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Train Your FileMaker AI Agent
A free class for experienced FileMaker Developers, from your first Skill to a Skill library you publish. Ten lessons, then an open book quiz with a certificate at 80%.
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08: FileMaker Skills Orchestrator
The word 'orchestra' comes from the Greek orkhēstra: not the musicians, but the space in front of the stage where the chorus stood. It was never about playing. It was about where everyone stands.
By now you have a handful of Skills: the one you built, the ones you installed in lesson 04, and Claris ADT underneath them all from lesson 05. A handful becomes a collection quickly, and a collection needs managing. This lesson is how.
In this post:
Why the Orchestrator Comes First With Claris ADT
ADT reads and changes the FileMaker file directly: schema, scripts and layouts. Which begs the question: what are Skills for, once the Agent can update the file itself?
The answer is context. ADT is the foundation. Skills are the layer on top: verified reference, your own conventions, and the plugin and server knowledge ADT doesn't carry.
That layer needs a conductor, and that's the job of fmp-dev-orchestrator. Call it first. It doesn't answer the FileMaker question itself. It routes each task to whoever owns it:
Claris ADT. Anything that reads or changes the file.
claris-filemaker-pro. Exact syntax, platform support and the APIs.
fmp-dev-design-patterns. How you like your scripts built.
The plugin and server Skills. MBS, BaseElements, bBox, FileMaker Server and OttoFMS on Docker.
Where Your FileMaker Skills Live
Claude Desktop lists your Skills under Customize, then Skills. Each one can be turned off, shared or removed from there.
That list isn't the whole story. Depending on how you installed them, Skills can sit in four places:
The Claude app. Uploaded under Customize, then Skills, as in lesson 01.
Claude Code. Your own folder, ~/.claude/skills.
A project. The project's own .claude/skills folder.
Plugins. Installed from a marketplace, as in lesson 04.
Install the same Skill two ways and you have two copies, and two copies means two versions. It's the same trap as FileMaker plugins sitting in more than one folder on your drive. The Orchestrator's stack check finds every copy and tells you which one is out of date.
What the FileMaker Stack Check Reports
Once per session, the Orchestrator runs a read-only check that the whole stack is current:
Your Skills against the latest releases, with any retired Skill flagged for removal.
Claris ADT, and the FileMaker Pro version ADT needs for Agent Access.
Your ADT project: the ADT it was created with, its project instructions, and the TypeScript and Node versions its app asks for.
It reports, then asks. Nothing is updated without your yes.
Example: The first time I ran it on my own Mac, it found the Claude desktop app still holding an older copy of claris-filemaker-pro, an ADT project created with an earlier toolkit, and Agent Access switched off. Three things I'd have tripped over mid-session.
Where the FileMaker Pro Skill and Design Patterns Fit
claris-filemaker-pro is still the reference. With ADT installed it checks Claris's own Help and the FileMaker engine first, then adds what ADT's help doesn't carry. Without ADT, it works on its own. Same Skill, both worlds.
fmp-dev-design-patterns is where your conventions live: error handling, JSON parameters, naming, and the anti-patterns you've learnt the hard way. ADT carries Claris's baseline standards. Your patterns sit on top, and the Agent writes the script straight into your file.
Keeping Pace With the Cadence of Agentic Updates
In cycling, cadence is the rhythm of the pedals. Get it right and you've found the balance between heart and lungs on one side and legs on the other: the pace that gives the best performance over the whole distance of a ride, not just the next hill. Push too big a gear and the legs fade. Spin too fast and the lungs give out first.
Development has a cadence too, and it has time shifted. My Skills release weekly. ADT is moving in weeks, not years. In Agentic Time Traveller I wrote that a change to the Harness, and most of all to ADT, can change what the Agent produces: review the first piece of work before you trust the second. You can't do that if you don't know what changed.
So the marketplace publishes a versions.json listing each Skill's latest release, and the Orchestrator reads it. What's current, what's behind, and what's worth updating before the next ride.
Troubleshooting a Slow FileMaker Session
The age-old troubleshooting process hasn't changed. It's just sped up.
Ask your Agent what it's doing. More often than not, it has loaded far too many Skills.
Check the session's age. The longer a session runs, the more chance of errors in the output. Start a fresh one.
Check your drive. A Skill can reach out to a folder on your drive, an old one included, and go looking there for the answer.
Turn off what you don't use. Customize, then Skills. Then run the stack check.
Napoleon had nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills and computer hacking skills. You don't need every skill. Just the right ones.
Install the FileMaker Skills Orchestrator
In Claude Code, add the marketplace once, then install the Orchestrator, as in lesson 04:
claude plugin marketplace add https://github.com/CadenceUX/cadenceux-skills.git
claude plugin install fmp-dev-orchestrator@cadenceux
The Orchestrator routes. It doesn't install. Add the Skills you'll use, or the full set:
claude plugin install claris-filemaker-pro@cadenceux
claude plugin install fmp-dev-design-patterns@cadenceux
claude plugin install monkeybread-mbs-plugin@cadenceux
claude plugin install goya-be-plugin@cadenceux
claude plugin install beezwax-bbox-plugin@cadenceux
claude plugin install cadenceux-fms-docker-setup@cadenceux
claude plugin install cadenceux-ottofms-docker-setup@cadenceux
To stay current, turn on auto-update for the cadenceux marketplace in /plugin, or refresh it by hand with claude plugin marketplace update cadenceux, then update each Skill. The stack check tells you which ones are behind.
On claude.ai or Cowork, add CadenceUX/cadenceux-skills under Customize, then Plugins, and install each Skill from there. Plugins you add on claude.ai also appear in Claude Code. The full set is on the Skills page.
This is released under CC BY 4.0. Use it, fork it, adapt it. Attribute it.
Skill Management Vocabulary
Orchestrator. A Skill called first that routes each task to the Skill or tool that owns it.
Stack check. The Orchestrator's read-only check that your Skills, ADT, FileMaker Pro and ADT project are current.
versions.json. The marketplace file listing each Skill's latest release, read by the stack check.
Agent Access. How FileMaker Pro makes its open files available to ADT.
Retired Skill. A Skill replaced or folded into another one, flagged by the stack check for removal.
Takeaway
The Orchestrator doesn't play a note. Like the orkhēstra, it's the space that gives every player its place: ADT for the file, the reference for the facts, your patterns for the craft. Start there, keep one copy of each Skill, and let the check hold your cadence over the distance.
Next, shipping an update to a Skill other people already use. Continue with lesson 09, Ship Updates to a Published FileMaker Skill.
More to come . . .
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