Setup Agent Skill

Guaardvark: connect and check

Guaardvark runs on the user's own machine. Everything below is local; nothing leaves the box.

Where it is

• Backend URL: ${GUAARDVARK_URL:-http://localhost:5000}. The macOS default port is 5055

(AirPlay owns 5000). The web UI is on port 5173 in dev, or the same port as the backend in Docker.

• Health: !curl -sf ${GUAARDVARK_URL:-http://localhost:5000}/api/health || curl -sf http://localhost:5055/api/health || echo "backend not reachable on 5000 or 5055"
• Plugins: !curl -sf ${GUAARDVARK_URL:-http://localhost:5000}/api/plugins/status || echo "plugin status unavailable"

If the backend is not reachable, tell the user to start it from the Guaardvark checkout

(./start.sh, or docker compose up), then retry. Do not try to start it yourself.

Two ways to drive it

• MCP tools (preferred when present): the guaardvark MCP server exposes chat, RAG, memory,

code intelligence, file processing, web fetch, image/video/animation/music-video/film-crew

generation, get_generation_status for any queued batch, outreach drafting and GPU/log

inspection. Generation tools queue by default over MCP and return a batch id. In Claude Code they appear as

mcp__guaardvark__<tool> after python -m backend.mcp install, or as

mcp__plugin_guaardvark_guaardvark__<tool> when the plugin was installed from the marketplace. Install once from the checkout:

   python -m backend.mcp install      # writes the server entry into Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Codex, Zed, Gemini
   python -m backend.mcp doctor       # self-test + stale-config scan
   python -m backend.mcp list-tools   # what is exposed right now

Restart the client after installing so it re-reads its MCP config.

• REST for everything the MCP policy does not expose (voice, music, upscaling, batches,

cast/LoRA training, swarm launch, interconnector, plugins). Use curl against the backend URL.

Responses are wrapped as {"success": bool, "data": {...}, "message": str} on most routes; a few

older routes return the bare object. Read data when it is present.

Before generating anything

• GPU services are plugins. Check GET /api/plugins/status; a generation route answers 503 when

its plugin is not running. Start one with POST /api/plugins/<id>/start where <id> is

comfyui (image + video), audio_foundry (voice, music, FX), upscaling, lora_trainer,

swarm. Only one heavy model owns the GPU at a time; the orchestrator evicts Ollama for video

and vice versa, so a first call after a switch is slow. inspect_gpu (MCP) shows who holds it.

• Installed models: GET /api/batch-video/models and GET /api/batch-image/models list every

registry entry with capabilities; check installed before naming a model. Nothing downloads

without an explicit Install, so if a model is missing say so and offer

POST /api/batch-video/models/download {"model_id": "..."} (or the image route with

{"model_path": "..."}).

• Outputs land under data/outputs/ in the checkout and are also served read-only over MCP as

guaardvark://outputs/... resources.

Skills in this pack

| Skill | Use for |

|---|---|

| image | one image, edits, cast characters, batch image runs |

| video | one clip, image-to-video, first/last frame, batch video runs, MiniMax H3 with sound |

| music-video | a song in, a beat-cut music video out, with the approval gate |

| film-crew | screenplay to finished short: writer, casting, storyboards, render, edit |

| voice | narration, TTS, consent-gated voice cloning |

| music | full songs with lyrics, instrumentals, sound effects |

| upscale | 2x to 8K upscaling of images and video |

| cast | Cast Library subjects and LoRA training for consistent characters |

| models | add any Hugging Face model or LoRA from a URL |

| swarm | parallel coding agents in git worktrees from a plan file |

| knowledge | the user's indexed documents, memory, web fetch |

| code | code search, repository map, self-improvement status |

| outreach | supervised social drafts (never posts) |

| ops | GPU, logs, Celery, plugins, Interconnector sync, autoresearch, infographics |