# Catalog and installing

> Search the MCP Registry and skills.sh, see exactly what will run, and install servers and skills into NeuroSquad's own folder.

Source: https://docs.neurosquad.ai/en/skills-mcp/catalog

**Skills, MCP & plugins** is one window with four tabs: **MCP servers**, **Skills**, **Plugins**
and **Installed**. Open it from the sidebar (**Integrations → Skills, MCP & plugins**), or from an
empty MCP or skill card with **Browse** — then whatever you install lands on that card. The
add-card menu's **Plugin…** entry opens it on the Plugins tab.

## Search

Results appear as you type. The whole catalog is kept on your computer and refreshed in the
background, so search is instant and works offline.

- **MCP servers** come from the official **MCP Registry** — every server published there. Filter
by how it runs: **Local** (a package that runs on your computer), **Remote** (a service on the
internet), and **No setup** (nothing to fill in).
- **Skills** come from **skills.sh**, the most popular directory of agent skills. The most
installed come first; while you are online, its own search is merged in with install counts.
- **Installed** is your library: everything on this computer, with settings, updates and
uninstall.

## Install an MCP server

**1. Choose how it runs**

Many servers can run several ways — an **npm** package (needs Node.js), a **PyPI** package
(needs uv or Python), a **Docker** image (needs Docker), or a **remote** service over HTTPS.
Ways NeuroSquad can't run yet are shown greyed out, with the reason.

**2. Fill in its settings**

Keys and tokens (a Figma token, an API key) go into password fields. They are encrypted with
your system's keychain and **never shown to agents** — the agent only gets the tools.

**3. Read “What will run”**

The exact commands, the package and its pinned version, and the names of the settings it
receives. If a Docker image asks for access to your files, network or devices, you get a
warning.

**4. Confirm and install**

Tick the box and press **Install**. The output streams below the button. NeuroSquad then starts
the server once to list its tools, and it is ready.

> Everything goes into NeuroSquad's own data folder — its own copy of each package, its own
> Python environment. Nothing is installed globally, and your `~/.claude`, `~/.codex` and other
> agent settings stay untouched. Docker images are the exception: they live in Docker, as always.

After installing, open it in **Installed** to:

- **Test** — start it again and re-read its tools.
- **Show its log** — what the server printed, when it won't start.
- **Sign in / Sign out** — for remote servers that use your account (OAuth). The login page opens
in your browser; the tokens are stored encrypted.
- Change its **settings** — a saved key stays saved unless you type a new one.
- **Uninstall** — removes its files, settings and saved keys. Cards that used it stay on the
canvas and ask for another one.

A server starts only when an agent first needs it, is shared by every agent connected to it, and
stops after ten minutes without use.

## Install a skill

**5. Open it**

You get its `SKILL.md` rendered in full, its files and size, its license, and the security
scans skills.sh publishes (Snyk, Socket and others).

**6. Mind the scripts**

If the skill ships scripts, you're told: an agent following the skill may run them.

**7. Confirm and install**

Tick "I read this skill" and press **Install**. What gets installed is exactly what you just
read — if the skill changed upstream meanwhile, you're asked to look again.

In **Installed** you can **Update** a skill when a newer version appears, **Open folder** to see
its files, or **Uninstall** it.

## Add a plugin

Plugins are built into NeuroSquad — nothing is downloaded to list them. Each one is a card that
changes how the agents connected to it work; the first is the
[RTK-AI Token Saver](https://docs.neurosquad.ai/en/plugins/rtk-ai-token-saver), which compresses the output of their shell commands.

1. Choose **Plugin…** in the add-card menu (typing `token` or `rtk` in the menu's search finds it
too), or open the **Plugins** tab of the catalog.
2. Pick a plugin: you see what it does, how to use it and which agents it works with.
3. Press **Add to canvas**. The card appears on the canvas of the workspace you opened the menu in
(from the sidebar: the workspace on screen). Draw an arrow from an agent to it.

## Safety

- **Everything from a catalog is third-party.** An MCP server is a program with the rights of
your user account, or a web service your agents talk to. Install what you'd install anyway.
- **Skill text becomes agent instructions.** A skill can tell an agent to do anything — read it
before you install it; the catalog shows it in full for that reason.
- Remote servers are **HTTPS only**. Keys never appear on a command line or in a log.