co setup — Customize your profile and import skills

co init prepares the local identity, a default profile, bundled skill links and coding-agent command indexes. Use co setup to customize that profile and import skills you keep in other coding tools.

Copy codeco setup --name my-alias --bio "What I work on"

--no-skills skips library discovery, copying and manifest generation. It still repairs the identity, default profile, bundled skill links and command indexes.

To prepare just that local integration without importing your library:

Copy codeco setup --no-skills

What setup prepares

Item	Behavior
~/.co/keys/	Reuse the machine identity; create one when missing
~/.co/keys.env	Repair a missing file without rotating the identity; attempt managed-key auth for a new identity
~/.co/agent.json	Create a missing profile; explicit --name and --bio update only those fields
Bundled skill links	Link into installed Codex and Claude Code; keep your own skill directories
Generated command index	Refresh the marked block in the coding agents' instruction files; keep your own text
~/.co/skills/	Discover and import your library unless --no-skills
agent.json.skills	Generate metadata from that library, retaining existing publish choices

Setup runs this preparation in the current CLI process. It does not need another installed copy of co on PATH. Every invocation checks for missing pieces even when the identity already exists.

The default global directory is ~/.co/. An explicit process AGENT_CONFIG_PATH selects the identity, profile and user skill library together; co skills and the runtime skills plugin read the same library. Global co setup does not accept a project --env-file selector; it rejects one before creating or repairing files.

Preserve edits or recreate the profile

Copy code# Update only the named fields; keep other profile metadata
co setup --name writing-tools --bio "Tools for writing" --no-skills

# Recreate the complete profile, backing up the old file to agent.json.bak
co setup --name writing-tools --bio "Tools for writing" --force --no-skills

Without profile options, an existing profile is kept. Updating profile fields removes a prior signature so the changed profile can be signed again. --force recreates the profile; it does not replace user skill directories or force-copy the imported library. To explicitly refresh an imported skill, use co skills copy <name> --force.

Import a skill library

The default setup runs:

Copy codeco skills discover
co skills copy --all
co skills manifest

Existing imported skills are kept. New manifest entries use publish: false; existing publish choices, manual listings and extra skill metadata survive. Review the profile and library before announcing:

Copy codeco skills list
co announce --dry-run

--dry-run shows the proposed announcement without sending it. Setup itself does not publish a profile. See co skills for source precedence and what travels with a project.

Authentication and recovery

Setup reports whether an OpenOnion token is present, without printing it or claiming that the server has verified it. A missing token leaves local setup available and prints co auth as the recovery action. A read-only coding-agent directory is skipped with a repair command to run from a writable shell.

Copy codeco auth
co skills link
co skills index

Options

Option	Meaning
--name, -n	Set alias and name; default for a new profile is $USER
--bio, -b	Set the bio; omitted fields in an existing profile stay unchanged
--force, -f	Recreate agent.json, backing up the old profile
--no-skills	Skip importing the user library; keep basic integration repair

Use co init for local initialization, co init ./ for an existing project, or co create for a new project directory. Each completes the same local integration, so the starting command does not leave skills unlinked.

In preview 1.9.3rc26, rerunning initialization also refreshes a bundled skill symlink into an older installed ConnectOnion package. Personal skill directories and links outside installed package layouts are preserved. Missing local profile fields receive defaults; invalid skill metadata is kept and reports how to repair it. All four entry points share this preparation.