playbook/outfitter-agents/plugins/outfitter/skills/plugin-engineer/references/overview.md

Plugin Engineer Overview

Quick reference for the repo-to-plugin transformation workflow.

Stages

Stage	Skill Loaded	Output
1. Discovery	outfitter:research	artifacts/plugin-engineer/discovery.md
2. Recon	outfitter:codebase-recon	artifacts/plugin-engineer/recon.md
3. Patterns	outfitter:patterns	artifacts/plugin-engineer/patterns.md
4. Mapping	outfitter:codify	artifacts/plugin-engineer/mapping.md
5. Authoring	outfitter:skills-dev	artifacts/plugin-engineer/components/
6. Packaging	outfitter:claude-plugins	Plugin directory
7. Audit	outfitter:claude-plugin-audit	artifacts/plugin-engineer/audit.md

Quick Mode

Skip stages 3-4 for simple repos:

Discovery → Recon → Authoring → Packaging → Audit

Trigger: Single-purpose tool, < 5 commands, user requests speed.

Stage References

• stage-1-discovery.md — External research
• stage-2-recon.md — Codebase analysis
• stage-3-patterns.md — Pattern extraction
• stage-4-mapping.md — Component selection
• stage-5-authoring.md — Creating components
• stage-6-packaging.md — Plugin structure
• stage-7-audit.md — Validation
• repo-types.md — CLI vs Library vs MCP patterns

Common Pitfalls

Over-engineering: Creating agents when skills suffice, multiple commands for related actions.

Under-engineering: Single skill doing everything, missing error handling, no documentation.

Scope creep: Adding "nice to have" features before core works.