Compatibility

Requirements

Requirement	Version	Notes
Claude Code	2.1.x or later	The plugin schema used here is 2.1-era
Node.js	20 or later	For the kernel: CLI, MCP server, hooks
superpowers	optional	Foundry delegates to it and degrades gracefully when absent

There are no other runtime dependencies. npm install is never required to use Foundry — every executable file uses only the Node.js standard library.

AUTHORING.md was verified against the official Claude Code documentation on 2026-08-27 for Claude Code 2.1.247. That is the version the assets were written against.

Schema fields Foundry depends on

Foundry does not use the whole plugin schema. It uses these parts, and a Claude Code version missing any of them will not run it correctly.

Field or feature	Where	Why Foundry needs it
dependencies in plugin.json	every vertical	Each vertical declares foundry-core, so installing one pulls the kernel
bin/ added to PATH	foundry-core	Puts bin/foundry.mjs within reach. Claude Code adds the directory, not a shim, so the name on PATH is foundry.mjs — see CLI
mcpServers merged from .mcp.json	foundry-core	Registers the foundry MCP server
hooks merged from hooks/hooks.json	foundry-core	Registers the nine hook entries
workflows/	foundry-core	Three dynamic workflows
outputStyles from output-styles/	foundry-core	Three output styles
metadata free-form object	every plugin	Carries foundry.vertical and foundry.contracts
defaultEnabled	every plugin	true on the kernel, false on every vertical
Agent effort	every agent	Effort routing is half the token economy
Agent isolation: worktree	ops, research	Parallel writers need isolated checkouts
Agent memory: project	most agents	Persistent cross-session agent memory
Skill context: fork and agent:	compliance-scan and others	Runs a skill through a named agent in its own context
Skill disable-model-invocation	foundry-init	User-invocable only
Hook if conditions	authoring contract	Documented for asset authors
SubagentStop hook event	foundry-core	The context firewall
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}, ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}, ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}	hooks, .mcp.json	Path resolution

The MCP server declares protocol version 2025-06-18 and implements initialize, ping, tools/list, tools/call, resources/list and resources/read. It does not implement prompts, sampling or subscriptions.

How to check

Claude Code

/help

The version is shown in the header. Foundry needs 2.1.x or later.

Node.js

node --version

If this prints anything below v20, the CLI, the hooks and the MCP server will fail. Nothing else in Foundry depends on Node.

Foundry itself

foundry doctor

foundry is not itself a command on PATH: Claude Code adds the plugin’s bin/ directory without creating a shim, so the executable is foundry.mjs. Call it explicitly with node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/bin/foundry.mjs" doctor, or alias it. If even that fails, foundry-core is not installed — restart Claude Code or run /reload-plugins.

foundry doctor checks state, memory, runbooks, overrides and blackboard artifacts, and exits non-zero if anything fails. See CLI for the full check list.

Plugins and MCP

/plugin

Lists installed plugins and whether each is enabled. foundry-core should be present and enabled; every vertical you installed should be listed with foundry-core satisfied as a dependency.

/mcp

Should list a server named foundry. If it is missing, .mcp.json was not merged — check that foundry-core is enabled, not merely installed.

Assets, if you are contributing

node scripts/validate-assets.mjs

Validates every asset against AUTHORING.md, including the model and effort enums and the 500-line skill body limit.

Versioning

All twelve plugins and the marketplace itself are at 0.1.0. Verticals declare "dependencies": [{ "name": "foundry-core", "version": "^0.1.0" }], so a 0.1.x kernel satisfies a 0.1.x vertical.

Contracts are versioned independently of the plugins, by filename: finding.v1, adr.v1 and so on. A breaking change to a contract adds *.v2 and leaves *.v1 in place, so an older agent keeps validating.

Known limits

• Foundry is tested against the plugin schema as documented on 2026-08-27. A newer Claude Code that changes hook payload field names — last_assistant_message, transcript_path, worktree_path, reason, agent_type — would silently degrade the gates that read them, since a hook that cannot read its input returns no opinion rather than blocking.
• The Stop gate parses the transcript file as JSON lines. A change to that format disables the gate rather than breaking the session.
• Foundry registers no WorktreeCreate hook, so nothing links Foundry state into a worktree. Committed .foundry/ content arrives through git; .foundry/blackboard/ is gitignored and therefore per-worktree. .worktreeinclude copies file by file and skips symlinks, so a listed directory containing any arrives incomplete.
• Foundry is an independent open source project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic, and it makes no guarantee about future Claude Code releases.