agent calls the Compass MCP tools directly rather than shelling out to the CLI.

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Use

In Claude Code, invoke it explicitly:
Or just describe a DeFi action in chat — the skill activates on DeFi intents like supplying to Aave, opening a perp, or buying a tokenized equity.

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What it does not do

  • Sign or broadcast transactions — that’s your wallet, or the gas-sponsorship flow.
  • Track positions over time — it’s a stateless API client; it queries fresh each time.
  • Manage on-chain approvals — your wallet’s responsibility, or Permit2 via gas sponsorship.

CLI

One backend the skill drives. Every Compass endpoint as a subcommand.

MCP Server

The other backend — native Compass tools for any MCP client, no binary.

Browse the skill on GitHub

Source, per-agent manifests, and the universal AGENTS.md. MIT-licensed.