04: Install FileMaker Skills

'Add it once, install what you need, and updates arrive on their own.' ~ my good-self, on moving every one of my Skills into one marketplace.

So far you've built your own Skill and uploaded it by hand. Most of the Skills you'll use, you won't build. This lesson is how they get in, and how they stay current.

In this post:

• Chat or Code in Claude Desktop

• Four Ways to Install a Claude Skill

• Install FileMaker Skills From the CadenceUX Marketplace

• Check the FileMaker Skill Installed

• One FileMaker Skill, One Copy

• Skill Install Vocabulary

Chat or Code in Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop offers two spaces, and it's worth knowing which stage of the journey each one fits.

Chat. The place to start. It works on a free account, reads a file or folder you give it, fetches web pages and runs your custom Skills. It doesn't run Claris ADT. I used chat for about a month, for the first releases of my FileMaker Skills.

Code. Where the real coding happens, and it needs a Pro account. It reads, writes and edits files on your Mac directly, runs subagents, works with GitHub, and has full Claris ADT support. Plugin marketplaces install from here, as well as from Customize on claude.ai.

Four Ways to Install a Claude Skill

Double-click a .skill file. On a Mac, a downloaded Skill installs with a double-click. A .zip renamed to .skill works the same way. I'm not sure the double-click works on Windows.

Upload a .zip. Customize, then Skills, then upload. The way you installed your own Skill in lesson one.

A project folder. A Skill kept inside a project's folder, for the sessions you run in that folder.

A plugin marketplace. A list of Skills published from GitHub. Add the marketplace once, install the Skills you want by name, and their updates arrive on their own.

Install FileMaker Skills From the CadenceUX Marketplace

Open Claude Desktop, choose the Code tab, and start a session. Type each line with a ! in front, or paste them and ask Claude to run them:

claude plugin marketplace add https://github.com/CadenceUX/cadenceux-skills.git
claude plugin install claris-filemaker-pro@cadenceux

The first line adds the marketplace. The second installs one Skill from it. The name after @ is the marketplace, not the Skill. Start a new session so the Skill loads.

On claude.ai or Cowork, open Customize, then Plugins, add CadenceUX/cadenceux-skills, and install from there. Plugins you add on claude.ai also appear in Claude Code.

To stay current, turn on auto-update for the marketplace under /plugin, or refresh it by hand:

claude plugin marketplace update cadenceux

Every Skill in it is free, and the full set is on the Skills page.

Check the FileMaker Skill Installed

Ask a question only the Skill answers well, without naming it:

What does JSONRaw return?

Example: claris-filemaker-pro once said JSONRaw returned 7. The FileMaker calculation engine says 0. A community member raised it as an issue on GitHub, and the next release fixed it. Installed from a marketplace, a fix like that reaches you without a download. A copy pasted into a chat never hears about it.

One FileMaker Skill, One Copy

Depending on how you installed them, your Skills can be active in Chat, in Code, in project folders and in the local Claude folder. Install the same Skill two ways and you have two versions, just as FileMaker plugins can live in several folders on your drive.

So when a Skill moves to the marketplace, remove the uploaded copy under Customize, then Skills. One Skill, one copy, one version. Later in this series the Orchestrator finds every copy for you.

Skill Install Vocabulary

Plugin. A package that carries one or more Skills, installed and updated by Claude Code.

Marketplace. A list of plugins, published from GitHub, that Claude Code can install by name.

Code tab. Claude Code inside Claude Desktop: files, terminal, subagents and Claris ADT.

Auto-update. A marketplace setting that brings each new release in without a download.

Takeaway

Add it once, install what you need, and let the updates arrive on their own. Use the Code tab when you need files and ADT, and keep one copy of every Skill.

Next, the foundation every FileMaker Skill now sits on. Continue with my next post, Claris ADT and Your FileMaker Skills.

More to come . . .