FileMaker Skills Orchestrator for Claris ADT

every Skill in its place . . .

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.

Claris's Agentic Development Toolkit (ADT) has changed where my FileMaker Skills sit. ADT now reads and changes the FileMaker file directly: schema, scripts and layouts. No clipboard XML. No copy and paste. Which begs the question: what are Skills for, once the Agent can update the file itself?

Why the Orchestrator Comes First With Claris ADT

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. 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.

What the FileMaker Stack Check Reports

The Orchestrator now does one more thing, once per session: a read-only check that the whole stack is current.

• Your CadenceUX Skills against the latest releases.

• 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 its packages.

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, and many Developers won't have it until at least the end of the year, 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 now 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. When Claris publishes ADT updates the way it does for FileMaker Pro and Server, the check picks them up without a Skill change.

Install the FileMaker Skills Orchestrator

claude plugin marketplace add https://github.com/CadenceUX/cadenceux-skills.git
claude plugin install fmp-dev-orchestrator@cadenceux

On claude.ai or Cowork, add CadenceUX/cadenceux-skills under Customize, then Plugins. Then add the Skills you need. The full set is on the Skills page.

This is released under CC BY 4.0. Use it, fork it, adapt it. Attribute it.

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, and let the check hold your cadence over the distance.

More to come . . .